Shigeru is just trying to make references to other things. Olimar's ship is the Dolphin, you know. And Shigeru said that 100 Marios was the 'framework' for Pikmin. Thus the name. Now I know it doesn't sound exactly like Mario, but let me explain:
All the way in Japan, Shiggy names the character Orima, which is a direct anagram of Mario, in fact it's almost backwards, but it's very hard to pronounce Oriam. So anyway, when Pikmin is imported to America, they have a problem. Orima translated into English is Olima, which is not an anagram of Mario anymore. So, they attach an R onto the end, and there you have it, Olimar. Boy o boy!
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Don''t quote me on this, but I''m betting that pipe goes somewhere. ---Goombario
