AlphaDream

AlphaDream Corporation, Ltd.

Native name	株式会社アルファドリーム
Romanized name	Kabushiki gaisha ArufaDorīmu
Formerly	AlphaStar
Company type	Kabushiki gaisha
Industry	Video games
Genre	Video game development
Founded	January 12, 2000 (2000-01-12) in Tokyo, Japan
Defunct	October 1, 2019 (2019-10-01)
Fate	Bankruptcy
Headquarters	Wako Miyamasuzaka Building, 2-19-8, Shibuya, Tokyo , Japan
Key people	Representative Director Tetsuo Mizuno
Products	Mario & Luigi series
Number of employees	38 (2011)
Website	alphadream.co.jp (archived)
Footnotes / references

AlphaDream Corporation, Ltd. (formerly known as AlphaStar) was a video game development company founded in 2000 by Tetsuo Mizuno in Tokyo, Japan. In partnership with Nintendo, it produced software for the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS, including the Mario & Luigi series. The company's staff included prominent former developers from Square, such as Chihiro Fujioka. On October 1, 2019, AlphaDream was shut down after declaring bankruptcy.

History

AlphaDream was founded on January 12, 2000. They were then known as AlphaStar. Several members of their staff were notable staff from Square. They are known for their role-playing games, most notably the Mario & Luigi series for the Game Boy Advance, the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS.

The company was founded in 2000 by Tetsuo Mizuno, the past president of Square. 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.

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).

Developed games

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
2008	Hi! Hamtaro Ham-Ham Challenge	Marvelous Entertainment
2009	PostPet DS
	Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story	Nintendo
2013	Mario & Luigi: Dream Team		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 Corporation	iOS/Android

External links

• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2019) (in Japanese)