It’s really hard to believe that Mario & Luigi: Brothership didn’t come out sooner. When last I spoke of a Mario & Luigi RPG, I had said that it felt like little more than 3DS life-support when all eyes were on the newly released Nintendo Switch. It’s almost hard to believe that the Switch has been around for seven whole years and is only now getting a fresh entry in one of Nintendo’s most beloved RPG franchises.
With Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and now Mario & Luigi: Brothership, this really has been a remarkable year for Mario-based RPGs. I wasn’t totally sure what to expect with this game since, as you may or may not recall, I wasn’t really the biggest fan of the last original entry into the series—and looking back on it I think I may have been a bit too generous to it. However, despite a few flaws, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a fantastic new adventure for our beloved brothers.
The story begins when Mario and Luigi’s brotherly bond opens a portal in the sky and sucks them, as well as several other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom into a new and strange world. After a brief separation, the brothers discover they are in the world of Concordia which used to be a vast collection of islands all bound together by the power of the Uni-Tree.
However, sinister forces known as Extension Corps have severed the Uni-Tree’s connection and scattered the islands across a vast sea. However, the brothers quickly meet Connie—a fledgling Wattanist, in charge of caring for a new Uni-Tree—and vow to assist her in reconnecting the islands of Concordia and putting an end to the Extension Corps’ plan once and for all.
As far as stories go, it’s fairly standard for a Super Mario Bros. experience—or even a Mario & Luigi RPG. Much like almost all its predecessors, it finds the brothers in a strange new land, needing to solve a crisis not directly involving the King of the Koopas. But, like its namesake, the theme of brothership runs deep through the narrative, since Mario and Luigi aren’t just connecting Concordia’s fractured island; they’re also connecting its people and prompting them to help wherever they can.
However, what I like about Mario & Luigi: Brothership is how it delivers its moment-to-moment storytelling in a more contained way that better suits the design of the Switch. Much like its predecessors, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is full of mini-stories that play out alongside the immediate quest the brothers are on in order to progress the main story. However, unlike its predecessors that usually placed the Bros in a massive world, Brothership has each area sectioned off like individual levels.
It makes each new island and subsequent story feel a lot more bite-sized and easily digestible. As I’ve said before, I always appreciate when a game takes its system into account when approaching game design. Not to say there was any reason why bigger, more grandiose RPGs and stories couldn’t be executed on a handheld system, but I always think it’s better to structure the story and design around a system that was made for easy pick-up-and-play.
“what I like about Mario & Luigi: Brothership is how it delivers its moment-to-moment storytelling in a more contained way that better suits the design of the Switch.”
Like almost all the Mario & Luigi RPGs, the narrative is lighthearted and has a good sense of humour about it. Every character—the Bros included—has a silliness to them that makes them incredibly likable and fun. This is enhanced by the game’s incredible visual presentation, which brings Mario & Luigi: Brothership to life in a way that no other in the series has achieved.
There are so many moments enhanced by a much more dynamic camera and increased animation, that it almost feels like it was inspired by The Super Mario Bros. Movie. This extends even further into the game, in a way we’ll get into in just a second. For now, let’s focus on the gameplay.
If you’ve played a Mario & Luigi RPG before, you’ll more or less know what to expect. Mario and Luigi traverse 3D environments, solving puzzles and battling enemies. Throughout the course of their adventure, they’ll learn Bros Moves which come in two flavours—useful for getting past hard-to-reach areas; and powerful for defeating hard-to-beat enemies. However, as I mentioned with the story, its got a bit more of a linear structure than previous entries.
Rather than freely moving around the world, Mario and Luigi sail on the massive Ship Shape Island. The island follows whichever current it’s currently set to, and players can choose to move between currents like a train set on its tracks. If a separated island is within view, Mario and Luigi will blast to it thanks to their handy-dandy cannon. Once there, players will explore and battle like they would in any other Mario & Luigi RPG.
It’s a unique approach to exploration that evokes Super Mario RPG—where levels are separated by a world map. It allows Concordia to feel like a sprawling, epic sea since you’re semi-actively moving around it, but it also allows every island to have its own unique style and vibe. Further playing into the handheld design, no island feels excessively huge so players can easily get through one without feeling too lost if they need to put the game down at a moment’s notice.
And since Ship Shape needs to actually travel along a current to reach any other island, players can explore linked islands to find any secrets they might have missed, or new paths that can be reached with Bro moves while waiting for the next new island to come into view. Despite that players can speed up travel along these currents pretty significantly, it’s a really unique design that allows the world to feel big while being divided into small portions.
Not only that but Mario & Luigi: Brothership includes more Western RPG mechanics, such as optional side-quests for the Bros to complete for bonus items. While every side-quest has its own mini-story, some of them include important plot information and can be missed if players advance the main story too far. So there really is quite a lot to do in between heading to each new island or progressing the story.
“…despite a few flaws, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a fantastic new adventure for our beloved brothers.”
Then there’s the combat which is not only as solid as ever but enhanced so much by the aforementioned visual improvements. At its core, it’s the same combat that’s defined the series—and almost every Mario-based RPG for that matter. However, the theme of Brothership runs into the combat as well. Unlike previous entries where Mario and Luigi would use their own singular Jump and Hammer attacks, only teaming up for Bros. Attacks, in this game even basic attacks require cooperation.
Not only does this add a bit of depth to the Timed Hits, since players need to alternate between Mario’s A button and Luigi’s B button; it adds a lot to the visual presentation as well. Fights feel like they have so much more dynamism since even the basic attacks are so much more animated and require both Mario and Luigi to be present. Naturally, the Bros. Moves really benefit from this as well, looking so much more like massive special attacks with added flair and camera angles.
One unique element that extends to both exploration and combat is the Battle Plugs—which plays really well into the game’s visual theming but we’ll get into that in a second. As players explore, they’ll find Sprite Bulbs which can be collected and converted into a source of energy called Lumenade. Lumenade can be spent on crafting Battle Plugs which provide various bonuses to the Bros during battle.
However, every Battle Plug has a certain number of usage charges and once they’ve hit their limit, they’ll need to recharge over a number of turns. However, players can swap different plugs into the Battle Charge during battle so they’re never left at a disadvantage. It’s an excellent system that incentivizes the aforementioned downtime exploration for tangible benefits in combat.
But the newest addition to Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the “Luigi Logic” mechanic. Every now and then, the Bros will hit a roadblock that seems impossible to clear. However, Luigi will get a sudden burst of ingenuity and will either direct the player to the way forward or engage in a hilarious QTE to solve the problem.
Luigi can also apply his Logic to certain boss fights, utilizing the environment and some quick thinking to perform devastating attacks that leaves his opponent open to massive damage. This genuinely made me smile not only because it’s a fun mechanic, but it adds so much personality to Luigi as a character. It feels a bit like an extension of the mechanics in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team—which itself was a massive love letter to Luigi.
However, this also plays into a bit of the gameplay that felt like a genuine letdown, and that is how little the player really gets to control Luigi. Mario & Luigi: Brothership attempts to evoke the classic design by having Mario’s actions mapped to the A button and Luigi to the B button, however, once you try to jump your first platform with both the Bros, you’ll quickly learn this is an illusion.
It was such a bummer to hit both buttons in sequence—as you would in the Mario & Luigi RPGs of old—just to see Mario jump the platform, and Luigi jump perfectly in place. As it turns out, players only really control Mario and Luigi performs most actions outside of combat, on his own.
I can imagine this was done out of a sense of convenience for the player—since there are several things players can command Luigi to do as an extension of Luigi Logic by pressing the L button, which I’ll admit is pretty clever—but it sacrifices a lot of the charm of having every Mario action mapped to a specific button and every Luigi action mapped to another.
This can actually affect the combat too. In previous games, when it was Luigi’s turn, selecting your attack was confirmed by pressing the B button—the one assigned to him. This made it easy to continue his Timed Attacks by pressing the B button once again. However, in this game, even for Luigi, you need to confirm choices with A, and then press B for his attack.
And since you now combine B and A since both the Bros are involved in each other’s timed hits, it can lead to unintentional mispresses. Maybe it might not be a problem for all players, but I know I messed up a few attacks because I was so used to confirming, then attacking as Mario, that I forgot you didn’t do the same for Luigi.
“I’ve talked a lot about the enhanced visuals, but it really is amazing just how incredible Mario & Luigi: Brothership looks.”
But honestly, this is a minor nitpick. It’s a bummer, sure; but it doesn’t take long to get past it and the amount of love shown towards Luigi throughout this game really does go a long way to make up for the reduced control.
I’ve talked a lot about the enhanced visuals, but it really is amazing just how incredible Mario & Luigi: Brothership looks. The game has a stunning aesthetic, with a cartoonish, cel-shaded look that does a lot with softer pastels as opposed to harsher primaries. I really love the way Mario and Luigi have a little touch of blue near their edges, it really gives them a unique look that sets them apart from everything else in the world.
Furthermore, I really like the visual theming of Concordia. The idea that everything is somewhat based on electrical appliances gives the world a creative sense of magical modernity and the game goes a long way with it. I really love how all the Concordians’ faces look like wall sockets, and even how a lot of the flora has a kind of electrical element to it.
The visuals are backed by an absolutely banging soundtrack that combines all manner of genres depending on the style and vibe of its corresponding island. Ship Shape has an upbeat, tropical theme highlighted by accordion, but punctuated by poppy trumpet. Whereas Twistee Island has a punchy 50’s-style rockabilly theme, with a few Frevo notes peppered in, that’s pure trumpet and saxophone.
The Battle theme is a particular standout—since it’s the track players are most likely to hear the most. It’s got a really funky jazz vibe that has a degree of intensity to it but still maintains the game’s lighthearted fun. While I still think I prefer the whimsical fun battle theme of Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, this one still did a good job of getting me psyched for every battle.
Despite a few flaws, I really enjoyed Mario & Luigi: Brothership. It feels both incredibly modern and authentic to its series predecessors. And while I don’t think it’ll replace either Bowser’s Inside Story or Dream Team in my heart, it certainly was a memorable adventure for my favourite plumbing brothers.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is available to purchase for $79.99 CAD.
