Not too long ago, the original developer of the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS Mario & Luigi RPG games, AlphaDream, closed its doors. Ever since, fans stopped expecting a new installment in the series. That is until Mario & Luigi: Brothership was surprisingly announced in a Nintendo Direct, and arrived early last month to rave reviews (no, IGN doesn’t count; watch why below).
If you watched our video, you might understand why we were upset with IGN’s review. AlphaDream is gone, and if Brothership fails to meet sales expectations, you can basically kiss any further installments goodbye. Ridiculous 5/10 reviews from giant gaming publications who often give slop 9/10’s (hello, bribe money) do nobody any favors.
To illustrate just how close the series was to Kakariko Graveyard, a new “Ask the Devleoper” feature on Nintendo’s website shines some light. Akira Otani and Tomoki Fukushima from Nintendo EPD, and director Haruyaki Ohashi and designer Hitomi Furuta from Acquire discuss how the project came to be.
“Of course, for a long time, we’d been having a number of internal discussions about a new instalment in the series following Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. We needed to aim for something new that would keep up with hardware advancements while maintaining the appeal of the classic Mario & Luigi games.
Akira Otani
It wasn’t easy to achieve both at the same time… We kept trying various things, but there was a time when we thought it might not be possible to make any more games in the series and considered giving up.
“There were a lot of discussions, and eventually we decided to reach out to Acquire. After speaking a number of times with Ohashi-san, I felt that Acquire might be able to realise our dream of making Mario & Luigi in 3D, so we agreed to start joint development.
“Of course, it was also important to keep that “Mario & Luigi-like” feeling, so we also had some former AlphaDream (4) staff members who were involved in the development of previous titles in the series join the project.”
Hopefully, further games in the Mario & Luigi series will come to fruition. However, Sony intends to “acquire” (sorry) the parent company of Acquire, Kadokawa Corporation, so the developer’s long-term involvement in the series is unclear.
Of course, nothing is stopping Nintendo from using another developer if they really want to make another entry (but do they?).
What do you think? Will we see more from the Mario and Luigi series? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.