Miyamoto explains why Mario is Italian
Over the past several weeks, we’ve been discovering all sorts of facts about Mario. Shigeru Miyamoto recently shared an additional nugget regarding the plumber’s origins at the Nintendo World Store event for Super Mario Bros.’s 25th anniversary. Have you ever wondered why Mario is Italian? Well, according to Miyamoto, the idea came from his interest in foreign comics, as well as the fact that Mario Bros. was set underground.
“As a kid, I was a big comic fan and I liked foreign comics as well. So I drew some characters that had more western type features with a little bigger noses and what not. Now with Mario, I think with Mario Bros. we had a setting of course that was underground, so I just decided Mario is a plumber. Let’s put him in New York and he can be Italian. There was really no other deep thought other than that.”
