Mario has Retired as a Plumber

When you think of Mario, what’s the first thing to come to mind? His illustrious career as a sports star? Rescuing Princess Peach? His time hosting a series of life-or-death parties? His knuckle-biting time racing karts in dangerous locales? Or the fact he’s a plumber?

Probably not the last part. In fact, while it’s always been kind of fun to think about the fact that the world’s most iconic video game icon has been an overweight Italian plumber, Mario has done very little plumbing in recent years. It’s gotten to the point where Nintendo has decided there’s no real point in keeping that particular part of his identity anymore.

So, in his official Japanese profile, which has recently been updated, Mario is described as:

All around sporty, whether it’s tennis or baseball, soccer or car racing, he does everything cool. As a matter of fact, he also seems to have worked as a plumber a long time ago...

So it’s official: Mario is no longer a plumber. Now he’s just a dude who’s great at everything. Which I suppose is more accurate, but I can’t feel like it deprives him of that little bit of blue-collar everyman magic that made him so charming. He was a plumber who also saved the world… there’s a lot to like about that fantasy, y’know?

Ah well. It seems like such a dramatic change to Gaming’s #1 dude should be a bigger deal, but, if I’m being honest, we’ll probably forget about it in the weeks to follow. But it’s certainly an interesting fact to note. I wonder if Luigi is still a plumber, though, if he’s not as famous or successful as his red-capped brother.

…And now that I think about it, if Mario (was) a plumber, and Wario was his evil opposite… what was his job?

…Ugh, maybe this change is for the best.