While everyone is looking to the horizon for the Switch successor, Nintendo continues to stay the course and release new titles. It was only a few months ago that the amazing remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door came out. Now, they have surprised us by dropping a new entry in the beloved Mario & Luigi series: Mario & Luigi Brothership.
After a (potentially) near-death experience and display of courage, Mario and Luigi (along with some others) find themselves mysteriously transported to an unfamiliar world. Welcome to the land of Concordia! Previously, a large continent made up of many regions was now divided into islands sent adrift after Concordia’s great tree, the Uni-Tree, was destroyed. The moustached brothers are found by Connie, a Wattanist, who is seeking to connect the drifting islands and make the land of Concordia whole again.
Mario & Luigi and the crew travel the seas on an island called Shipshape Island. This boat-shaped island serves as the main hub throughout the game, as it takes our heroes along the ocean currents to find drifting islands and inlets. The island hub also serves the role of the Uni-Tree, with the ability to tether the drifting islands and repair or open new currents/paths. To bring each island back into the fold, Mario & Luigi need to find its lighthouse and connect it back to Shipshape Island. Meanwhile, there is a mysterious force kidnapping Concordians as they work away at their sinister plans, spreading an insidious affliction known as Glohm.
Along for this adventure is Snoutlet, a small flying pig-like companion who is very insistent they are not a pig. Snoutlet is there to assist with information and dialogue as Mario & Luigi don’t have any dialogue of their own, still communicating with the series’ traditional gibberish. As with any Mario & Luigi game, there are plenty of new characters introduced that are unique to the new world/land outside of the Mushroom Kingdom. Without spoiling anything, Mario and Luigi aren’t the only inhabitants from the Mushroom Kingdom who have been transported to Concordia.
It’s been nearly a decade since there’s been a new entry to the Mario & Luigi series (excluding the remakes) and the former team AlphaDream shut down. The question on long-term series fans’ minds is likely to be whether Brothership still retains the spirit that kept the series enjoyable. In short, Brothership fits right in! Not only is this game as charming as hell, it is pretty damn funny too. The series has always been more light-hearted and goofy, and that hasn’t changed; it felt like for every new island, I was taking screenshots of the sillier conversations. For all the hijinks, the game is also quite heartfelt, given the theme of connectedness and its absence as Glohm spreads throughout Concordia. I really enjoyed my time playing through Brothership, and I was quickly reminded of how much I appreciate that the Mario & Luigi series exists alongside the Paper Mario series.
If you’re familiar with the Mario & Luigi series, the combat will be easily recognisable; in fact, that would go for nearly any of the Mario RPG games. You have your Jump and Hammer attacks, your special moves (Bros Moves in this case) that consume BP, and you can time your attacks or defence to do extra damage or mitigate the damage taken. To get some context for how the series used to play, I jumped back into Dream Team Bros, and I definitely appreciate how Brothership’s combat feels.
In the previous games, the brothers both took their actions individually. Here, they draw on the theme of bonds, the strength and importance of the brotherly bonds between Mario and Luigi. When you do a basic Jump or Hammer attack with either brother, the other will jump in with an additional button prompt to boost the damage done. At first, I was worried it was going to slow down fights, and I had to time the combos up every time I attacked. Then I found that the attacks went at such a swift pace, especially when the timing for the prompts burn into your brain; it all becomes second nature. I definitely appreciate the opportunity for extra damage when the battlefield gets a bit crowded. As I thought about it more, the way it works became integral to surviving the many fights. When one brother becomes incapacitated due to status effects or attacks that take them temporarily out of action, its impact can really be felt when you’re reduced down to the more traditional singular brother attacks.
Across the series, each entry usually has at least one mechanic that makes the game stand out from the others. There’s been time travel from Partners in Time, Bowser as a protagonist for Bower’s Inside Story, Luigi’s dreams in Dream Team Bros, and a Paper Mario team-up for Paper Jam. For Brothership, the focus and running theme of the story is connection, with Mario & Luigi connecting more of the islands into a Concordia collective, allowing the brothers to warp around between the differently themed islands for the main objectives or the side quests that pop up along the way. The more active mechanic throughout the game is Luigi Logic. During the story, the team come to an impasse, and it’s down to Luigi’s cognitive powers to find a usually goofy solution. Outside of the odd moment across the many hours of Concordia, Luigi Logic mostly shows up during boss battles. During these more difficult battles Luigi will observe something in the background he can use to help turn the tide in the brothers favour. This is accompanied by a microgame to deliver big damage and often stunning the boss, it’s a handy addition to these fights and helps keep the big battles from overstaying their welcome with much larger health bars.
To continue with the theme of connection in a different way, all of the Concordia citizens and villains are inspired by electrical items, notably plugs, sockets and jacks. While I could recognise the different items, I wished I had more comprehensive knowledge to know if the characterisations were further references to the plugs, jacks and sockets. Regardless, the game is riddled with names and puns that play on the electrical/circuit theme, which adds to the charm.
Battle Plugs are a new addition to battles, where you collect sprites across the islands that are then used to help Snoutlet to create new Battle Plugs. These are useful buffs and augments to attacks or defence, although my go-to options were auto-use options that use a healing mushroom or 1 UP mushroom when needed without costing a move. I recommend creating the Boomerang Item Plug when it’s available, allowing you to use any item in battle only for it to be returned into your inventory right after. To get the most out of this mechanic you need to spend those Sprites, to unlock more plugs you need to create a certain number.
There are (optional) moments where you’ll need certain plugs to take down modified enemies so if you want to complete everything you’ll need to spend some time here. Like Luigi Logic, I found the Battle Plugs to be a nice addition to spice up the combat when against difficult enemies, but it’s something you can also forget is there. Although the further into the story you get and things start to get hairier than Mario and Luigi’s moustaches, the Plugs become essential to surviving through the hordes you find yourself up against.
Difficulty wise Brothership tends to vary between cruisey waters to rough seas. For the first 2/3rds of the 45+ hours, it was only really boss battles that would put my healing items to frequent use. Then, once Glohm-affected enemies became more regular and enemy numbers in each battle increased, things really ramped up. That said, the game never feels too difficult, and the difficulty spikes aren’t enough to hold you back. If you are having a bad time with a boss or any (maybe most) battles, once you get a game over twice you have the option to reduce the difficulty for that battle. If you die again, you can lower it further. The game doesn’t force you to take the temporary difficulty change. It’s good to see that difficulty isn’t a barrier to seeing the story through.
Alongside the main story, side quests pop up along the way. Some can be as simple as finding the quest-giver, and the objective is not far away, or you can be hopping around the islands to accomplish others. As the story moves along, some of these side gigs can expire, although it is clearly indicated in your quest list what ones need to be done ASAP.
Something else that I found interesting was that the game suggested it could progress differently, depending on the decisions you make a few times across the game. Unfortunately, with limited time, I wasn’t able to go back and see how these decisions changed the outcome of certain events. There is at least one surprisingly big decision to make, although ultimately, it doesn’t impact the direction of the story; it was unexpected all the same.
With Mario & Luigi getting a visual overhaul on the Switch, it would help to know that Brothership looks excellent and runs fine. While the older games had plenty of charm and worked well for the handhelds they released on (and still hold up well), Brothership makes the most of being the first non-handheld entry. Performance-wise, Brothership runs fine; it isn’t running at 60 fps, and honestly, it doesn’t need to. The game never feels like it is struggling, and most importantly, it doesn’t impact the timing of the action commands.
If there was an issue, I had to really fish for it, which was initially going to be that Brothership’s load time when transitioning into a battle was a little slow. When there are a lot of fights in an area, it stands out more. Then I went back and played some Dream Team Bros on the 3DS and was quickly reminded that it was an issue back then as well. Load times between warping around can be a little annoying when you need to warp around between islands for a quest. But it’s still minimal compared to the alternative of having to find a warp pipe, go back to Shipshape, and warp out to the new island. While annoying because who wants to sit through loading, you’re never waiting for long.
Mario & Luigi Brothership is a joy to play, as well as an excellent entry in the Mario & Luigi series. Even as the Switch era is sailing towards new waters, it is a real treat to see them release such amazing games. I hope it gets all the attention it deserves in spite of being released on the tail end of the Switch’s lifespan. If you haven’t had the opportunity to play a game from the Mario & Luigi series, this is as good a jumping-in point as any, and this is a must-own for long-term fans of any of the Mario RPG entries.
Rating: 4.5/5
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