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Just recently, it was revealed that developer Acquire worked with Nintendo to brainstorm “over 100 options” for the title of its new RPG that would go on to be called Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
Now, in a fresh interview with Nintendo Dream (thanks, Nintendo Everything), producer Akira Otani states that one of the potential titles in consideration was actually ‘Mario & Luigi Wonder’, but the team was forced to abandon this idea when Super Mario Bros. Wonder released on 20th October 2023.
“Actually, I wanted to add “Wonder” to the name at first. Like “Mario & Luigi Wonder”. But while we were making it, Super Mario Bros. Wonder came out first, so we couldn’t use that (laughs).
“So Nintendo and Acquire came up with a lot of ideas, and in the end, one of the candidates from Acquire was “Brothership”. The word “ship” means, of course, a ship, and this refers to the brothers’ base, the ship island. It’s also used as a word to mean friendship, like “friendship”.
“So if it’s about the bond between brothers, then it’s Brothership, and it has a double meaning, and I thought, “This is it!” It really fit perfectly, and although the title usually changes when it’s released in North America or Europe, this time it’s the same title.”
What’s particularly interesting (and we may well be missing some crucial context with the above quote) is the loose implication that the development team had no knowledge of Super Mario Bros. Wonder until its release. We personally have a difficult time believing this since long-time Mario veteran Takashi Tezuka served as producer for Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Senior Supervisor for Mario & Luigi: Brothership; so there had to be some communication between the development teams throughout 2023.
Regardless, it’s quite funny that the teams managed to cross wires like this. Honestly, we’re not super keen on ‘Mario & Luigi Wonder’ as a title, so we’re glad that Nintendo and Acquire eventually settled on Brothership.