IGN spoke to Nintendo and AlphaDream about Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi
Of the twoMarioRPG sub-series,Mario & Luigiis much closer in tone and spirit toSuper Mario RPGon the Super Nintendo. That’s becauseM&Ldeveloper AlphaDream consists of former Square employees who worked on the plumber’s first role-playing adventure.
To commemorate the release ofMario & Luigi: Dream Team, IGNinterviewedkey Nintendo and AlphaDream members on the series’ development history. Yoshihiko Maekawa,Super Mario RPGco-director andDream Teamco-producer, explained how Nintendo gave AlphaDream permission to inject Luigi with an original personality for the firstM&L. He also addressed fans’ desire to see Mallow and Geno return in a futureM&Linstallment — Geno made a super brief cameo inSuperstar Saga, if you recall.
The big element thatSuper Mario RPGwas known for and saw further evolution in theM&Lseries was the innovative timing-based battle system. “That was very much inspired by a children’s toy that was available in Japan at the time,” Maekawa recalled. “It was like a large laptop with these buttons that would play music. You had to press the buttons with good timing to the music. It was that idea, having gameplay built around timing button presses, that inspired me to hybridize these two genres of game, to get a little bit of action and RPG into the same game.”
Be sure to read the full interview at the link below.
Where Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Super Mario RPG Collide[IGN]
