For Americanfest this year I’d like to talk about Mario, Super Mario. Now Nintendo doesn’t usually go out of their way to celebrate holidays but let’s take a look at the couple of times everyone’s favorite plumber has shown his love to America. I’m not going to try to pretend Mario is the most patriotic person in the world but there was enough in there for me to be able to talk about it for a bit. This independence day for as is any fourth of July a special one for Mario, let’s take a look at the history.
Is Super Mario even american? Isn’t he Italian? Isn’t he Japanese? I saw a meme that said he was Mexican!? Now here it depends on what version of Mario we’re talking about. In general we can assume that Super Mario from the games canon is not from the real world. It’s something that had never really been established and does not make sense with the continuity they’ve built over the years. And while they don’t say it explicitly his adventures in the real world are meant to take place in New Donk City. Sure that’s basically New York City but the one in the Super Mario world, (the world not the game). But don’t fret, America
In a lot of the media based off Super Mario Bros does have Mario & Luigi being both from New York City in well…the United States of America. And they are indeed referred to as being of Italian descent as well marking both checkmarks. This is true in various continuities, especially the ones from the 80s. This is when Nintendo of America had control over the character a bit more. So, the Donkey Kong cartoons, the Super Mario Bros Super show continuity that includes the Super Mario Bros 3 animated show and Super Mario world all have an American Mario and Luigi. So does the original live action movie, and of course comic books, Junior Novels and what not from that era. It had mostly been forgotten about and could’ve been seen as an error of the past. Except Nintendo allowed Mario to be from New York once again in the latest Super Mario Bros movie. So he does get the seal of approval.
Talking about the Super Mario Bros Super Show, there is an actual episode that is a reenacment of the independence day. In this episode we get referenes to 1776 and even meet George washingtoad. A true classic, we also see cameos of the American president and the first lady in the Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3 that referene the president at the tiem George Bush Sr. You can’t get much more American than that.
Now that with that out of the way, let’s take a look at the time Mario has shown to be a true patriot. Let’s start with his American flag outfit. First worn in NES Open Tennis, this seemed like an obscure outfit from a forgotten spin-off to be forgotten about by time. It however got brought back for Super Smash Bros for wii U & 3DS and Ultimate. This sort of lead to a revival of sorts as we also saw it in the latest Mario Golf game for Nintendo Switch and Mario Kart Tour. It appears to be an outfit that will continue to come back as it’s also in a mainline game in Super Mario Odyssey. Hell it was even in a manga as well.
But there is no better representing the United States of America than doing it at the Olympics and Mario and friends have been able to do that in more than 6 different games. So, if you want Mario or immigrant Yoshi who is not native to the US to win a medal for America then you can definitely do it. Fact is, in some continuities Mario will happily red white and blue.