Charles Martinet Down Under - Impressions
What Mark thought...
With a day like that day, where do you begin?
An early 7am wake-up, followed by a very hurried breakfast, and then a mad dash through Melbournes roads, a jaunt through the West Gate Bridge and the usual rush-hour traffic in the city streets and suddenly 8:30am has arrived.
I meet James, Will and Tim for the first time in front of the Novotel hotel where Charles is staying and we go 
through our preparations for the interview, which oddly just consists of taking a printout from James of some pre-conceived questions that the four of us came up with, and then some awkward sitting around waiting for 9am to come along so we can meet Charles for the interview.
Its just after 9am when Kate shows us into Charles room, and by now youve read the interview so I wont talk about that. One of the highlights of the session was the post-interview hysteria as we all got our various memorabilia signed by the generous Mr. Martinet. I walk away with the guys very happy with my signed copies of Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, SNES Yoshis Island, and autographed Super Mario Sunshine poster and GC game slip cover. The other big highlight was when we got some group shots with Mr. Martinet, and a quick Thank You to Kate for taking the photos of us.
After a McDonalds break, its 11am and Myer Melbourne is swarming with people lined up to buy 30 advance copies of Super Mario
Sunshine and to have a chat with our favourite hero Mario Mario. Needless to say seeing Mario speaking to various members of the crowd and answering their questions was an experience a Nintendo fan will never forget, full of humour and information mostly about Princess Peach and other characters from the Nintendo Universe. Our exclusive shots of Mr. Martinet behind the scenes operating the technology behind the Mario demonstration was a major highlight for the event.
The one downside of the whole day was when I lined up to buy my advance copy of Super Mario Sunshine, and as I got ever so closer to the front of the line my excitement and anticipation of owning the game early grew higher and higher. And then it happened; one of the guys at the counter announced that theyd sold out and that everyone could pay for the game and pick it up the next weekan announcement just when I was third from the front! Talk about getting your hopes dashed! Its only another week to wait, I tell myself so I can feel better.
But hey, I had fun. I got to meet the man behind Mario
and ask him some questions. I got to see Mario talk to people, and I have a photo of me standing with Mario! And in a few days Ill have a that copy of Super Mario Sunshine to keep me happy.
What Tim thought...
The day started out with an early train ride up to Melbourne. I was with Will Stevenson, and we made our way to the rendezvous point. We hadnt met Mark or James before, so it was good to finally be able to put faces to the names. We met up with them in front of the Novotel, and went in to organize what was about to take place with Charles.
In his hotel room, we found ourselves comfortable and started with the interview. The first thing that I noticed when we entered his room, apart from his great personality was that he had a GameCube with Super Mario Sunshine set up on the hotel television. I didnt expect it at all.
After the interview, it was time for us to get our greatly desired autographs. I walked away with my official Nintendo GameCube t-shirt , a Super Mario Sunshine promotional poster and my copy of Mario 64 all signed by THE voice of Mario. It was pure bliss. That is of course, until we had to leave.
We had about an hour to kill until Mr. Martinet performed live as Mario at Myer. We grabbed some McDonalds and had a well deserved rest. With the event being advertised in local newspapers and on Nintendo Australias website, I was expecting a lot of people to be there. I guess it turned out that my expectations werent quite met, with less than 100 people turning up.
Thats not to say that the event wasnt truly fantastic, Charles as Mario totally captured and entertained the crowd. Behind closed doors, he was hooked up to a microphone and with the help of a computer, altered Marios facial movement on the screen. The result was great. The crowd asked Mario various questions and Mario replied with entertaining answers.
We got the news that there would be a limited amount of Super Mario Sunshine copies for sale, but we dismissed it as Nintendo trying to get us all to line up to buy the game. Oh boy were we wrong. When we realized there was only a limited amount (30 copies) it was basically too late. Mark desperately wanted a copy and rushed over to line up. I counted the people in front of him and there were 26. We thought all was well until it was announced that they were sold out. With only 30 copies for sale, it was no wonder that they all sold out within minutes. Overall it was a highly enjoyable day for all, and Id like to thank Kate Wright from Nintendo and Mr. Martinet for their time.
What Will thought...
This day was the most fun I've had in a long time.
After traversing the hotel for a while, we eventually found our destination and knocked on Mr Martinet's door slightly after 9am. We were warmly greeted by the lovely Kate from Nintendo who showed us in and introduced us to Charles. He asked us to take a seat and motioned for one of us to pick up the Wavebird that was sitting on the coffee table and play SMS. A tempting offer indeed, but we were there on business. As someone who hasn't yet ventured into the world of paid employment, I just hope that all business is this much fun.
As a Mario fan, the room as a whole was an incredible place to be. It came complete with a (locally) unreleased Mario game, posters all over the place, promotional material, some neat information on Mario and most importantly, the man who's voice introduced me and many others to the 64 bit generation of video games, Charles Martinet. Having now met him, I can say that he is joy to be around, much like you would imagine Mario would be like were he an actual person. Kind, charming, down to earth and very entertaining.
By the end of the interview, Charles had confirmed in my mind the reason that I play Nintendo games instead of the competition. I can't really put my finger on it, but he did. Maybe it was the signed Mario 64 cartridge. I guess I'll never be sure.
By 10am we were all better people for having met the voice of Mario, and we were all happy people thanks to the generous amount of signed stuff. The only real negative to come out of the interview was Kate telling us that we could buy SMS today, but I was carrying only a meagre $40. It was painful I'll tell you now.
At 11am we had arrived at the Myer games department. A large line had formed in front of the display screens, and interestingly enough the vast majority of them would come under the banner of "mature" gamers. I was pleased with the number of playable units as well, with 3 different cubes all running the SMS demo disk, one of them on the huge screen at the front.
Charles arrived soon after us, and signed a few autographs before heading backstage to set up for the audience questions. Ahh, the questions. Plenty of people stepped up with a query for Mario, from little kids to grown men to, well, me. As I introduced myself, Mario stated that he recognised me, leaving me well and truly chuffed. Following James' advice I asked Mario what he thought about the Playstation, but unfortunately it seemed that he had eaten some bad marinara because he began vomiting. Very fanboyish, and very funny.
Despite returning home without a copy of SMS the day was a success in every sense of the word, and I thank everybody that made it possible, especially Mr Martinet.