Man, I know this is awful to say that I’m going to look like the most miserable plum in the world, but I mean it with all my heart when I say it… God bless Nintendo.
As I’ve said many times, TTYD is my favorite game of all time, so it makes me emotional to see how much love and care is being put into this remake. Nintendo is a company run by flawed human beings, so of course they’re not perfect. But times like these remind me 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 have brought me so much joy for many years and I am truly grateful for that.
You see all kinds of negative news in the gaming industry about sexual harassment, crisis, hostile corporate takeovers, rampant firings… but one thing that remains consistent is that Nintendo’s name is nowhere to be seen. On the rare occasion that malpractice does occur, Nintendo is always quick to correct it.
Another company that meant a lot to me as a child was Nickelodeon; we’ve all seen tragic cases of abuse come to light, and I’ll probably never be able to look at them the same way. Nickelodeon enabled and protected horrible people.
But Nintendo just isn’t a company with skeletons in the closet. It can be frustrating when they close tournaments, and their handling of Joy-Con drift was disappointing. I don’t mean to disparage anyone who has ever felt burned by their products – as I have sometimes been. But that’s 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 makes only a few million dollars a year, while the CEO of ActiVision brings home about $400 million a year or some absurd figure. A company where several executives were willing to take a big pay cut in order not to lay off employees. A company that has always kept microtransactions and loot boxes from their console games and wanted to take the same approach with mobile until unfortunately they lost money and had to adapt to the demands of another market if they wanted to succeed.
A company that didn’t make a big PR statement when sexual harassment allegations came out from other companies about how they “don’t tolerate this kind of behavior and are constantly working to make Nintendo a safer, more inclusive environment,” but instead Doug Bowser sent an INTERNAL email to all the employees that none of us on the outside should even know where he expressed how troubling he found these stories and encouraged employees to come forward if something like this ever happened at NoA.
A company that always releases polished products that don’t break at launch. (Scarlet/Violet might be an exception, but if that’s the only game you can pick out of the hundreds Nintendo has released over 40 years, that’s a pretty good record.) A company that can admittedly be very stubborn at times when it comes to listening to fans, but when they finally remaster one of their all-time favorite games, they exceed our wildest expectations and deliver something truly special.
It’s not just blind fanboyism; Nintendo has earned my loyalty because I truly think they do. I can’t think of any other company with as much integrity as them. 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 Mr. Rogers, and that’s such a rare and special thing that shouldn’t be taken for granted. They say you never meet your heroes, but the people at Nintendo, even at the executive level, are just kids at heart and clearly some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.
I know this is a lot on the TTYD intro scene post, but this is a deeply special game to me that just moves me to the core and brings out a lot of emotion. I know Paper Mario fans have gotten a bad rap in recent years; I’m not disparaging the people who enjoyed Origami King. But this game… this game is literally such a magical experience for me. I am so, SO happy that it is coming back in such a spectacular way after two full decades. And it’s even better when you know that the people behind it actually care about the products they’re marketing and aren’t secretly a bunch of scumbags who should be in jail.
So I say again, God bless you, Nintendo.
