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Gamers stunned after learning how old Mario is supposed to be
Mario, the diminutive Italian plumber and princess-rescuer, is younger than you think.
The character first appeared in 1981 in the arcade game Donkey Kong, in which he was known as ‘Jump Man’. Four years later the got his own title, Super Mario, and Japanese gaming giant Nintendo has since sold more than 310 million units featuring his various adventures.
Mario is one of the most recognisable game characters in the world, with millions of fans across the generations – yet, until now, few people were aware of how old he’s supposed to be.
With his bushy moustache, many had assumed he was at least in early middle-age. Indeed, Bob Hoskins was close to 50 when he played the character in the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie.
But now fans have been left reeling after the re-emergence of a decade-old interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario’s creator, in which he gives away his real age.
“I think it was fortuitous that we didn’t put any restrictions on Mario as a character,” Miyamoto told Nintendo Online Monthly. “Normally when you create a character and present him to the world, all the details get filled in: what’s his favorite color? what kind of food does he like to eat? But with Mario, aside from the fact that he’s about 24-25 years old, we didn’t define anything else.”
As the interview started to go viral on social media this week, many expressed incredulity at how young Mario is supposed to be: