Legendary video game voice actor Charles Martinet — who has voiced Nintendo’s Mario, Luigi and other mushroom kingdom characters since the 1990s — is celebrating Mario Day in the best possible way.
For those not in the know, March 10 — or MAR10 for short — is known as Mario Day to fans of the Italian plumber. As such, there’s usually a lot of celebrating going on, which so far has included Nintendo putting a number of games on sale and announcing that Princess Peach will have her own Lego set.
But Martinet made many fans smile on Twitter Thursday when he posed in the classic jumping pose of his video game character counter-part, complete with a festive “Woohoo” hashtag and the signature line “Here we goooooooo!!!!!”
As the cherry on top of the Mushroom Kingdom cake, Martinet posted a follow-up tweet of himself decked out in full Mario regalia — complete with signature mustache, overalls, white gloves, and sentient hat — thanks to one fan’s quick photo editing skills.
Fans were visibly overjoyed at Martinet’s undying enthusiasm for the character.
“Thank you for bringing Mario to life,” one Twitter user wrote.
Another fan had nothing but the shiniest star for Martinet.
For many video game fans, Martinet was an indelible part of our childhoods.
People were going pretty over the top with their cosplay homages, too.
Though some fans may have been taken aback by the fact that Guardians of the Galaxy actor Chris Pratt would be voicing the Goomba-stomper when the Mario movie hits theaters later this year, don’t worry – Martinet is also part of the cast, so it seems entirely plausible he could be some kind of grandfatherly version of Mario.
