Video: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Storybook Scene Side-By-Side Comparison

Man, I know this is a cringe thing to say that’s gonna make me look like the world’s most pathetic bootlicker, but I mean it whole-heartedly when I say… God bless Nintendo.

As I’ve said many times, TTYD is my favorite game of all time, so seeing the amount of love and care they’re putting into this remake just makes me emotional. Nintendo is a company ran by human beings with flaws, so naturally, they aren’t perfect. But times like this remind me just how blessed I am that they exist. I can’t understate how much their games mean to me on a personal level, and I really can’t imagine my life without them. They’ve just brought me so much joy for many years, and I really am grateful for that.

You see all kinds of negative news stories in the gaming industry about sexual harassment, crunch, hostile corporate takeovers, rampant employee layoffs…but one thing that remains consistent is that Nintendo’s name is nowhere to be seen. On the rare chance there is a case of malpractice, Nintendo is always quick to make it right.

Another company that meant a whole lot to me as a child was Nickelodeon; we’ve all seen the tragic cases of abuse that have been coming to light, and I’ll probably never be able to look at them in the same way. Nickelodeon enabled and protected terrible people.

But Nintendo just isn’t a company with skeletons in their closet. It can be frustrating when they shut down tournaments, and their handling of Joy-Con drift was disappointing. I don’t want to invalidate anyone who has ever felt burned by their products–as I have been also at times. But this is nothing compared to so many other companies. Nintendo is run by people with a clear love and passion for making quality games.

A company where the president of Japan’s most profitable business only makes like a couple million dollars a year while the ActiVision CEO brings home like $400 million annually or some absurd figure. A company where several executives were willing to take a large pay cut to keep from laying off employees. A company that has always keept microtransactions and lootboxes out of their console games and wanted to take the same approach with mobile until it unfortunately caused them to lose money and they had to adapt to the demands a different market if they wanted to find success.

A company that didn’t make some big PR statement when sexual assault allegations came out from other companies about how they “don’t tolerate this kind of behavior and continually work to make Nintendo a safer, more inclusive environment” but instead Doug Bowser sent an INTERNAL email to all employees that none of us on the outside should even know about where he expressed how troubling he found these stories to be and encouraged employees to come forward if anything like that should ever happen at NoA.

A company that always releases polished products that aren’t broken at launch. (Scarlet/Violet might be an exception, but if that’s the only game you can point to out of hundreds Nintendo has published over 40+ years, that’s a pretty darn good track record.) A company that can admittedly be very stubborn at times when it comes to listening to fans, but when they do finally remaster one of their most beloved games of all-time, they go beyond our wildest expectations and deliver something truly special.

It’s not just blind fanboyism; Nintendo has earned my loyalty because I truly think they deserve it. I can’t think of any other company with as much integrity as they have. I can’t think of any other company where a CEO died and thousands of people around the world mourned him; Iwata could have been like Steve Jobs, but instead he chose to be a Mr. Rogers, and that’s such a rare and special thing that shouldn’t be taken for granted. They say to never meet your heroes, but the people at Nintendo, even on an executive level, are just kids at heart and it’s evident they’re some of the nicest people you’d ever meet.

I know this is a lot on a post about the TTYD opening cutscene, but this is a deeply special game for me that just moves me to my core and brings out a lot of emotions. I know Paper Mario fans have gotten a bad rep in recent years; I have no disrespect for people who enjoyed Origami King. But this game… this game is literally such a magical experience to me. I’m so, SO happy to see it return in such a spectacular way after two whole decades. And it’s made all the better when you know the people behind it actually care about the product they’re putting out and aren’t secretly a bunch of scumbags that should be in prison.

So again I say, God bless you, Nintendo.