RAMBLE: What scares me about the thousand year door remake

 

Blooper Inking in TTYD Trailer

    A lifelong Paper Mario fan, I have enjoyed every single entry in the series I’ve played. Super Paper Mario, a title criticized by many Paper Mario fans, is one of my favorite games from my childhood. Similarly, I loved Paper Mario Color Splash on the Wii U, as well as Paper Mario: The Origami King on the Nintendo Switch. Over the years, I have heard many in the Nintendo community hold a single beloved  title above the rest. I'm referring to Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on the Nintendo GameCube, which is a game that I have never played.

Why have I never played TTYD? Because Nintendo has been gatekeeping Nintendo GameCube titles unnecessarily for years. Rather than making them accessible via Virtual Console (on Wii U or 3DS) or Nintendo Switch Online, Nintendo has continued to hold off on releasing GameCube titles, despite having the ability to do so at any time. I have always suspected this is not due to technical constraints regarding emulation. Nintendo re-released titles from the successful Wii console for $20 on the Wii U’s e-shop. Nintendo was also able to re-release titles from the commercially failing Wii U on its successor, the Nintendo Switch, at full price. Instead, Nintendo would rather release titles from the underperforming GameCube console as standalone remakes that are priced like brand new games.

Why not let fans play these titles like the rest? Because capitalism baby. GameCube titles are some of the most beloved by fans, yet tragically undersold in their era. Resellers cashed in during the pandemic, raising physical retro game prices as high as they've ever been. Here has been Nintendo's solution to all this: hold out on providing any digital access, let scalpers scalp the physical games, and eventually provide HD remakes of every title at the $50/60 mark. Further evidence of this being their strategy is their recent DCMA takedowns of the Dolphin emulator, which emulate GameCube games on Windows PCs.

I think that Nintendo’s strategy involving GameCube titles is flawed, because I don’t think the titles have held up as well as Nintendo fans think they have. Folks who commonly buy new Nintendo games often have deep childhood nostalgia for Nintendo’s intellectual property. The business model of this company, I believe, is based around constantly innovating and evolving these intellectual properties to keep folks coming back. Many folks who played the recent Paper Mario and Metroid games were thrilled to see these properties return to Nintendo Switch as a result of having fond memories from playing their GameCube counterparts as a child. Video game design has evolved substantially since 2002. While childhood nostalgia is enough to have us believe that games were better back then… modern Nintendo games are actually very good by today’s standards. The risk of the game Nintendo is playing by waiting so long is having these old titles not hold up to the test of time.

Recent history already shows that my concerns are valid. My game of the year in 2021 was absolutely Metroid Dread, Nintendo’s first ever HD 2D Metroid game. This was not a remake; it was a brand new 2D Metroid game. A Nintendo fan for many years, I have consistently heard cries for a new Metroid Prime game, Nintendo's 3D Metroid Series that hasn't seen a new entry since 2007. Leading up to the (eventual) release of Metroid Prime 4, Nintendo went ahead and released a remake of the original Metroid Prime game this year. I bought the game on launch day, and made it through 5 hours of gameplay. I felt that the game required too much backtracking & searching for things without hints or indicators. I found myself less excited for Metroid Prime 4 after playing this game. Interestingly, I have absolutely loved the recent Dead Space remake for PS5 this year, so I don't believe that remakes from this era aren't good. I just don't agree with the way that Nintendo specifically is going about it.

Will the thousand year door remake be any good? Certainly. I will pick up the game and enjoy it. I only wish that I had the opportunity to play this title years ago, along with other GameCube titles, on Nintendo’s Virtual Console service.