Until we find out the official name of this studio, I'll be referring to them as BetaDream

Who's Making Mario & Luigi: Brothership? 30 minute video: It was a dark and stormy night...

What I find really interesting about Brotherhood is that there seem to be a number of enemies that are remixed takes on obscure enemies exclusive to the Mario and Luigi series. Something like that feels unlikely from a dev team that wasn't integrated with the original games, and gives me high hopes of the game's development DNA consisting of a good number of AlphaDream alumni

The fact they had so much faith in the game that it kicked off the Direct, though. I reacted like my team won the Super Bowl. Seeing Mario & Luigi be welcomed back with open arms is legitimately moving.

honestly the main thing I care about is Yoko Shimomura returning as the composer, The OSTs of all prior M&L games were so good and a core part of the series' identity for me. I think she's at Square Enix now but she was one of the composers for Mario and Rabbids Sparks of Hope so i have well uh... hope that they'll get her back once more.

Kinda funny that a guy heavily involved with Mario & Luigi ended up working on Fantasian, and the new ML is revealed alongside Fantasian coming to Switch!

Ilca having more employees than gamefreak really just goes to show you

I gotta say i really like the art style of this game.

My Money's on Next Level. I don't see why else they would have had that kick animation in that trailer and they've tackled a variety of titles as well.

My theory is actually Monolith Soft because the L for Luigi is the exact same as the L button icon in Splatoon 3 and we know they helped a lot with development of that game.

I love the art style, music, animations and general athmosfere of this new title. I hope we will get a diverse adventure with lots of different situations and fights. So glad the series came back

Please do a video about where all the Alpha Dream devs have ended up cos I've always wondered if Nintendo hired some of them (I've only heard of one).

If a pokemon game doesn't drop on switch in 2024, it'll be the first year since 1997 that a pokemon game of some sort DIDN’T come out on a Nintendo system.

Forecast is a madlad! You got this made and uploaded in a day's time!

About your point that Monolithsoft making grand story heavy JRPGs is a reason against them being the developer, the vast majority of that aspect of Xenoblade is done by Tetsuya Takahashi and his circle of leadership for Xenoblade, who are almost certainly busy with pre-production on something new since 3. The rest of the dev team is more than equipped to make another RPG even with a Mario coat of paint on it. Their art and animation team especially would be in their wheelhouse, as they were behind every non-remake Zelda since skyward sword, Animal Crossing New Leaf and New Horizons, and every Splatoon game. Even more interestingly is that they worked on Pikmin 3, but not 4. Considering how great looking and well animated Brothership appears, that's all the more reason they're the prime suspect in my eyes.

18:40 I learned the other week that Mario VS Donkey Kong is made by a team at Nintendo of America, which came as a pretty big surprise, as I didn’t even realize they employeed developers

Probably some studio we have no idea.

Monolith are probably the best animators in Nintendo besides Next Level. Dont sleep on Monolith's ceiling

there's a decent chance it's monolith soft. Many of AD's staff including its head developer were absorbed into Monolith.

I was shocked to see Mario & Luigi return, based on the trailer it looks like it’s being developed by a seasoned team, it’s unmistakably the Mario & Luigi style. The DNA of the series is firmly intact, I have a feeling it’s being developed by a mix of former Alpha Dream devs as well as Nintendo producers who specialize in 3D graphics and transitioning Mario & Luigi into 3D. Or it could have been entirely developed by Nintendo internally, which I find more than likely if they weren’t going to hand the property to another dev team.

Lot of this went over my head but I’ll take your word for it

Its cloud and his party because making M&L is the only way to keep Sephiroth away

Surprised you didn't mention GoodFeel! Seeing as they've worked on the series before. They helped with Dream Team's giant battles, something the style and animation of this newest title is very reminiscent of. I don't think it is them but it's at least worth a mention

Monolith Soft. Hiroyuki Kubota is now working there. He was the director and scenario writer of nearly all Mario and Luigi games. Also maybe Arte Piazza, Tose, or Next Level Games.

Don't care who's developing it, I'm just happy they managed to pass on the torch instead of letting the series end.

I absolutely love how this game looks

Nintendo has been weirdly secretive with developers as of late. We didn’t know who was developing Another Code in place of Cing until a datamine before release, and we didn’t learn Good Feel was developing Princess Peach until the demo came out. Pretty sure we still don’t know who is doing Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. I’m also curious if that new FDC game Mages mentioned interest in doing in an interview ever ended up going anywhere.

Bandai Namco literally has a division specifically for working on Nintendo games called Studio 2 & Studio S.

Just before you announced them, I said Camelot in Waluigis voice

Really love the new artstyle, it has this beautiful watercolor painting look to it.

The Wayforward team that made Wars actually rolled over to Yars Rising for Atari, and to your point about "external dev moving in house" the director of Super Mario RPG HD was actually an EPD guy, so while Arte Pizaz (or however you spell that) did the majority of grunt work, it was technically internal lead. My guess is otherwise Monolithsoft Kyoto actually leading the game instead of just being art and code support for once.

Half an hour speculation on this mystery? Nice

worth noting that tri force heroes was also co-developed by 1-up studio, so perhaps they're doing the same again for echoes of wisdom, leaving further room for grezzo to work on this as well camelot?? i think they'd need a lot of assistance for a game at this scale, with a mere 38 employees. their experience with rpgs is about the only thing in favor of them, and not a huge one imo.

My money's on GoodFeel. They developed the giant battles in Dream Team, and the animation looks kinda similar here.

People are speculating Arzest maybe behind this since they had a hand in creating the giant battles in Boswer’s inside story.

My current best guess is Intelligent Systems unless a lot of Alpha Dream employees migrated to some specific studio. They tend to work on multiple projects simultaneously, having just released a new WarioWare and Paper Mario Remake, alongside most likely and FE4 remake. They’ve also been quoted previously on interest in the series if I remember correctly. The quality of the animation might suggest Next Level Games, since they haven’t released anything since Strikers. 9:52 if Monolith is developing since they’re taking a break from Xenoblade that would be awesome

My guess is Good Feel.

Please make more videos about the talent/production/R&D side of Nintendo & its second-&-third-party partnerships.

Who's making Mario & Luigi: Brothership? The SOUL of AlphaDream, that's who. The people who made up AlphaStar Software/AlphaDream were descendants of Square. When AlphaDream died, it seems that Nintendo has absorbed much of the staff of that company. And it looks like certain AlphaDream officials have found a home in Monolith Soft. As we all know, Monolith Soft is ALSO a descendant of Square. So it makes sense for Square alumni to converge in Monolith Soft. The very people behind the original Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars went on to create Mario & Luigi. So to my surprise, Nintendo's & Square's 1990s team up led to so much quality staff & so many quality series. Nintendo didn't really let AlphaDream die after all & I am so relieved. Just the corporate husk was shed, that's all.

Honestly I really want it to be a new game studio that Nintendo found to make it, that would be a nice suprise and it would give the series a reliable new home where that team can souly focus on Mario and Luigi.

I just hope Yoko Shimomura is the one doing the music for the game 🙏

4:52 I'd consider a new Pokémon game for the holiday season at just 20%. We are going to have an August Pokémon Presents, but more to do updates on their mobile games than for anything else (and maybe, to give the launch window to Legenda ZA)

I honestly think you're underestimating the odds of it being Next Level Games. They clearly have been working on something more than just a LM2 remaster over the last 3 years, are an internal studio and have been trusted with Mario and Luigi many times from Strikers to Luigi's Mansion. The animations and expressions in this game do look like a similar style to LM2, 3 and Strikers. Yes, they've never made an RPG before, but generally speaking, the Mario and Luigi games were extremely simple as far as turn based RPGs go so it wouldn't be impossible for a studio with next to no experience in the genre to be able to make a very simple RPG system.

My initial thoughts are that it’s NLG, that animation of Mario kicking the koopa shell gives major Strikers vibes

Another Team with RPG pedigree that hasn´t released something for Nintendo in a while is Brownies (previously Browni Brown) their last game was EGGlia from 2021. I also feel that the style of new characters in this new Mario&Luigi is quite similar to Tomato Adventure, so I bet some of the art team from previously Alphadream is working on the new game.

I’m going off on a limb and saying it could be Good Feel. Princess Peach Showtime was likely finished well over a year before it released, just like a ton of other Nintendo games have been in the Switch era, and they already have experience working on Mario & Luigi via the Giant Luigi battles in Dream Team. I think it makes a ton of sense.

First time coming across this channel, I like the almost weather forecast like format

Technically Dimps **has** worked on a Nintendo game - Kirby & the Amazing Mirror - though that was over two decades ago now and it was really under HAL and Flagship.

such a burning question for me, love to see that long runtime lol

Next Level Games would be such an amazing choice for this game, they've got it in the bag!

A chart with the summary at the end would be great

Very interesting research and great video. keep up the good work.

Very informative video. You've earned yourself a new subscriber!

Camelot co-developing this with another studio would be cool. I'm leaning more towards Next Level and Monolith Soft co development, though.

Imagine all the older 2D Mario & Luigi games gets a remake in the style of the Brothership engine. Just imagine the cutscenes and 3D Models of Brothership for games like Superstar Saga, Partners in Time, and Bowser’s Inside Story. With Dream Team getting the 3D model treatment now.

The question on everyone’s mind.

My immediate thought when I saw the game was Next Level Games. If they're not the main devs, I'd be willing to bet they're at least helping a ton with the animation.

Don't know why, but I have a feeling it is Next Level Games

I can only see TPCi and Game Freak reserving the 30th anniversary in 2026 for the release of something as large as the franchise’s 10th generation.

My money is on Monolith Soft. The cutscenes feel like their handy-work, for sure.

I just wanted to let you know that the whole "Alternating M&L and Paper Mario" was already what they were doing actually! When AlphaDream was still running, that's exactly how Nintendo did things. They'd release a PM, then a M&L, then back, if you check all the recent dates and releases of the most recent M&L and Paper Mario games, you'll see the timeline adds up where it was just like that! So you're right to think there's a good chance they'd do it, they already did it, proved it somewhat worked, so now if both series see success they might return to doing that!

Looks like the Mario strikers engine: so it’s probably that team

I practically felt the vomit coming up at the idea of the Origami King people making this.

If it is MonolithSoft, then holy shit they are winning. Sure, they're mainly known for Xenoblade, but they have worked on games that we know and love, and Animal Crossing New Horizons comes to mind. I dunno what their graphics engine is named, but the fact that it's in-house and their own engine is spectacular. The fact they're possibly helping with Brothership is a win in itself if they're the devs. Plus it was apparently stated that some AlphaDream staff had joined MonolithSoft, so this is definitely something to think about.

awesome!

After you mentioned Camelot as an option, I'm seriously considering them as quite possible being them the devs. And maybe if they pull it off, nintendo might let them do a new Golden Sun? They can do RPGs and quite familiar with the Mario universe with the golf and tennis series (sales performance in the current era aside), so letting them do it could be viable.

Square enix would without a doubt be the most interesting developer, seeing as they used to ghost Nintendo with their biggest franchises. Such a rapid transition hasn’t happened since Nintendo and sega

I don't get why just nintendo being the devs is so unbelievable since they own not just mario but luigi too. Not saying a new team is out of the question but it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume this is an in house project.

4:16 Based on precedent, I agree with you about the timing for the next set of Pokémon games; I expect a Pokémon Presents this summer to make this clear. However, putting precedent aside, a rumor going around suggests Pokemon may hold the next generation back until the anniversary in 2026; if this is the case, it may make sense that they would hold an ILCA remake for November 2025.

My gut feeling was next level or good feel based on nothing but the visual sim with animations and the giant sections

I think there may be some kind of involvement from Next Level Games with the animation style. Their prior Nintendo switch titles are to my knowledge the only Mario games to use squash and stretch extensively. If you compare the animations between this and Battle League, they very much have the same feel.

First thing I thought when I saw the trailer was “That looks like a Bandai Namco game” so we’ll see…

A few things to note is that Nintendo has a habit of sitting on games. Paper Mario TTYD and Fire Emblem Engage were both done around a year before release, Metroid Prime Remaster was done 18 months before release. It is very possible that Grezzo had long finished Zelda a while ago and Nintendo was waiting for a good release window. Pokemon is unlikely this year at this point as they annoced a game that is coming next year and nothing else for switch, If there was something coming they would have announced it. Legends Arceus was clearly pretty far along when annouced compared to Legends ZA which was just a CG trailer with no gameplay and a more vague release window.

Is there anyone else that likes the style of this game, besides that, "plug kid?" It feels like everything is polished, but that character.

im curious to know who's the person directing Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. wondering if it's the person who directed the Oracle games + Four Swords & Minish Cap way back then, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom - Hidemaro Fujibayashi sensei

The quality of the animation might suggest Next Level Games, since they haven’t released anything since Strikers.

One thought I had was Ubisoft because they did Mario + rabbits. But I’m unsure if they would be a good choice for Mario and Luigi. They have clearly worked with Nintendo before and have worked on Mario RPGs before so at least they have experience, and I’m sure Ubisoft would be happy to make Mario and Luigi if allowed, but i would say the likelihood is only about 10% that they would be involved. Especially if they are working on another Mario + rabbits game witch I would assume they are working on for the next Nintendo console.

I would love to hear a deep dive on Alpha Dream and tracking down the former staff. Particularly, I'm very interested to know why Nintendo didn't acquire them and the former staff's sentiment regarding Nintendo.

I mean I know you said you were okay with Camelot not doing this game but maybe if they are this could be really good for them. If this game does well it would give Nintendo a lot confidence in them making other RPG games like a Golden Sun for instance

I heard someone said Mistwalker. He/she said ex-Alphadream employees moved to Mistwalker. Now, Mistwalker game was announced in Nintendo direct. I have a hunch that Mistwalker had involved in it.

4:53 the Pokémon Company acts somewhat autonomously from Nintendo though, and I assume they did most of the contracting for BDSP.

The animation makes me think next level or ubisoft as those mario games were well animated

On the topic of pokemon, If there was a Pokémon game announced and revealed then it would have been this month and last month in May. Since the latest a mainline pokemon game has ever been revealed is May and June and earliest a mainline pokemon game has been revealed is January and February. The only pokemon content so far is the Pokémon tcg pocket for 2024 this year. Legends z-a is next year, maybe this Pokémon presents that will either happen in June this month or August will give out the date of legends z-a. I could also see generation 10 in the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise in 2026. Since a new generation has happened on the 10th anniversary of Pokémon with gen 4 in 2006 and the 20th anniversary with gen 7 in 2016. Most likely a gen 5 remake of or when was to happen then it would most likely be during gen 10 or gen 11 since that would probably be time for a remake. Since gen 1 remake was during gen 3, gen 2 remake was during gen 4, gen 3 remake was during gen 6, and gen 4 remake was during gen 8. Of course there’s let’s go which was a remake of yellow during gen 7.

This is going to sound insane but what if AlphaDream developed the game and Nintendo's simply been sitting on it this whole time? Nintendo has a history of having near-complete games just waiting to be released for when the right game drought shows up, ie Pikmin 4. And rumours of that nature keep spiralling about Metroid Prime remasters, the Wii U's Zelda remakes, or Mother 3 making it to Switch. If Brothership was developed even as far back as the Wii U days, there may have been an incentive to push it forward to NX as obviously the writing is on the wall for the previous system. So ported to Nintendo Switch it is. But in the launch window of 2017, Nintendo wants to position Switch as a 'home console you can play anywhere' to target the adult early-adopter crowd, so more expansive prestige software like Super Mario Odyssey takes priority and successors to 3DS titles can wait. 2019-2020 comes around with Switch Lite - and its more handheld focused positioning - but around this time, so many Mario entries (NSMBU Deluxe etc.) are already scheduled that a new Mario & Luigi would get drowned out, so let's push it back further into the 2020s as an end of generation title. 2023 rolls around, whoops there's already way too many Mario RPGs plus the movie, a third one can wait a while longer to space things out. And that's how this game can end up with a 2024 release date despite being finished almost a decade earlier. probably completely unlikely because I have no clue how the exit packages or royalties for staff are supposed to be handled in this situation. I am not a payroll expert

“Long awaited” It’s not even much different from before: PiT-> BIS 4 years BIS -> DT 4 years BIS+BJJ -> Brothership 5 years

“Maarioh”

24:05 which video?

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is made in house. I know some people from alpha dream got hired by Nintendo after the bankruptcy.

Nice

I am going with either Next level Games or Intelligent systems.

My initial guess is that it's developed by Next Level Games. The art style is similar to strikers along with the strikers reference with Mario kicking the shell.

14:10 isn’t Bandai Namco more closely aligned with Nintendo then the Pokémon company, since they’re lead developer on Super Smash Brothers?

I figured AlphaDream shut down while Nintendo scooped upstaff to absorb into other teams. Maybe some went to IILCA and some more went to Camelot...

Camelot doesn't seem very likely to me solely on the basis that the animation in their Switch Mario games hasn't been the greatest. In particular, I remember seeing a lot of people posting clips of Super Rush animations and discussing how weak they were compared to World Tour. I think you were also way too quick to write off Next Level Games. Supposedly, only around half of the Luigi's Mansion 3 developers were credited on Mario Strikers Battle League. If true, that'd mean they'd be open for another project, especially because even if they're behind Luigi's Mansion 2 HD, that'd take up even less resources compared to a new project. Not only does the animation look in line with their past Switch games, but they also wrapped development on Luigi's Mansion 3 right around the time AlphaDream went under. It's not at all a stretch to assume that Nintendo watched as AlphaDream went bankrupt, then watched as Luigi's Mansion 3 began to sell very well and figured "hey, this team knows how to design puzzles, including ones built around controlling two characters, create incredibly expressive animation, and craft dense environments. They could do a Mario & Luigi." Hell - Nintendo straight-up assigned Next Level to revive Luigi's Mansion. They'd been tinkering with a Metroid project when Kensuke Tanabe swooped in and said "you guys are making Luigi's Mansion now," according to an interview cited on Wikipedia. They could've done the same for Mario and Luigi. And there are a lot of little quirks that are adding up, too. I'm still unsure about the music, as while it doesn't sound too much like Yoko Shimomura, it also doesn't strike me as reminiscent of what Next Level Games's in-house composers have worked on. But the key art for the game appears to be using, at the very least, a mix of artwork that's not drawn by the original Mario & Luigi box artist(s?) and a 3D render of Shipshape Island, and the overall art might actually be using renders mimicking 2D art. Additionally, the Japanese logo for the game has a strangely different aesthetic for the subtitle compared to the Western release, which makes me wonder if there's anything more to that. I may be biased, as a while back I came to the conclusion that Next Level Games would be the best fit for taking over the series (barring their character design), but Brothership really strikes me as something they could do. It may be ILCA, especially because they've only recently shifted away from co-development work and so we don't have the greatest idea of what they're capable of, but I would go so far as to say Next Level Games is more likely than any other studio aside from ILCA. Definitely more likely than Monolith Soft, as they appear to be working on a new IP based on their concept art, job listings, and reported "Legacy" project, and it just does not seem like something they'd be taking on even if they didn't have something new coming. They have, at most, a few AlphaDream alumni employed there now as well, so there's little reason to expect they're working on it.

I want a Dr.Mario 99

1:25 I think a third requirement would be the studio in quesition should atleast some experience in developing RPGs since Mario & Luigi is a RPG series.

Honestly, Camelot makes the most sense to me, with some producer ship from former Alphadream employees

Do you release this videos as podcasts?

pretty sure that Brothership is being made by the studio that made the mario RPG remake. I highly doubt Alphadream actually made this game as they don't exist anymore.

Whoever they are, they’re doing a better job at designing *original* bosses. Unlike how Wonder chose to make EVERY boss just a rehashing of Jr. Totally ruined the game for the lack of creativity.