Nintendo felt Mario & Luigi had “low recognition”, wanted the art and in-game graphics to match

In a recent interview, Nintendo producer Akira Otani spoke more about the origins of Mario & Luigi: Brothership.

Otani, who has been working the series since Partners in Time on Nintendo DS, said that it’s been a challenge to match the franchise’s artwork with the in-game graphics. This is what partially promoted the decision to feature full 3D visuals on Mario & Luigi: Brothership and release it for Nintendo Switch.

Otani mentioned the following in an interview with Famitsu:

“After the fifth title in the series, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, we entered a stage where we were thinking about a new game after releasing two remakes (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions and Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey), and we decided to make the next game on the Nintendo Switch.

However, compared to the other Mario games, it is difficult for the Mario & Luigi series’ boxart and other artwork to match the in-game graphics, so we think there is a problem with the series still having low recognition from customers. We moved to the Nintendo Switch at this time, and in order to attract the attention of new players, we began development with trying to present everything in 3D.”

The developers also spoke about why the series went with a new composer this time around, and how they needed to make adjustments after their first attempt had Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto stating that what they came up with was “too ordinary”. Read about that here.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is available on Nintendo Switch worldwide.