Gottlieb/Nintendo worked on a Super Mario Bros. pinball machine all the way back in 1992, and that machine featured numerous voice clips for Mario. Mario doesn't sound quite like he does today, having a more subdued and lower voice. Just who provided the voice for Mario back then? Turns out it was Charles Martinet after all, but he wasn't credited in the game! It's obvious he was still finding his way with Mario's voice back then, which explains why it sounds somewhat different.
Go back far enough and even early Mario is lower pitched and less squeaky. Martinet's Mario in Mario 64 sounds very different from modern Mario, it's a much better voice than the squawk box it morphed into.
Wait, so he was working for Nintendo long before 1995? That's actually really surprising, why doesn't anyone know about this?
I remember playing this game at a pizza parlor or something. Yeah, sounds like Martinet, all right. Holy crap, this is a pretty big scoop. That means Martinet has been voicing Mario for over 25 years.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind Mario sounding a bit more like this.
Martinet was voicing Mario for trade shows starting in 1992; it's what they hired him for, well before they used him in Mario's Game Gallery in '95.
So this isn't that surprising.
