This year’s GLAAD Media Awards will see Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in the running for Outstanding Video Game, a first-ever nomination for ostensibly apolitical developer Nintendo.
GLAAD describes its awards as honoring “fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community and the issues that affect their lives.” The inaugural GLAAD Media Awards was held in 1990.
First released for the GameCube in 2004, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door received a Switch remake in 2024. Among other improvements to the popular role-playing game, the remake adjusted text to formalize fan favorite party member Vivian’s trans identity. And while this decision drew obvious derision from the dark parts of the internet we all try to forget exist, well-adjusted people were happy Nintendo showed Vivian the respect she always deserved.
“It’s cool to see Vivian embraced as a queer character in a franchise as huge as Mario with no room for any other interpretation,” Jade King wrote in her review for TheGamer. “A canon queer character in a game that is beloved for its writing, personality, and characters, of which Vivian is one of the most memorable. She is our girl, now and forever.”
Polygon contacted Nintendo for comment but has yet to hear back.
Caravan SandWitch, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Dread Delusion, Dustborn, Fear the Spotlight, Life is Strange: Double Exposure, Minds Beneath Us, Sorry We’re Closed, and Until Then were also nominated in GLAAD’s video game category.
GLAAD first began recognizing video games at its 30th annual awards show in 2019. Previous winners include The Elder Scrolls Online, The Outer Worlds, The Last of Us Part 2, Tell Me Why, Life is Strange: True Colors, Apex Legends, and Baldur’s Gate 3.