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AlphaDream

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AlphaDream Corporation, Ltd.
Native name
株式会社アルファドリーム
Kabushiki gaisha ArufaDorīmu
FormerlyAlphaStar Software
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
GenreVideo game development
PredecessorAlphaStar (video game division)
FoundedJanuary 12, 2000; 24 years ago (2000-01-12), in Tokyo, Japan
DefunctOctober 1, 2019; 5 years ago (2019-10-01)
FateBankruptcy
SuccessorAcquire
HeadquartersWako Miyamasuzaka Building, 2-19-8,
Shibuya, Tokyo
,
Japan
Number of locations
1 studio (2019)
Key people
Tetsuo Mizuno (president)
ProductsGames
BrandsMario & Luigi series
Number of employees
38 (2011)
Websitealphadream.co.jp at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2019)
Footnotes / references
[1][2][3]

AlphaDream Corporation, Ltd.[a] was a Japanese video game development company founded in 2000 by Tetsuo Mizuno and Chihiro Fujioka in Tokyo, Japan. In partnership with Nintendo, it produced software for the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch, including the Mario & Luigi series. The company's staff included former developers from Square, such as Yoshihiko Maekawa. On October 1, 2019, AlphaDream was shut down after filing for bankruptcy during the first stages of Mario & Luigi: Brothership's development.

History

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AlphaDream was a spinoff company from AlphaStar,[b] a staffing agency that dealt in construction work also known as Mente Tomo and Ai.[c] Chihiro Fujioka joined AlphaStar in 1999 to head up a video game production division.[4] He and Tetsuo Mizuno spun the company off as AlphaStar Software on January 12, 2000, before renaming it to AlphaDream in July of that year.[4][5][6] Several members of their staff had previously worked at Square, including Mizuno, Square's second president, and Fujioka and Yoshihiko Maekawa, who were game directors at Square.[4] The name AlphaDream, meaning the 'first dream', is a play on Final Fantasy, Square's most notable series.[4]

The company was known for their role-playing games, most notably the Mario & Luigi series for the Game Boy Advance, the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS. Their first game, Koto Battle, was a Pokémon-style role-playing game, wherein the player battles three of their twenty character cards against AI opponents. It was released in March 2001 for the Game Boy Color. While it remains a Japan-only game, it was later re-released for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console.

AlphaDream's next game was Tomato Adventure, released in January 2002. The player, as DeMille, a tomato-hater in the Ketchup Kingdom, fights his way from his outcast village to rescue his girlfriend. The in-game weapons are toy-like and the battles against opponents involve minigames.

Tomato Adventure was co-developed with Graphic Research and directed by Chihiro Fujioka of Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy Legend III. It was expected for release on the Game Boy Color as Gimmick Land, but was pushed to the new Game Boy Advance and renamed for better marketing. Tomato Adventure has not been released outside Japan.[7]

AlphaDream became the developer of the Mario & Luigi series of games shortly after, with the first entry in the series, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, releasing in 2003.

On October 1, 2019, AlphaDream declared bankruptcy, citing sluggish revenues and high development costs, and being unable to keep up with growing debt (which as of March 2018 was over ¥465 million).[8]

Games

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List of video games developed by AlphaDream
Year Title Publisher Platform(s)
2001 Koto Battle: Tengai no Moribito AlphaDream Game Boy Color
2002 Tomato Adventure Nintendo Game Boy Advance
2003 Hamtaro: Rainbow Rescue
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
2004 Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Games
2005 Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time Nintendo DS
Tottoko Hamtaro Nazo Nazo Q Kumonoue no ? Jou
2007 Hi Hamtaro! Ham-Ham Training Marvelous Interactive
2009 Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story Nintendo
PostPet DS Marvelous Entertainment
2013 Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Nintendo Nintendo 3DS
2015 Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
2017 Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions
2019 Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey
Kedama no Gonjiro: Fit & Run ForwardWorks Android
iOS
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Sega Nintendo Switch

Notes

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  1. ^ Japanese: 株式会社アルファドリーム, Hepburn: Kabushikigaisha ArufaDorīmu
  2. ^ 株式会社アルファスター, Kabushikigaisha ArufaSutā
  3. ^ 株式会社メンテ友アンド愛, Kabushikigaisha Mente Yu ando Ai, A bilingual kanji pun: 友 (friend) and 愛 (love) can be read as "You" and "I"

References

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  1. ^ "会社概要 -Profile- | 株式会社アルファドリーム ALPHADREAM CORPORATION". alphadream.co.jp. June 24, 2018. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  2. ^ "A New Mario & Luigi Trademark Has Been Filed By Nintendo After AlphaDream's Bankruptcy". ScreenRant. January 13, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  3. ^ "Mario & Luigi RPG Developer AlphaDream Has Gone Bankrupt". Kotaku. October 2, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d "【Developer Profile】第8回 株式会社アルファドリーム".
  5. ^ "『マリオ＆ルイージRPG』など開発 アルファドリームが破産開始（帝国データバンク） - Yahoo!ニュース". headlines.yahoo.co.jp. Archived from the original on October 3, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  6. ^ "『マリオ＆ルイージRPG』シリーズなどの開発会社アルファドリームの破産手続き開始が決定 直近では『けだまのゴンじろー フィットエンドラン』の開発も | gamebiz".
  7. ^ "History of AlphaDream: Ketchup and Plumbers - Feature".
  8. ^ 帝国データバンク (October 2, 2019). "『マリオ＆ルイージRPG』など開発 アルファドリームが破産開始". Yahoo! News Japan (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 2, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
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