What you see there is myself and a man called Charles Martinet. Charles Martinet is a voice actor. If you’ve never heard of him, that’s okay. All you have to know is that he is the voice of Mario, and this makes him one of the coolest people you could ever meet.

Look, he said “Spiderman” to Pillowfort in the Mario voice. That makes him a winner in my books.

Some more photos, and impressions of New Super Mario Bros. Wii over the jump.

The man himself popped up in a secret, unannounced visit beside the New Super Mario Bros. Wii stands at the Eurogamer Expo and naturally, Pillowfort and I jumped at the chance to hear him say “YAHOO!” and get a photo with him.

He even made himself known over the venue’s PA system and gave MightyMutt the fright of his life; the poor lad confused Charles with another Mario voice actor who died just a couple of weeks ago. Silly boy.

Anyway, while we’re on the subject of Mario: myself, Krelith, Eoco and Pillowfort had a go of 4-player co-op in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I have to say that it’s the most fun I’ve had playing a Mario game in a very long time. It’s not just a plain old Mario platformer – it’s a plain old Mario platformer with three other people. And that’s great fun.

While it’s exactly what you’d expect from a Mario title (jumping, running, ? boxes and pipes) the addition of three other players ramps up the chaos factor because you’re just constantly getting in each other’s way. This, in the end, means you’ll constantly fight to screw each other over and will become entirely distracted from the fact that, in the end, you’re just playing another Mario game.

Trust me when I say that you’ll enjoy New Super Mario Bros.Wii if you’re looking for some simple, easy-to-enjoy multiplayer fun on your Wii.