Company: WayForward Technologies

Prior to a 2020 Nintendo Treehouse presentation, primarily intended to show off Paper Mario: The Origami King, it was announced that a new game from developer WayForward would be shown off in the presentation. Due to WayForward's reputation for platformer titles such as the Shantae series and the recent release of Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring the Legend of Zelda seemingly signifying an interest from Nintendo in indie collaborations, many fans expected the showcase to present a revival of a dormant Nintendo platforming IP such as Kid Icarus or Wario Land. In a futile attempt to temper expectations, Nintendo would vaguely clarify that the game was based on a "third party IP", redirecting speculation towards other companies' gaming IPs. When the presentation came, the game was revealed to be Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia, one of the licensed children's games that make up the vast majority of WayForward's gamography, which disappointed many, causing the Bakugan toyline to trend on Twitter and gaining the reveal trailer 3,500 dislikes against 1,500 likes on YouTube.

An infamous scratch and sniff ad for EarthBound, featured in magazines around the time of the game's release, caused WayForward director/designer James Montagna to suffer from a severe allergic reaction as a child, which had him rushed to hospital:

In 1994, WayForward became part of a partnership with American Education Publishing, focusing on creating educational games for which they won the CES Best New Media Award in 1994 and two CES Innovations Awards in 1995.