
Last month, Mario & Luigi: Brothership was released on Nintendo Switch, ending a 9 year gap between new entries in the RPG series. While many fans had assumed that the series had come to an end, that proved to not be the case, and reception to the new game has been largely positive. However, it seems fans weren’t the only ones that thought the series was over and done with. In a new Ask the Developer post on Nintendo’s official website, producer Akira Otani revealed that internal discussions about the series had been ongoing since Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam was released in 2015. However, Nintendo found it difficult to balance what it wanted to achieve.
“We needed to aim for something new that would keep up with hardware advancements while maintaining the appeal of the classic Mario & Luigi games. 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,” said Otani.

While Otani does not get into specifics, much of the difficulties surrounding the Mario & Luigi series stemmed from the closure of developer AlphaDream. AlphaDream had worked on every previous game in the series starting with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, but the studio declared bankruptcy in 2019. Otani says that “eventually we decided to reach out to Acquire.” The producer went on to note that Acquire seemed like a strong fit for the series as he “saw them as a company that could develop both action and RPG games,” based on their experience with Tenchu and Octopath Traveler.
In that same interview, director Haruyuki Ohashi says that there was a lot of excitement on his part and the rest of Acquire to work on the series, as “we felt that working with Nintendo would give us the chance to learn all kinds of things, from technical aspects to game creation.” With a new developer on board, there was still a desire on Nintendo’s part to maintain the classic feel from past games. To do just that, Nintendo enlisted developers from previous Mario & Luigi entries.
RELATED: Mario & Luigi: Brothership Review: An Enjoyable RPG That Doesn’t Rock the Boat
While it sounds like Nintendo and Acquire worked hard to bring back the series, it remains to be seen what the future holds for Mario & Luigi. If Mario & Luigi: Brothership proves financially successful, it could lead to a much shorter wait time between series entries. Whether or not we’ll see Acquire return, however, is a big question. Acquire is owned by Kadokawa Corporation, and Sony recently shared an interest in acquiring that company. That could put future collaborations with Nintendo in jeopardy, but it’s impossible to say how things might play out.
Are you happy that Nintendo didn’t give up on the Mario & Luigi series? Would you like to see Acquire develop future series entries? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
The post Nintendo “Considered Giving Up” on Mario & Luigi Series appeared first on ComicBook.com.