Mario & Luigi: Brothership Review - The Brothers Are Back In This Light RPG

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the latest in the Mario & Luigi ARPG spin-off series, and is not to be confused with some of the more traditional platformer games that Mario is known for. Though its RPG mechanics are fairly light, the game is a very fun addition to the Mario & Luigi lineup, especially as it's the first entry to come out since 2018. Set in a world far from the Mushroom Kingdom, there are still many familiar faces in addition to the citizens of Concordia, and Mario and Luigi are once again destined to be the heroes of the land.

Many fans of the Mario & Luigi series have feared the worst for the spin-off after waiting nine years since Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam was released in 2015, followed by some remakes in 2018. Sadly, the development company that had created the other games in the series, AlphaDream, is now no longer around. Nintendo was quick to assure fans that some of the original developers were now involved with making Brothership at its new development team, Acquire.

The ARPG stylings of Mario & Luigi: Brothership may surprise some people who aren't familiar with the series, but it does have similarities to Paper Mario, just with obviously different graphic styles. Unlike the previous Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam game, Brothership does not include any 2D Paper Mario stylings in it at all. In fact, Mario & Luigi: Brothership offers a fresh start to the series in the gameplay and art style, moving away from the Paper Mario series entirely.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership Has A Creatively Electrifying Story

Set In The World Of Concordia

After the familiar faces of the Mushroom Kingdom have been strangely teleported to various locations across the land of Concordia, Mario and Luigi find each other again and meet with the young and adorable Connie. Connie is a new Wattanist who explains to the brothers the plight of their world. Once connected in harmony by the strong Uni-Tree, the world of Concordia has been broken apart into several drifting islands, completely cut off from one another.

In this electricity-based land, full of fantastic puns and creative uses of electrical terms, Connie has planted a new Uni-Tree seed on a floating island ship named ShipShape Island, with the goal of connecting all the islands together again. Personally, I would like to live on ShipShape Island in real life. Sailing the world on a massive boat-shaped island sounds pretty nice.

Naturally, things aren't going to be easy for Connie, even with the help of her definitely-not-a-pig, Snoutlet, and their new friends, Mario and Luigi. The evil and mysterious Zokket and his minions are behind the original destruction of the Uni-tree and are now working to spread Glohm across Concordia. Glohm seems to essentially be a form of negativity, depression, or anger, making everyone turn dark and not want to interact with anyone and just being bitter and sad.

The story flows well, and with traveling to all the islands, meeting new characters and ultimately connecting the islands together into a weird tail behind ShipShape Island, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a very entertaining story. It is a clever premise that has been expertly told in a way that somehow sounds even a little plausible, at least in the Super Mario universe.

Turn-Based Combat, Overworld Encounters, And More

The Basic Gameplay Of This ARPG

Following the same gameplay pattern as the older entries in the Mario & Luigi series, Brothership has both an overworld setting and separate battle sections for turn-based combat. While walking in the overworld, players can see a monster and if that monster attacks them, or if Mario attacks the monster, the game will jump into a battle arena where the monster is often joined by several of its friends.

On their turns, Mario and Luigi can choose whether to jump attack, hammer attack, use an item, flee, or use a special Bros. Attack move. With any type of attack, players have to time their commands in order to do damage. With perfect timing, the attack earns an additional "excellent" bonus.

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As is often the case in games such as these, there are certainly moments where it feels there are too many monsters in the overworld when players need to get somewhere. This can be frustrating, but thankfully there is no penalty for fleeing from a battle to keep going. It still can, and does, get a bit irritating from time to time, particularly when you've done enough battles to be over-leveled for your current missions.

Mechanics For Mario & Luigi: Brothership Are Smooth, But Slow

Fun Abilities To Use, But The Game Gets Tedious At Times - Particularly With "Luigi Logic"

Mario & Luigi: Brothership continues some of the same abilities of the older titles in the series, with many attacks and abilities that feature both brothers working together, and controlled by just one player. The single-player game works well with handling the two characters. Its AI for Luigi, surprisingly, does what he should do when following the player-controlled Mario, and generally there are no problems with handling both characters.

The series staple, Bros. Attacks, make a return but with some new iterations of the mechanic. Bros. Attacks allow Mario and Luigi to work together in some clever ways to make a special attack in battle, although they often require some more advanced timing of button pressing from the player. There is also the "Luigi Logic" feature where Luigi can come up with clever solutions to problems, both in and out of combat.

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However, the best of the new features introduced for Brothership are the Battle Plugs which can add passive strengths and abilities to battles. Some of these plugs even create all-new combos, such as combining the Dizzifying Attack plug with a Fire Attack Plug to create a fire tornado. New plugs can be created by finding and collecting Sprite Bulbs on the different islands, which are a small collectible type of creature that generally requires players returning to a completed island.

Unfortunately, there are also several things that were disappointing in Mario & Luigi: Brothership's gameplay. Particularly when it came to pacing. Not only were loading screens painfully slow (and prevalent in the game), but there were several other slow moments when it would have been nice to skip past cutscenes and interactions. Watching Luigi have his "Luigi Logic" moment was fun the first time, but after sitting through it 30 times it got a bit old.

Sailing The Ocean Is Well Handled, After The Ability To Speed Up Comes

Following Currents To Find Drifting Islands To Connect

Because ShipShape Island is, essentially, a giant ship, players can use it to sail the ocean. Connie wants to find all the separated islands of Concordia to connect them together again, while Mario and Luigi are also tracking down the evil villains who have taken over the Great Lighthouses. Meanwhile, there are several small islets to explore, and silly rock formations called reefs to find and report back to a sculptor.

Opening the Ocean Map, there are many currents that the ship can follow to get to new areas, but sailing takes time. After players unlock a certain character, this can be sped up considerably, making exploration much simpler.

Characters And Setting Are Truly Enjoyable

And The Art Style Is Beautiful

The art style of Brothership is beautiful. It feels at times as though seeing a cartoon come to life, and the facial expressions of the characters, even those with electrical socket faces, are expressive and engaging. Whether helping arrange a wedding for a Romeo and Juliet situation of runaway royalties, or helping the group of IDLE kids find their purpose in life, the small storylines within the greater narrative are wholesome and fun to see.

The adorable Connie, the young Wattanist at the heart of these heroic efforts, is absolutely charming and her small moments of growth over the course of the story surprised me with how engaged I became.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

Screen Rant Gives Mario & Luigi: Brothership 7/10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is not without its flaws. The pacing of some of the cutscenes, long loading screens, and overload of monsters in the overworld seemed to weigh it down and often took me out of the game. There were also some moments where, after being very over-levelled and having easy battles, I was suddenly thrown into a battle that took me an hour, such as when I faced Koopa Troopas and Goombas who were constantly calling for reinforcements. The drastic contrast to the easiness of the fights before that was a bit jarring.

Even with these negatives, however, this is a game that I truly loved playing. The story, fun abilities and skills, the citizens of Concordia, and more all came together to make this a really fun experience. Mario and Luigi are both perfectly portrayed, with Luigi having more of a chance to be a hero than he often gets, and Princess Peach is as much a symbol of charm and heroism as ever. I truly hope that Mario & Luigi: Brothership will serve to usher in many more games in this series in the future.

Reviewed On Nintendo Switch - OLED

Pros

• Entertaining gameplay bringing back the Mario & Luigi RPG series
• Colorful cast of new characters in a fun setting
• Gorgeous art style

Cons

• Slow loading screens and waiting in cutscenes
• Tedious amount of battles
• Repetitive music can get old fast