An article written by: Lee Sonogan
Nintendo’s star fictional character Mario has been many things over the years. But how can an alleged plumber be an adventurer that travels all over the world and is a star athlete, a party planner, doctor, and much more all at the same time? As the title suggests, there is a video game theory out there that Mario is an actor that has many examples that makes sense.
The opening screen to the video game Super Mario All Stars (A collection of Mario games for the Super Nintendo) show backstage silhouettes of all the characters talking until the lights come on and its show time. Then the official promo of the video game has all the characters arriving at the red carpet for some sort of movie premiere. This was not the first concept of Mario as an actor playing a character based on himself as there was a short story in the Japanese magazine Famitsu called “The Youthful Super Mario Bros,”.
To mention more theatrical moments from more current Mario video games firstly in Super Mario 64 the game begins with a Lakitu filming around Peach’s castle until it changes to third person from Mario’s perspective. The Paper Mario series has a stage play for every battle that has an audience in a crowd in front of the stage. Super Mario Maker focuses on you being a director other than an architect. I could speculate further but I have made enough references that argue this point.
Overall I like the idea of Mario and Co are a group of actors. While not every Mario video game hints at it all being some sort of show, Mario remains to be our constant. The line between interactive and theatrical has been told and re-told through different lenses and perspectives. Maybe there is more than one actor who plays Mario in different roles?
Fact or Fiction? Fact because the creator Shigeru Miyamoto thinks of them as “a troupe of actors.”