AlphaDream began in 2000 (Jan), mainly comprising of ex-Square staff, who had previously worked on Super Mario RPG for the SNES. The company is headed by Satoru Mizuno (President). As of Jan 2005, the AlphaDream team has 30 staff.
Their first title was a card battle game for GBcolor released in 2001. It had limited success but was a decent first start.
They then moved onto the GBA and established a stronger link with Nintendo, making the critically well received Tomato Adventure in 2002, selling reasonable numbers, but not a huge hit.
Pleased with their work Nintendo continued to work with AlphaDream on the Hamtaro series, a popular Japanese children's cartoon show. The games were well received and sold well.
AlphaDream's real talents were demonstrated in the 2003 game Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga. Again collaborating with Nintendo, they produced a brilliant adventure and huge hit, selling 1.5 million copies in Japan and NA.
They are continuing their relationship with Nintendo, working on Mario and Luigi 2 for the DS due for release later this year. The game looks set to expand on the original using many of the DS's features.
Impressions from IGN.
If you haven't played Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, you owe it to yourself to go out right now and pick yourself a copy just so you can experience how cool this Paper Mario-esque RPG from Alphadream is on the Game Boy Advance. Do it right now. That's okay, I'll wait.
That awesome GBA game is being followed up with a Nintendo DS sequel, and after playing through some of the adventure on the show floor at Nintendo's E3 booth, it's pretty clear that Alphadream is setting out to top itself with a far crazier, more creative role playing game for dual-screen gamers.
It's a little tough to get a good experience in such a short time, but even in the first few minutes of the adventure you can see the direction the development team's taking with the project. Somehow, Mario and Luigi have been whisked off into the past to rescue Princess Peach, but who they encounter is pretty surprising: baby versions of themselves. Though the storyline hasn't been revealed yet, the gameplay requires both Mario and Luigi and Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to work together to solve puzzles along the way.
Baby Mario and Baby Luigi can be controlled independently using the X and Y buttons for specific commands, just as Mario and Luigi can be with the A and B buttons. In one situation, I had to use Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to rescue Mario and Luigi, and use Mario and Luigi to toss the two babies into a tree trunk...with the upper screen and lower screen keeping track of both pairs of plumbers in different locations. Which means there will be several instances where players will control both pairs in the separate locations at the same time.
Enemy battles take place in the same turn-based interface as the original Mario & Luigi. But in this case, both screens act as one huge display, so enemies can literally be two screens tall attacking the tiny plumbers. Using the A, B, X, and Y buttons, players will have to dodge enemy attacks with a counter move of their own.
The graphics, upon first glance, don't look like much of an upgrade from the original Mario & Luigi. But look deeper and you'll see much more detailed character animation and background designs. And Alphadream have inserted some really cool special transition effects between battles; one slowly maps the entire screen onto a sphere as it bounces up off-screen across both displays. I was like, "hey, wow" when that happened the first time.
Screenshots of the game show off some particularly wacky situations, like trying to appease a super mega Yoshi from two perspectives. Can't wait to see what that's all about.
Mario & Luigi 2 hits the Nintendo DS later this year.
Videos can found at NOA, NCL and IGN.
Their first title was a card battle game for GBcolor released in 2001. It had limited success but was a decent first start.
They then moved onto the GBA and established a stronger link with Nintendo, making the critically well received Tomato Adventure in 2002, selling reasonable numbers, but not a huge hit.
Pleased with their work Nintendo continued to work with AlphaDream on the Hamtaro series, a popular Japanese children's cartoon show. The games were well received and sold well.
AlphaDream's real talents were demonstrated in the 2003 game Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga. Again collaborating with Nintendo, they produced a brilliant adventure and huge hit, selling 1.5 million copies in Japan and NA.
They are continuing their relationship with Nintendo, working on Mario and Luigi 2 for the DS due for release later this year. The game looks set to expand on the original using many of the DS's features.
Impressions from IGN.
If you haven't played Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, you owe it to yourself to go out right now and pick yourself a copy just so you can experience how cool this Paper Mario-esque RPG from Alphadream is on the Game Boy Advance. Do it right now. That's okay, I'll wait.
That awesome GBA game is being followed up with a Nintendo DS sequel, and after playing through some of the adventure on the show floor at Nintendo's E3 booth, it's pretty clear that Alphadream is setting out to top itself with a far crazier, more creative role playing game for dual-screen gamers.
It's a little tough to get a good experience in such a short time, but even in the first few minutes of the adventure you can see the direction the development team's taking with the project. Somehow, Mario and Luigi have been whisked off into the past to rescue Princess Peach, but who they encounter is pretty surprising: baby versions of themselves. Though the storyline hasn't been revealed yet, the gameplay requires both Mario and Luigi and Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to work together to solve puzzles along the way.
Baby Mario and Baby Luigi can be controlled independently using the X and Y buttons for specific commands, just as Mario and Luigi can be with the A and B buttons. In one situation, I had to use Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to rescue Mario and Luigi, and use Mario and Luigi to toss the two babies into a tree trunk...with the upper screen and lower screen keeping track of both pairs of plumbers in different locations. Which means there will be several instances where players will control both pairs in the separate locations at the same time.
Enemy battles take place in the same turn-based interface as the original Mario & Luigi. But in this case, both screens act as one huge display, so enemies can literally be two screens tall attacking the tiny plumbers. Using the A, B, X, and Y buttons, players will have to dodge enemy attacks with a counter move of their own.
The graphics, upon first glance, don't look like much of an upgrade from the original Mario & Luigi. But look deeper and you'll see much more detailed character animation and background designs. And Alphadream have inserted some really cool special transition effects between battles; one slowly maps the entire screen onto a sphere as it bounces up off-screen across both displays. I was like, "hey, wow" when that happened the first time.
Screenshots of the game show off some particularly wacky situations, like trying to appease a super mega Yoshi from two perspectives. Can't wait to see what that's all about.
Mario & Luigi 2 hits the Nintendo DS later this year.
Videos can found at NOA, NCL and IGN.
