Nintendo Reveals More New Voice Actors for Mario Characters

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For the past two years, Nintendo has switched several voice actors linked to the Mario series. The changes began when Kevin Afghani assumed roles previously voiced by Charles Martinet, including Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and even Mario himself. This year, the switches continued as Nintendo brought in an actor from the movie “The Super Mario Bros.”, Koji Takeda, to voice Donkey Kong in the Japanese film version. Since then, Takeda has officially taken over as Donkey Kong’s voice actor in both “Mario Kart World” and “Donkey Kong Bananza”. Recently, two more new actors have been announced for upcoming games on the Nintendo Switch 2.

In the game titled “Donkey Kong Bananza”, Takeda is accompanied by Jenny Kidd, who lends her voice to a younger iteration of Pauline. Although Nintendo employed another actress for this role, it’s crucial to understand that this doesn’t seem like a replacement – in “Donkey Kong Bananza”, Pauline is just 13 years old, and the adult version was still voiced by Kate Higgins in “Mario Kart World”. Higgins first appeared as Pauline in “Super Mario Odyssey”, and it seems she’ll continue to voice the character in future games, for now at least.

Excited to share some exciting news as a fellow fan! Apart from Jenny Kidd playing Young Pauline, we now have Courtney Lin stepping into the roles of Princess Peach and Baby Peach in Mario Kart World. Previously, Samantha Kelly voiced these characters, also known for her role as Toad, but it was recently announced that the roles had been recast without a replacement being named at the time. However, Courtney Lin has now confirmed on Twitter that she is indeed the voice behind both Peach and Baby Peach in Mario Kart World! Over the years, Lin’s voice can be heard in numerous video games such as Pokemon Masters EX, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Diablo IV.

Over the past few years, it’s puzzling why Nintendo has replaced several actors voicing Mario characters. When Charles Martinet’s replacement was announced, fans assumed Nintendo aimed to synchronize voices with the upcoming “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” However, while Donkey Kong (at least in Japan) got a new voice, most of the new actors have maintained the familiar tones from previous games. It seems that Nintendo is intent on preserving a consistent sound for long-time players of the series.

Regardless of the reasons behind the introduction of these fresh voices in the series, Nintendo appears to be venturing into a new path as the Switch 2 era begins. Although the Mario cast has longstanding, established voices, their dialogue in games has always been minimal. Let’s hope this transition doesn’t shock fans too much and that there is some consistency maintained in this aspect.

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2025-07-22 16:12