Transgender Character Featured in Remake of Nintendo’s ‘Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’

Nintendo, the beloved home of Mario Bros., just released a game for its popular handheld Nintendo Switch console titled, “Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door,” and which features a transgender character.

The game is a remake of the popular game of the same name, which won the “Role Playing Game of the Year” award at the 2005 Interactive Achievement Awards.

To date, the Japanese-owned Nintendo video game company has sold over 141 million of its handheld Switch units worldwide since it was released in 2017.

RELATED: New Disney Series ‘Baymax!’ Highlights Transgender Man Buying Tampons and ‘All Gender Bathroom’ in Middle School

When “Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door” was released in 2004 on Nintendo’s GameCube, the character Vivian, who is a ghost-like purple figure with white gloves, a pink-and-white striped hat, pink hair, and an enemy to Mario, was called a boy in the non-English version of the game.

Vivian, which is historically used as a boy’s name, is derived from Latin, and means “life,” was identified in the English version of the game as a female—despite the fact that the Japanese version referred to Vivian as a boy but displayed the character as feminine and referred to Vivian as one of three sisters.

While the English version of the game decided to avoid any controversy in 2004 by referencing Vivian’s character as a girl, the 2024 remake allows the character to tell its player, “It took me a while to realize I was their sister…not their brother. Now their usual bullying feels heavier.”

RELATED: ‘Strange World,’ First Disney Film With Openly Gay Teen, Flops in the Box Office

The Japanese version of the remake is even more descriptive with Vivian’s character, telling the player, “The thing is…I…I have a boy’s body, but my heart is a cute girl’s!” That version also says that Vivian has a “girl’s feelings.”

“Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door” remake is dominating the game charts in the U.K. and sold out of its pre-orders on Amazon in the U.S. before it released on May 23.