Hudson Soft

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"Hudson" redirects here. For information about the actor Ernie Hudson, see Ernie Hudson.
Hudson Soft
The logo for Hudson Soft
Founded May 18, 1973
Defunct March 1, 2012
First Super Mario game Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū and Mario Bros. Special
Latest Super Mario game Mario Party DS
Super Multitap
Super Multitap

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game developer and publisher, best known for creating the Bomberman franchise. Hudson also co-developed the PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 consoles with NEC in the late 1980s. Hudson's most notable work for Nintendo and Super Mario is the Mario Party series, of which Hudson developed eight console games and two portable games (Mario Party Advance and Mario Party DS). Most of the Mario Party staff at Hudson moved to the Nintendo-owned NDcube when Hudson's former president moved over there.

Hudson logo from the start-up of Mario Party, Mario Party 2 and Mario Party 3
In-game logo from the first three Mario Party titles

In January 2011, Konami revealed that it was to fully acquire Hudson, buying out the company and merging it into Konami on April 1; as a result, all Mario Party games starting from Mario Party 9 were developed by NDcube. On March 1, 2012, Hudson Soft officially ceased to exist, having been merged into Konami Digital Entertainment, though quite a few of Hudson's staff members migrated to NDcube.

Hudson's mascot was Hachisuke, a reference to the Hudson Hornet, a sedan from the 1950s built by the unrelated Hudson Automobile Company. It appears in Super Mario Bros. Special as an item that can be collected to earn 8,000 points.

Hudson Soft also created Family BASIC and the Super Multitap.

Super Mario games developed[edit]

1985 print ads showing the availability of Hudson Soft ports on home computers.
1985 print ads showing the availability of Hudson Soft ports on home computers.
1985 print ads showing the availability of Hudson Soft ports on home computers.
Title Year Released Systems
Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū 1984 Sharp X1, NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-6601
Mario Bros. Special 1984 NEC PC-8001, NEC PC-8801, Sharp X1, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-6601, FM-7, NEC PC-9801, Sharp MZ-1500, Sharp MZ-2200, Hitachi S1, SMC-777
Punch Ball Mario Bros. 1984 NEC PC-8801, Sharp X1, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-6601, FM-7, Sharp MZ-1500
Family BASIC V3 1985 Family Computer
Golf 1985 NEC PC-8001mkIISR, NEC PC-8801, Sharp X1
Super Mario Bros. Special 1986 NEC PC-8801, Sharp X1, Samsung SPC-1500
Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! 1994 Game Boy
Mario Party 1998 Nintendo 64
Mario Party 2 1999 Nintendo 64
Mario Party 3 2000 Nintendo 64
Mario Party 4 2002 Nintendo GameCube
Mario Party 5 2003 Nintendo GameCube
Mario Party 6 2004 Nintendo GameCube
Mario Party Advance 2005 Game Boy Advance
Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix 2005 Nintendo GameCube
Mario Party 7 2005 Nintendo GameCube
Mario Party 8 2007 Wii
Mario Party DS 2007 Nintendo DS

External links[edit]