Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is Charles Martinet’s 100th credit as Mario

Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario for almost 25 years now, got more than just a certificate from Guinness World Records — they made up a category just so they could honor him. His voice in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is officially the 100th time he’s performed in a video game as Nintendo’s frontman and, yes, that is indeed a record.

Nolan North, by comparison, would have to star in 95 more Uncharteds as Nathan Drake, or 95 other Assassin’s Creeds as Desmond Miles to break Martinet’s hold on this mark (he’s been in six games as each). We don’t think that’s happening anytime soon. So, I stipulate to both Martinet as record holder (officially, it’s “Most video game voiceover performances as the same character”) and to the unassailability of said record.

It’s more noteworthy that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate marks an even 100 times Martinet has appeared in a video game as the voice of Mario, per Guinness. I went checking other sources and databases — none official, it must be said — to see if I could count them all. I came up with 98 on IMDB (again: unreliable as a citation, but a good rule of thumb) and then 90 on Wikipedia (same caveat).

Most agree that Martinet’s first Mario role, by date, was in 1995’s Mario’s Game Gallery, an anthology of common card and dice games for PC. Fans might more associate his first proper role as 1996’s Super Mario 64. As for any shortfall or disparity, it could be that some roles as Baby Mario (there were four in the Yoshi’s Island series, for example) might have counted? Who knows.

But Guinness is a citeable source and it says Martinet has done the job 100 times, so that’s good enough for me. Congratulations to Mr. Martinet, who not only is Mario’s voice, he was also on Matlock — another thing Nolan North hasn’t done.