These days its well known that a significant portion of the Mario universe is voiced by one man – the energetic Charles Martinet. You may not remember that a few characters had different voices early on though, with Luigi and Wario being voiced by different people in Mario Party 2 and the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64.
Now Wario’s original voice actor, Thomas Spindler, has come forward with a revelation – Wario was originally German. You can hear in this in one recurring line, “so ein Mist!”, which essentially translates to “aw, crap!” This line was eventually misinterpreted as “d’oh I missed!” overseas.
In an comment translated by Glowsquid on the Wario Forums, Spindler had this to say:
“This is 100% correct. Wario speaks German: he says (or rather, *I* say) ‘So ein Mist!’ The recording was done in a studio of the former Nintendo head office in Kyoto (not the new Nintendo premises in Kamitobaguchi), under the direction of Mr. Takashi Tezuka. Back then, I worked on the script for another Nintendo project with my French friend and colleague Julien Bardakoff (who voiced Toad/Kinopio). My company T.S. Word Co.Ltd. also translated and edited the German script for Star Fox which can be verified in the credits of Star Fox 64. The concept behind Wario was that of a German character and those responsible for the voice-overs at Nintendo back then intended him to speak German. I hope that this resolves the issue once and for all.”
It would definitely be quite the difference if this original voice stuck around! I’m sure a lot of us wouldn’t want a world without Martinet’s dulcet Wario tones, though, so perhaps it was for the best he took over.
Source: Siliconera
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Written by Tom Brown
Whether it’s an exciting new entry in a series long established or a weird experiment meant only for the dedicated, Tom is eager to report on it. Rest assured, if Nintendo ever announces Elite Beat Agents 2, he’ll be there.
