| blackstarr said: 3 years does seem like a long time, but I'm guessing it was a smaller team. |
The core Nintendo developer is half a dozen teams called the "Enertainment Analysis and Development" teams, which share a base of about 500 or so people. Each of these six or so teams specialize in one or two series, and are headed by a Manager/Producer.
Team 1 makes Nintendogs and mario Kart games.
Team 2 makes "Wii" series and Animal Crossing games.
Team 3 makes handheld and console Zelda games.
Team 4 makes Pikmin and 2D Mario games
Team 5 makes Fitness games and Steel Diver (They are not very big)
Team Tokyo makes 3D Mario Platformers.
If you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that Team 4 is responsible for NSMB2, NSMBU, and Pikmin 3, three games released within a year. The most likely scenario is that the team behind the original DS and Wii NSMB games was immediately put to work on NSMBU. Of course, that doesn't leave many people; on average, each team has a bit under a hundred people, and this is divided into three again for NSMBU. Even if you assume they received extra resources, I wouldn't be surprised if the core team only had 40 or so people.
So there you have it. NSMBU was likely made by a team of about 40 full-timers, plus whoever was available at any given moment.
Love and tolerate.
