After over two weeks of competition, the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are now officially over. Japan did pretty well for itself, racking up 41 medals over the various sports, but its got another pretty big reason to celebrate -- in four years' time, they'll be hosting the next summer Olympic games ceremony in Tokyo. To help drum up support, Nintendo icon Mario briefly made a video appearance for audiences at this year's closing. Check out the video below to see the color-coordinated plumber traveling to Rio by pipeline -- and transforming into Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.

The color-coordinated character made his first appearance back in 1981's "Donkey Kong," and has since become the de facto mascot of the Nintendo empire, having since showed up in over 200 video games. Of course, it goes without saying that an Italian plumber is a somewhat odd choice to represent the country of Japan, but like the Olympics, maybe Mario is meant to transcend national boundaries. It stands to reason that we'll be seeing a lot more of him once the summer games make it to Japan.