Put down those Joy-Cons and grab some tissues.
Nintendo often seems to be at the center of an inordinately large portion of the feel-good stories that come out of the video gaming world. Some of that is due to Nintendo’s unwaveringly warm, kid-friendly image, and some of it is the payoff of decades of happy memories that have been accumulated by grown-up gamers.
But the really special times are when different generations of Nintendo fans come into contact with one another and share a heartwarming moment, like the one relayed by Japanese Twitter user @look245_ragira in a series of now-protected tweets.
Nintendo’s Switch has been on the market for months, but that doesn’t mean it’s on store shelves in Japan very often. Retailers are still selling out of the system almost as soon as shipments come in, so @look245_ragira knew he’d just gotten extremely lucky when he walked into a shop and learned that they had exactly one Switch still in stock.
But while the salesclerk was ringing up @look245_ragira’s purchase, he overheard a young, elementary school-aged boy ask another employee if they had any more Switches. The clerk broke the news to the kid that they were now all sold out, and as @look245_ragira turned to look at the scene, he saw the crestfallen child’s mother saying “Well, guess we’re out of luck.”
Still at the register, @look245_ragira had yet to hand over his cash and complete the transaction. So before the boy and his mother could go home empty-handed, he loudly announced, “Woops! I don’t have enough cash on me, so I can’t buy this!”
The clerk’s face was one of confusion, until what @look245_ragira was doing dawned on him. “You’re a really nice guy,” he said with a smile before telling the boy and his mom that they had one Switch left in stock after all.
Kids can be pretty sharp, though, and it looks like the boy also realized that @look245_ragira had just given up his chance at buying the system so the boy could have it instead. “Thank you!” the boy happily told @look245_ragira, but the big-hearted Nintendo fan deflected the praise, saying “Don’t thank me. Thank my wallet for gobbling up my money,” to which the tyke compliantly replied “Thank you, wallet!”
Whether this ruse really fooled the boy or not, the whole thing was still a class act by @look245_ragira, and here’s hoping the Switch shortage comes to an end soon so he can enjoy Super Mario’s newfound immortality, just like that kid is sure to be doing.
Source: Jin
Top image: Nintendo