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Mario Petitions Hollywood for Spot on Walk of Fame

by Daniel Bloodworth - March 31, 2005, 1:53 am EST
Total comments: 18 Source: Nintendo Press Release

Mario brought a petition to the honorary mayor of Hollywood to have video game notables included on the Walk of Fame.

VIDEO GAME HERO MARIO PETITIONS FOR NEW HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME CATEGORY

Interactive Entertainment Industry Deserves a Hollywood Star

REDMOND, Wash., March 30, 2005 – He starred in dozens of video games. He proved himself a more bankable celebrity than either Harrison Ford or Tom Cruise. Now Mario™, the biggest star in video game history, moves to his next challenge: requesting that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce create a new Interactive Entertainment category for its world-famous Walk of Fame. The category would honor video game characters and their creators, who provided millions of fans with billions of hours of immersive entertainment.

"Video games are a huge part of the entertainment industry," explains George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "Revenues from the video game industry routinely equal or top revenues from the film industry's U.S. box office. That's how big we are."

With an impressive flourish and an entourage befitting a star of his stature, Mario today delivered a proposal to honorary Hollywood Mayor Johnny Grant asking the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to consider adding a video game category. As part of the campaign, fans carried signs of support while their hero arrived in a convertible. Ads in support of the worldwide movement also ran today in Hollywood trade magazines.

"I spent my whole life chasing stars," says Mario. "And now my fans want to give me one? Woo-hoo!"

More than 3,300 video game fans from all over the world so far have signed an online petition at www.petitionspot.com/petitions/walkoffame to support the new category. Fans left comments in several languages, including English, Spanish, Polish, French and Portuguese, demonstrating the broad, worldwide appeal of video games.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame now honors entertainment legends from areas as diverse as Film, Recording, Radio, Television and Stage. A new Interactive Entertainment category would recognize the enormous contributions of video games to the entertainment world and make the Hollywood Walk of Fame accessible to new generations of fans.

While films, TV shows and music provide experiences that last a specified amount of time, video games provide open-ended, interactive experiences, and often let players determine the outcome. For many years, all forms of entertainment, video games included, have seen a convergence. Top TV shows and video games feature hot music by top artists. Video game stars get their own movies, and film stars voice video game characters. And these days no major animated or action film debuts without an accompanying video game counterpart.

Mario Waves at the Natives

Mario Waves at the Natives

Protestors Join Mario

Protestors Join Mario

Honorary Hollywood Mayor Johnny Grant with Media

Honorary Hollywood Mayor Johnny Grant with Media

Talkback

matt ozMarch 31, 2005

Why?

Grant10kMarch 31, 2005

Same reason that mountain climbers climb mountains; because they are there.

(edit: spelling)

Hostile CreationMarch 31, 2005

Pretty cool, looks fun and it'd certainly make sense. I think they could get a better costume than that, though face-icon-small-tongue.gif

Ian SaneMarch 31, 2005

I think the game industry is far too new to justify a spot on the Walk of Fame. The general public is still too ignorant of games. With films or music there's a lot of crap that gets unjustly praised but there's a lot of history and perspective. It allows people to have a better understanding of what is worthy of praise. Gaming has only been around since the 70s and has only really had mainstream acceptance for at most ten years. People are still jazzed by the sheer concept of playing a game. If you plucked someone from 200 years ago and showed them a movie, ANY movie, they would be utterly wowed just because the idea of seeing a moving picture on a screen with sound is unlike anything they've ever seen.

That's how it is with games. There are still a lot of people out there who are just wowed by the fact that pushing buttons makes the character on the screen do stuff. Plus film and music critics tend to be very hardcore and have a huge knowledge of their subject. We don't see that as much with game critics yet. Most of them have that same "wow I'm playing a game" thing going like the general public. Do something like this now and we'll see Halo (or something equally as new) as one of the first stars despite the fact that five years from now with hindsight being 20/20 it may not be considered a major icon at all anymore.

Right now I just know that having games on the Walk of Fame wouldn't be done right.

joshnickersonMarch 31, 2005

I gotta agree with Ian. I'd like to see if videogames survive another decade before we start slapping their names on a sidewalk.

... not to mention that giant Mario kinda creeps me out...

mantidorMarch 31, 2005

If any video game character deserves a star in the walk of fame, is Mario. Im all for it, but it should be given to really stablished characters, not a generic hero of the current popular game (yes, slight bashing of the walk of game)

PortalOneTechApril 01, 2005

Isn't this what the whole Walk of Game was for? Won't putting a star on the walk of fame pretty much make the Walk of Game pointless?

Oh and another thing, did they mean honorable mayor instead of honorary mayor? It's funny because during the star unveiling for the Walk Of Game somebody slipped and said honorary mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsome...when in fact he is the Mayor

Ian SaneApril 01, 2005

"It's funny because during the star unveiling for the Walk Of Game somebody slipped and said honorary mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsome...when in fact he is the Mayor"

All mayors are honorary. The ones we see are merely puppets for the REAL government... or at least that's the conclusion I just came to in the last few minutes.

KirbySStarApril 01, 2005

Where was Master Chief? face-icon-small-sad.gif
More importantly, where was Kirby?

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusApril 01, 2005

Quote
Originally posted by: PortalOneTech

Oh and another thing, did they mean honorable mayor instead of honorary mayor? It's funny because during the star unveiling for the Walk Of Game somebody slipped and said honorary mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsome...when in fact he is the Mayor


Well, Hollywood isn't actually a separate city. It's part of Los Angeles. I was surprised to even hear about the "honorary Mayor".

PortalOneTechApril 02, 2005

Actually when I lived in LA I got to meet the Mayor of Hollywood...well, at least he said he was the Mayor of Hollywood. Come to think of it, he actually said he was the owner of Hollywood. And he even had Marilyn Monroe's driver's license in his wallet to prove it! Man, who would of thought that the owner of Hollywood would be some crazy, homeless black guy begging me for a nickel.

BTW, that is a true story....the guy was nuts, funny as hell though.

TheYoungerPlumberMichael Cole, Associate EditorApril 02, 2005

On one hand I don't think characters should have a star--their creators should. Then again, should Miyamoto get the star for something countless individuals have made great over two decades? A "Mario" star would honor everyone from Miyamoto and Tezuka to third party associates like the Takahashi Bros. to the coders and artists that put everything together in games. It really is a toughie in my book...

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusApril 02, 2005

Film is the same way though. There are countless talented individuals that never get recognized outside the film credits. But yeah, I don't believe there are many characters like Snow White or Yoda on the Walk of Fame, so why would Mario be?

BlackNMild2k1April 02, 2005

Quote
Originally posted by: PortalOneTech
Isn't this what the whole Walk of Game was for? Won't putting a star on the walk of fame pretty much make the Walk of Game pointless?
Maybe that is the point, maybe Mario feels that he is being unjustly grouped with a has been and a newbie in an unrespected surrogate display of honor that just isn't worthy of its intent.

Mario has made more appearances and made more money than probably most of the actors on the Walk of Fame.

If Joe Schmoe had released his first movie and it was a mega-blockbuster and then was coming out w/ a sequel that was sure to be a major hit too would he be inducted to the Walk of Fame
or
If Betty Blip made some pretty good movies 10-15 yrs ago but everything in the last 10 years were mildly entertaining at best with maybe one or two above average performance would she be getting on the Walk of Fame

I think not....... well maybe for the latter, but......

I think Mario is just trying to get his due respects, and maybe he deserves to be honored with much better company than Joe Schmoe & Betty Blip. Don't you think?

matt ozApril 02, 2005

Quote
Originally posted by: Bloodworth
I don't believe there are many characters like Snow White or Yoda on the Walk of Fame, so why would Mario be?


That's a great point. We don't honor movie characters, we honor the actors who portray them. So why should there be a video game character on the Walk of Fame? If anyone, it should be video game directors and voice actors, but since the latter is such a new field, and voices for characters can change from game to game, it would take a long time for those people to get on the Walk of Fame, provided video games become well known to regular people, and if I can make this sentence any longer by adding more commas.

Don't you have to pay money to be on the Walk of Fame anyway? Like doesn't your fanclub or something have to pay to get on there? I remember the Olsen Twins just got their own star (or stars, I don't know) the same year that Keanu Reeves and Susan Lucci got theirs. Though all three (four?) of those actors have questionable talent, some have been around much longer than others.

Where was I going with this? I can't remember...

KnowsNothingApril 02, 2005

If Keanu can make it anybody can, so I guess that includes Mario.

EpitaphApril 03, 2005

I believe this is iffy like some have said. Classics such as mario, sonic, pacman, frogger, and the pong paddle should be introduced but chances are newcomers that have been hyped such as the characters from grand theft auto or master chief would gain the same position. Master chief is a newcomer and in my opinion isnt from a great game, halo was a huge hype and fails in comparison to many other shooters. But thats my opinion and thats just the problem. Theres too many differnt views and opinions in the game industry to add in some characters and not others. But i do think the classics could be given a spot.

GamefreakApril 04, 2005

Put Miyamoto on it.

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