Mario & Luigi Brothership developer wanted a ‘darker’ Mario but Nintendo said no

Acquire, the studio behind Mario & Luigi: Brothership, says it originally wanted to give Mario a bolder look, but Nintendo wasn’t convinced.

In a new Ask the Developer interview on Nintendo’s official website, Acquire designer Hitomi Furuta explained how she had originally designed Mario to look different than he had in the past, but that Nintendo suggested he didn’t. It would fit with the artistic style of the previous one. Mario and Luigi games.

“Our challenge was to develop 3D visuals that would highlight the unique appeal of the Mario & Luigi series and differentiate it from other Mario games,” Furuta said. “I’m embarrassed to say it, but we weren’t aware of it when development began, which led us to take a wide detour.

“And in our search for a new style of Mario & Luigi, at one point we ended up trying to present a bolder, tougher Mario,” he laughed. “We then received feedback from Nintendo that we should try to make the art direction identifiable to fans as belonging to the Mario & Luigi series.

“After that, we were able to focus on how we could combine two things: the appeal of illustrations that feature, for example, solid outlines and bold black eyes, and the charm of pixel animations that depict the two characters moving comically. in all directions. “I think that’s when we finally started developing an art style unique to this game.”

Nintendo producer Akira Otani added that from Nintendo’s point of view, Acquire’s character designs did not resemble Mario’s but rather “gave the impression of something different that simply looked like Mario, so “We called a meeting to reevaluate the direction.”

“While we wanted Acquire to have its own unique style, we also wanted them to preserve what defines Mario,” he explained. “I think it was a period where we were experimenting with how those two things could coexist.”

At the meeting, Nintendo showed Acquire designers a document outlining what defines the protagonists of the Mario & Luigi series.

“Although we had enthusiastically introduced this rugged version of Mario, when I considered it from a player perspective, I began to worry if it really represented the Mario that gamers would want to play,” Furuta recalled.

“So when we received that clear direction from Nintendo, it made a lot of sense to us. I think that’s when we first realized, ‘ah, this is what we should be aiming for this time in terms of a 3D visual style of Acquire,’ and we were able to establish the fundamental direction.”

Haruyuki Ohashi, game director at Acquire, added: “We had a strong desire to experiment with new visual styles, but [Nintendo] Each time he expressed his vision to us in a way that we found compelling.”

“Yeah,” laughed Nintendo’s Otani. “It’s like we unleashed Acquire into the wild, only to go after them again.”

VGC’s Mario & Luigi: Brothership review calls the game “a triumphant return for the series, maintaining the spirit and action-oriented platforming of its predecessors, along with fantastic exploration and satisfying battle mechanics.”