Charles Martinet is best known for voicing Nintendo's iconic character Mario. Since 1990, Martinet has been providing the voice for this character and nearly three decades later he's still doing it. Thanks to the recent release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Switch, Martinet was able to reach a very special milestone.
According to the Guinness World Records - the global authority on record-breaking achievements since 1955 - Charles now officially holds the world record for the most video game voiceover performances as the same character. To be precise, that's exactly 100 performances as Mario, as of 7th December 2018. Here's a look at the voice of Mario receiving the certificate for his achievement:
Once again, it's thanks to the recent release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. We think it's rather fitting he's been able to reach this milestone with a game that is arguably one of the greatest Nintendo titles to ever be released and one that is already breaking existing sales records on all fronts.
On behalf of the community here at Nintendo Life, we would like to congratulate Charles on this epic milestone.
[source twitter.com]
Comments (42)
@AlternateButtons well it says he has had 100 performances, which I assume means unique recording sessions, reusing the clips doesn’t really mean much.
Since 1999?
I think the 1955 edition would object to that!
Why is that a world record? Against who?
Nancy Cartwright has been doing Bart Simpson's voice for 30 years, why isn't that a record? (Btw, she was paid over $300,000 per episode of Simpson)
He's awesome! Gotta love the guy!
Who held the record before, I wonder?
100 times? Does that give him a 1-Up?
Well played, Mr. Martinet!
@Retupmocnin Yeah, she did a ton of video game voiceover work for Bart. Way more. 🧐
I got that same Mario shirt.
He's up there with my favorite voice actors. He's done some great non-plumber performances as well!
Just congratulate the man. Say something nice.
Congrats sir! Thank you for lending your voice to us!
Now you try...
@Retupmocnin “most video game voiceover performances as the same character”
Did you read the article or just skim? 🧐
Collect those checks Mr. Nintendo, collect those checks.
@Retupmocnin video game voice over. Not voice over in general. I'm sure if it was voice over in general a Japanese seiyuu would win.
He’s adorable
@ShadJV Does anyone actually read the articles here? I only read the titles, can't be bothered with the rest... so many words.
Guinness World Records used to be a great read; now they’re making up ‘records’ that are so specific that they’ve become pointless.
Which is to take nothing away from Charles Martinet, who is a legend!
@TsC_Xanatos : The cast of Call of Duty.
@AlternateButtons : You don't know that for sure. Ikue Ōtani still voices Pikachu after 20+ years even though the majority of what she says is the same two syllables.
And just as well, as she's brilliant. Fans would have picked up on recycled voiceovers if the producers wanted to cheap out on quality voice work. Inflection and context makes a huge difference, so, reusing voice clips will not be ideal in most situations.
@HatosBlack Well said!
Congratulations Charles, you've earned it!
@AlternateButtons the earth being flat used to be common knowledge. You need a better source than that if Guinness are handing out records for new voice work on the game.
Props to chaz though, Mario wouldn't be the same without him!!
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Congratulations sir!
congrats to you winning!
@AlternateButtons : He would still need to record new takes for cutscenes and advertisements at the very least. I assume that the majority of grunts and taunts for the majority of the roster have been lifted from previous games as it would be a logistical nightmare trying to get such a large cast back on board.
Your heading is misleading. Thats the problem with journalists today, a university degree and you can't even understand your grandma.
Charles did not receive the award for voicing Mario 100 Times. He received it for voicing the SAME character 100 times, and the character just happened to be Mario..... a big difference.
I like this guy alot, he also does for wario, luigi waluigi and more?
@Retupmocnin 'Charles now officially holds the world record for the most video game voiceover performances as the same character' - sure, Nancy Cartwright has done a lot of voice over work, but this is a very specific world record for video game voiceover work. Someone like Frank Welker should be close to getting a world record for his voice over work in film / TV after about 50 years in the business.
Yeah, but one of those times was mario teaches typing.
@zool Since the specific details of the award are right in the article, the title isn’t misleading. Yeah, it happened to be Mario, and that is what Martinet is widely known for.
A misleading headline would be “Man killed by stray car”, only to find out a man intentionally swallowed a hot wheels toy.
100 performances, still only about 17 lines.
I mean, good for him and all, he is good at what he does. But this is just quantity over quality.
Voice actors rarely if ever get the credit they deserve. It's probably the reason why there are only like 9 of them in the entire western hemisphere.
Though to be fair, the ones in Japan work like 28 hours a day, so...
@Heavyarms55 Don't forget, he also does Luigi, Baby Luigi, Baby Mario, Wario, Waluigi, and Toadsworth.
Yeh it's a shame a lot of the other people don't get the recognition, especially those in the anime industry which typically also doesn't pay very well either.
@JackEatsSparrows the article is correct yes, but the headline IS misleading. Sometimes a headline is designed to be misleading just to get the reader to read what is otherwise a mundane article. But sometimes, like this Mario one, it's just badly written.
Always puts a smile to my ears. Great man. Congrats.
Wahuuuuu

In other news, Kenny James received the World Record for not voicing Bowser 5 games in a row.
@zool Maybe you could change "for" to "by"? That's about all I'd change as it's nice to connect his name to Mario & Nintendo for those that don't know who he is. I guess you could take it the wrong way, but I feel it's more likely for most people to discount the possibility that there is a specialized record for Mario and just read it as getting the record for the voice work he did in games with Mario in it.
Earned and I don’t see anyone taking this from him.
@KingBowser86 Yes, he'll now be reincarnated when he dies.
He´s so humble and funny. Despite the just a few phrases and words, he´s still awesome
Let's a-go!
That's awesome!
@Heavyarms55 "Though to be fair, the ones in Japan work like 28 hours a day, so..."
Their life of leisure must be envied among the OL class.....
@NEStalgia OLs and salary men simply never stop working until they end up in a hospital.
And no, I am not joking.
@Heavyarms55 yep. Yet sadly the us remains even worse in that regard....(except for the upper middle tier which is the inverse of Japan)
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