(WGHP) — The original voice actor for one of gaming’s most iconic characters is “stepping back”, according to Nintendo.

Charles Martinet has been the voice of Mario for three decades, with his appearances as the character spanning back to classic video games like “Super Mario 64” and “Mario Kart 64”.

While Martinet is most popular for providing the voice for Nintendo’s flagship character, he also did voice work for other Nintendo characters such as Luigi, Wario, Bowser, Waluigi and more, according to IMDb.

Nintendo released the following statement:

Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64. Charles is now moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador. With this transition, he will be stepping back from recording character voices for our games, but he’ll continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all!

It has been an honor working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him. Please keep an eye out for a special video message from Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles himself, which we will post at a future date.

Statement from Nintendo

Martinet himself tweeted the following in response to Nintendo:

My new Adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! #woohoo !!!!!!!

Charles Martinet on X

Martinet’s final appearance as Mario was in 2022’s “Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope”.