Mario Creators Talk About Mario’s Full Name and Other Issues

Two of the core developers, Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, working on the Mario franchise at Nintendo have answered a number of questions about the series, including one about the surname of the main character.

The full name of the main character is Mario Mario, based on a movie that launched in 1993, but Shigeru Miyamoto clarified the team’s official position.

Speaking to GameInformer, he said, “This is an old story, but Hollywood did a film version of the Mario Bros. many years back. There was a scene in the script where they needed a last name for the characters. Somebody suggested that, because they were the Mario Bros., their last name should be Mario.”

He added, “So, they made him “Mario Mario. I heard this and laughed rather loudly. Of course, this was ultimately included in the film. Based on the film, that’s their names ended up. But, just like Mickey Mouse doesn’t really have a last name, Mario is really just Mario and Luigi is really just Luigi.”

Other topics that the developer pair has approached during the full GameInformer interview include the tennis matches between Bowser and Mario, who mothered Bowser’s children, the color difference between Mario’s hair and mustache.

The Mario-powered video games represent some of the most important releases for Nintendo and the company has traditionally created one of them for the launch of its most important hardware platforms.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 was the video game that powered the launch of the Nintendo 3DS handheld and managed to turn the lackluster sales of the device around.

Nintendo is also making New Super Mario Bros. U a part of the Wii U launch line-up.

Some fans of the series have questioned whether overuse has diminished the star power of Mario, but Nintendo says that it is not worried because each new game that features the character manages to be innovative and impress players.