[Review] Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading.

In this explanatory review, we’re covering Mario & Luigi: Brothership by developer Acquire:

2024 has been quite a year for Mario games on Nintendo Switch. While there hasn’t been any big AAA Super Mario titles, we have had the likes of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, Princess Peach Showtime, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and now an all new entry to the Mario & Luigi series in the form of Mario & Luigi: Brothership helps round out the year.

Now, fans of the Mario & Luigi series will most likely be quite conservative when it comes to Mario & Luigi: Brothership and it is not without good reason, and understandably so. You see, the series was originally developed by a video game studio called AlphaDream which unfortunately went bankrupt and ceased to exist back in 2019.

.This new entry is developed by another team called Acquire and they have a reasonably hard act to follow as devoted Mario & Luigi fans have been divided as to whether they should give the developers a chance or not with Mario & Luigi: Brothership. When the game was first revealed during a Nintendo Direct back in June 2024, public reception was quite mixed and consequent trailers and updates up until launch have done very little to sway the hearts and minds of AlphaDream fans.

With that taken into consideration, we hope to answer some of the questions that have been weighing on some folks’ minds with this explain & play review so everyone can get a better idea of what the game is about and if they will actually enjoy it or not.

So, firstly, let us cast off into the story of Mario & Luigi: Brothership. We find ourselves in the Mushroom Kingdom where Mario & Luigi are enjoying themselves when all of a sudden the brothers are whisked away to an unknown world via a strange vortex. They then become separated and Mario is left alone on an unfamiliar island.

The brothers eventually reunite though and discover that they have journeyed to the world of Concordia which used to be one united continent joined together by the Uni-Tree by an incredible energy called connectar. Unfortunately, the Uni-Tree mysteriously withered away, cutting off the connectar conection to the land of Concordia and it began to split up into separate islands. The islands, at the mercy of the ocean’s currents, began to float away ever further from the Uni-Tree. As Mario and Luigi are not ones to stand idly by, they volunteer to help reunite the land of Concordia once again with the help of Connie the Wattanist and Snoutlet.

In terms of gameplay, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is not disimilar to other Mario RPG’s like Super Mario RPG, the Paper Mario series and the other entries in the Mario & Luigi series. Combat is turn-based strategy with Mario, Luigi and their enemies taking it in turns to attack. Mario and Luigi can jump, use hammers, and kick shells at their enemies to do damage. As they do so, they can also administer combo attacks by pressing the A button when prompted as Mario and the B button for Luigi. It can be a little confusing to get into the swing of things, especially when it comes to Luigi as his attacks require B for the combos but you have to press A to initiate the attack. That said, the openings for each prompt are quite forgiving so you have around half a second or so to react and press the right button in time.

When the times come for enemies to attack, Mario and Luigi can dodge or block attacks to avoid or reduce taking damage. Dodging can be quite tricky to pull of if you are not familiar with your enemy’s attacks but once you learn their patterns and timings, you will soon be dodging hits like a pro and may even be able to counter attack as well. If you can’t get the timing down, you can always block attacks instead and reduce the damage you receive.

Upon defeating enemies and winning the battle, you can earn experience that will help you level up Mario and Luigi. By leveling up, their stats will increase to make them stronger. On the topic of increasing stats, you can also purchase gear to increase the strength of the Mario Bros’ Jump, Hammer and Defense but it will only increase their respective stats while their are equipped.

Of course, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is not solely combat focus but has plenty of exploration and puzzle elements with the main focus of the game being to reunite the islands of Concordia. To do so, the brothers must travel aboard Shipshape Island, which, as the name suggests, is an island in the shape of a ship. This particular island is capable of navigating the current’s of Concordia’s oceans thanks to it’s own Uni-Tree in the form of a sail. Mario & Luigi can use this island to find other islands so they can reach their lighthouses and reconnect them to the Uni-Tree on ShipShape Island.

Once the islands have been recconected, pathways will open up to new areas to be explored and may open up side quests that can reward the brothers with helpful items or gear. Speaking of side quests, there are plenty of NPCs all over Concordia that have requests for you to fulfill. Some requests are pretty open and can be completed anytime. Others, however, do have some limitations in regards to story progression. Once you reach certain points in the game’s story, some side quests will no longer be available to complete so do try to wrap them up while you can before progressing the story too much.

One thing that I should touch upon is that while you predominantly play as Mario and only really take control of Luigi during combat, he does have his uses outside of fighting. When exploring, you can temporarily split up from Luigi and get him to perform certain tasks, these can be anything from pulling up objects, smashing blocks or even collecting coins. Luigi also has a special feature called Luigi Logic that allows him to think of things to solve puzzles whilst exploring or even find weaknesses in tough enemies to deal heavy damage to them. Always pay attention to Luigi because you never know when he may think of something that may help you on your journey around Concordia.

As I come to the end of this Explain & Play review, it is time to address some issues and clear up any doubts you may have about the game. Mario & Luigi: Brothership has gotten a bit of a bad wrap and some of the stigma towards it is understandable while unfortunate. Long-time fans of the Mario & Luigi series are probably not going to enjoy this game as it doesn’t quite have the charm that made the other games such a joy to play. As for casual players or for players looking for a relatively simple Mario RPG game to get into, they might find Mario & Luigi: Brothership more accessible and much easier to get into.

I personally quite like Mario & Luigi: Brothership and while the combat is not overly complex, it is quite rewarding to pull of the combos and using skills to do heavy damage to enemies. I do find it quite enjoyable and while the charm and humor of the game can be hit or miss at times, it is still quite fun to play. The biggest problem that this game has it that there are already so many fantastic Mario RPG’s available on the system with Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario: The Origami King, and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door to compete with. All of them provide a wonderful experience which, makes it all the more difficult to put Mario & Luigi: Brothership above these already fantastic titles.

To finish up, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a decent enough game but it is not quite the pleasure cruise longtime fans have been wanting. If you are looking to dip your toe into the series, this is probably a good enough game to warm you up before playing other Mario RPG games.

Game Specifications:

Developer: Acquire
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Action, Adventure, Role-Playing
No. of Players: 1 (Single System)
Release Date: November 7, 2024
Price: $59.99
File Size: GB
Nintendo.com Listing