If you’re one of those people who likely thought that Mario’s age was in his 40s or somewhere around there, Shigeru Miyamoto has a surprise for you. According to the creator of Mario, everyone’s favorite Italian plumber is actually only around 24 or 25 years old, despite how old his games are.
Miyamoto has said that the only thing that is concretely agreed-upon among Nintendo for Mario is Mario’s age. Everything else about him is fairly transitory, with no sort of concrete detail. The information about the age of the plumber came from a re-printed 2005 interview, however, there have been other indications to Mario’s age.
For instance, the plumber’s trophy in Super Smash Bros Melee (at least, the Japanese edition) said that he’s about 26 years old. Other than that, we don’t know Mario’s favorite food, or his favorite color (though I’m gonna guess it might be red, just saying).
The possibility of Mario being a middle-aged man isn’t that far-fetched, if players have ever thought that. You couldn’t really associate such a magnificent mustache with a person not even out of their twenties yet, not to mention that he’s been fighting Bowser and a number of other threats for over 20 years.
However, his young age could also explain a number of other things, such as his high-pitched voice, and the various athletics he’s managed to pull off, such as his high jumps, being able to swim for so long, and being able to fit into those tanuki and cat suits.
Shigeru Miyamoto said that the reason they’ve settled on no character details but Mario’s age is due to a desire to avoid making any sort of incongruity in the game’s world. The lack of any real detail will also allow Mario to continue being used in future games for at least forty more years, if the retirement age in Japan/Italy/Jitaly/Itapan is 65.
