Faster than a Koopa shell knocking out a row of Goombas, Charles Martinet has been and gone - and Ben was there to meet him in Melbourne!
As mentioned on the Nintendo Australia homepage, Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, has visited Sydney and Melbourne. If you didn't see him on the weekend, then unfortunately you've missed him as he's headed back home. But don't worry if you
did miss out - here's what happened on Friday:
Heading off early, I checked out the area where they were setting up to meet Mario and a small group of people had already gathered, waiting. There were three demo units which all contained Super Mario Sunshine, and one of them was hooked up via the Wavebird. Once it was all setup, you could wait in line to meet Mario and ask him questions. Before that, however, Charles came down the line and was autographing cards for people - people were able to talk to him, shake his hand and ask him what his job was like. Being the Nintendo freak I was, I asked him to sign my Mario Sunshine box as well - and he did:
Charles is a very nice guy to talk to, and you can tell that he really loves his job. You've probably seen his name in credits for games such as Rogue Leader and Men in Black 2 (in which he got to record various aliens grunting and screaming). Keep an eye out for him in vocal credits - you'll be surprised where he turns up.
After that, he disappeared, and on a big Plasma screen we got to talk to Mario himself. Various questions were asked, including the standard "What's your relationship with the Princess?" and "Is Luigi jealous of your fame?" questions, to the strange ones, like "What is your relationship to Luigi?" (which was returned with an awkward pause, a look around and then "He's-a my brother!") and "Mario, what do you think of the PlayStation?" (to which Mario said "Uhh...excuse me." He quickly ran off screen, and a retching sound was heard. Mario comes back, and said "Uhh..what was that again, sorry?"). During the questions, Mario let people know that he likes to play Luigi's Mansion so that he can rescue himself, that he loves the Princess because "She's-a so beautiful...*sigh*" and that he has such a great jumping ability because he's always having so much fun. He is also not jealous of Luigi's slim figure.
There were also thirty copies of Mario Sunshine available and ten bundle packs of a GameCube, Mario Sunshine and a Memory Card 59 to be sold. Those were snapped up almost instantly, so forty people have had the chance to play Mario Sunshine nearly a week early. You could also pre-order Mario Sunshine if you wanted to. If you pre-ordered or bought Mario Sunshine, you got the chance to win tickets to the AFL Grand Final, including a breakfast, and a Grand Final After Party - pretty sweet.
And, (as if you needed proof), Mario thinks that Planet GameCube is #1. See, I have it in writing:
