Mario (franchise)

"If you think about stories like Alice in Wonderland or other types of fairy tales, mushrooms always seem to have a kind of mysterious power. And so we thought that the mushroom would be a good symbol why they get it and then grow big."

"As soon as the [Super Mario Galaxy] project was over, we started making something that we might call version 1.5. We did things like moving or adding stars to levels that were already available... we realized that there were too many things to fit into a version 1.5. That made us realize we should start from scratch and make Super Mario Galaxy 2."

"I don't let Mario appear in just any kind of game. Mario could not appear in Zelda games. They are two distinct game worlds."

"Send my regards to Doug."

"Nintendo had become Japan’s biggest cultural export. Indeed, whereas the rest of the world devoured Japanese hardware—cars, Walkmans, TVs—Japanese “software,” such as movies, books, art, and music, had little impact outside Japan. The exception was video games. The most widely known Japanese cultural ambassador was Mario and with him came a new set of values. Generations of children had been imbued with Mickey’s message: We play fair and we work hard and we’re in harmony.… M-I-C … See you real soon. K-E-Y … Why? Because we like you … Mario imparted other values: Kill or be killed. Time is running out. You are on your own."

"Mario is a character, a dumpy fellow with a big mustache; but he is also a stand-in, your iconic representation in the video universe. [...] If millions of children and adults have melded with Mario [...] it may not be simply a matter of our shortening attention spans, our craving for novelty or our susceptibility to expensive ad campaigns. It may be that in Mario’s fate—stuck in a world not of his own choosing, charged with a nearly impossible mission, doomed to perish sooner or later, yet free while he lives to grow, learn, slay demons and stop to smell the Fire Flowers—people are catching a crude, bright, hypnotic reflection of their own lives."

"Charles Martinet, Kevin Afghani - Mario, Luigi"

"Jen Taylor, Samantha Kelly - Peach, Toad"

"Scott Burns, Kenny James - Bowser"