As some of you may or may not know, the developers behind the extraordinary RPG series Mario&Luigi have filed for bankruptcy. And this is something that really took me by surprise as I thought the company was doing pretty well for themselves. But it seems that "development costs were heavy and the company had to work extra hard because the financial deficit kept on increasing their debt. Since then, sales performances couldn't get better and it was difficult to keep up with daily activities" (https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20191002-00010002-teikokudb-ind).
This really hits me right in the heart. I have played the shit out of the first one, namely Mario&Luigi: Superstar Saga. Knowing full well how fun Mario was with the RPG elements (from playing Paper Mario 64), I felt this game had a lot of potential. I remember turning on my Gameboy Advance SP (best GB ever!) and I immediately loved this game. The music and the 32-bits aspect gave the tone, the humor was omnipresent and was the main reason why I liked it so much. The same kind you could find in nearly every Mario RPG, see what I'm talking about? Of course you do.
How exactly did it come to this? I feel like a big part of the reason they couldn't get back on their feet is them losing some of what actually made this series good. If we look at the numbers, we can see that up to the third title the series was doing pretty good. Due to the success of the first two titles, Bowser's Inside Story ended up being the highest selling entry of the series. But then it all started going down. And I can't say I don't understand why. When playing the other games, I couldn't find all the emotions I felt when playing the first games. Sales kept on going downwards with every new game entry and the remake ended being their worst selling game (https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Mario_%26_Luigi). Another reason in my opinion is the fact that they tried to ride the wave of Paper Mario's popularity. Unfortunately for them, they did it at a time when its popularity was at an all-time low due to Sticker Star being the atrocity it is (but this will be for another article). Color Splash certainly didn't help and so people we're kind of reluctant at the idea of trying out a new game which included Paper Mario.
So what does this all mean for the future of the series? Well, it is hard to say. Mario&Luigi was a handheld game and I highly doubt we'll be seeing it being picked up and having a new game on the 3DS. Will it come on the Switch? Will Nintendo actually pick it up? Hopefully they do, as I believe the series has still much more to share with us. Maybe they could try to use a different duo or even implement a co-op mode! There's a lot of possibilities actually! One thing is for sure, they should not go down the road of coming up with more remakes. It obviously didn't work out for AlphaDream because it is not what the fans are waiting for. Novelty is needed here but don't forget to keep everything that made Mario&Luigi what it is! Especially the humor!
And what about you, what are your hopes and dreams for Mario&Luigi? Tell me in the comments what were your fondest memories while playing their games and let's hope we'll soon be able to play the next one!