2023 brought us all sorts of interesting Nintendo news, but one of the biggest stories was no doubt the reveal that Charles Martinet would be transitioning to the role of “Mario Ambassador,” which meant he would no longer be lending his voice talents to Mario, Luigi or the other usual suspects he’s been handling for decades.
While it took a few months after that announcement, we finally learned that Kevin Afghani would be filling Martinet’s shoes. He took on the roles of Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Wario in WarioWare: Move It!, making for one heck of a debut in 2023. Following his first works as Nintendo’s most famous characters, Afghani hopped on X to look back on the absolutely surreal position he’s in.
Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed what this year would mean to me. I have lived a lifetime’s worth of dreams in a year and I truly cannot put in to words how grateful I am. From the bottom of my heart, Thank you.
If Afghani’s career is anything like Martinet’s, we’ll be hearing him voice Nintendo’s biggest names for decades to come. He’s already off to a great start, and we can’t wait to hear more of his unique spin on these characters as time moves on.
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socar
4M agoHe still has to train a lot especially getting Wario's voice better and working on the Italian gibberish accents that Charles pulled up for Mario and Luigi.
In any case I still find it odd that neither Nintendo nor Kevin has confirmed if he will be voicing the plumbers long term.
When Charles busted in on the scene back in the mid-90's, we had no idea he'd become the iconic voice of Mario and others that spanned decades. If reception to Mario Wonder and the new WarioWare are extremely positive (and I believe Wonder was confirmed to have very positive reception), Kevin might have Mario's role for decades ahead barring any need to reuse the archives of Charles' voice lines for whatever reason.
If Nintendo finds Kevin's Wario to be too weak, they'll find a new Wario to cast and let Kevin continue handling the main Mario Bros.
Kevin's impression for Mario does seem a bit off on certain voice lines especially with "here we go!" Or the screams so I feel in those cases Nintendo should use a mix of Charles voices as well as Kevin.
Not to mention that Charles also knows Italian so there is a lot of reason why both can work.
A lot couldn't find any difference between the Mario and Luigi voices Kevin delivers. We will have to wait and see how long he does it.
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