My family traveled a lot for work. Flying from state to state, resting in a variety of hotel rooms. Back in the early 00s, some hotel rooms came with game systems. For $10 an hour, you could play from a short selection of N64 or Gamecube games. In the 2010s, these would be replaced with PS3s and you would have to rent from a nearby Redboxes. And by that point, my brother had his Xbox he'd lug across the country and I had my DS. But those 00s were a very specific era for us in hotel gaming. My brother often got frustrated with wasting any precious second because there was such a hard financial limit to how far we could play. I was well aware that my parents were never going to approve anything past the $20 mark. But I couldn't help but dither around in these worlds. The first two hours of Paper Mario 64 and TTYD are permanently etched into my mind. I remember every corner, every NPC conversation, every polygonal line and invisible wall. Its impossible for me to be objective when it comes to Paper Mario.

Which is partly why this game hit such a strange euphoria for me.

TTYD64 primarily involves adding TTYD mechanics into 64. That's already a great sales pitch. The gameplay flows smoother and there's more intent to unravel in how you approach the game. Accounting for partner health and additional badges adds such an important spice to the game's feel. I feel like I'm planning more than before and making considerations on top of that.

But elDexter and his modding team go above and beyond. To unlock the new badges or upgrades, they aren't content to simply give those skills to you. Instead, new areas are carefully crafted into this game's world. And suddenly, my perfect memory of this game runs up against entire new ideas. A hole in the ground that didn't exist before, a crack in the wall, a new path in the forest, a back alley in the shopping district. Filled with puzzles or characters or even recreated TTYD level screens, there's so much elaborate care in this game. Its not front-loaded or back-loaded, its carefully measured out across the game's entire length.

The game has other important features, things that ease the game's pace. Difficulty modes, cutscene skipping, randomizers, challenge modes, New Game +. All carefully built to provide more to a game people love. To a game I love. You can truly feel how deeply the team cared about this game and wanted to provide every bit of polish possible. Just like me, they could play this game a million times and still find joy in discovering something new.

I can't be objective about anything Paper Mario. Its carved into my soul. Seeing other people who feel the same way leaves a special mark in my heart. It doesn't matter if this mod rules or if it sucks (hint: it rules). That feeling of pure creative joy is gonna stick with me for a long time. Worth the price of admission for that.