Mario & Luigi: Brothership Review — A Glorious Return for the Duo

The Mario & Luigi games have earned a reputation for being some of Nintendo’s best RPGs. Superstar Saga and Bowser’s Inside Story in particular, are two of the most popular Nintendo RPGs to this day, with quirky characters, great stories, hilarious moments and great combat. Mario & Luigi built a reputation for excellence in the RPG genre.

When Alpha Dream closed their doors in 2019, a lot of Nintendo fans (myself included), were shocked, and we wondered whether we would see one of our favorite RPG series again.

That’s why when Nintendo had their June 2024 Nintendo Direct, not only did they show us Metroid Prime 4 for the first time (glory hallelujah!), a brand new 2D Legend of Zelda game with Zelda as the main protagonist (a bigger hallelujah!) biggest surprise was the introduction of a brand new Mario & Luigi game called Brothership!

As excited as we were, Nintendo fans were left with a lot of questions. Were we dreaming? Did Nintendo make a new Mario & Luigi game? Who was making it? And, will it have the same magic as earlier titles without original developer Alpha Dream? Now that I’ve finally gotten my hands on it, I can answer those questions and more!

New Game, Same Magic

Nintendo likes to hide the developers of their games until the game launches, so we didn’t know who was making the latest Mario & Luigi entry. It turned out to be Acquire Studios who made a name for themselves by making the brilliant old-school flavored Octopath Traveler games. The Octopath games are filled with old-school JRPG goodness from turn-based battles to quirky characters. Acquire seemed like the perfect fit, plus they got a lot of former Alpha Dream developers, so that helps a lot! You can tell from the get-go that they understand Mario & Luigi from the hilarious beginning, to the adorable characters, colorful art style, and
deep, but easy to understand combat. This is Mario & Luigi the way we remember!

The combat remains the same, but there are some new wrinkles in the formula to keep it fresh. Luigi Logic is my favorite new mechanic. When Luigi glows and you see the “L” button appear, press it and Luigi will do one of many actions. He can pull turnips for coins, use his hammer to bust rocks, and help find hidden items. This helps make finding objects and solving some puzzles easier, but you don’t have to use Luigi Logic for those of you who want to do it on your own.

During battles, you can do the same time-based combos which has always been cool, but now you can make the fight easier if you fall in battle. This is optional, so you don’t have to, but this nice touch makes it easier for newbies and casuals to get into the game. I personally didn’t use it, but for anyone who wants an easier RPG experience to focus on the story, this is a nice addition to the formula. Giving the game something old, and something new.

Divisive By Design?

One narrative that I’ve seen pop up in reactions over and over is how split gamers are on the art style and character designs. Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there is no objective answer, but I can give you mine. I love the art style and character designs, so I don’t understand what the problem is.

Some fans have argued that the world of Concordia feels generic, but I disagree. I find Concordia full of life, colors, and memorable locals. Each island has its own unique look and feel. Twistee Island and Heatfreeze Island don’t look the same, and each have their own unique locales and local residents to help set them apart from each other.

I also don’t understand why a lot of people had a problem with the characters. I found them to be funny, cute and full of personality. Connie makes a great main character (apart from the bros that is), Wilma sparkles with sass, and Snoutlet (who is “definitely NOT a pig!”) may be the best character in a Mario RPG. It’s these little touches that give the characters depth and nuance. The main villain and their sidekicks provide many laughs along the way. Although they do cause some serious trouble. I understand that people may not like the plug-in aesthetic for the characters, but if you get to know their personalities, you’ll find a lot to love about them.

The other divisive design in the game is having Mario and Luigi keep the same button for their attacks. The button commands never change. Mario attacks with A, and Luigi with B. When Mario and Luigi do a combo attack, it’s Mario, A, Luigi B and back to Mario with A. It sounds simple, but some gamers have hit the wrong button sometimes, and they say it comes off as confusing. I admit, I’ve smashed the wrong button a few times, but with some practice you’ll get the hang of it, so I don’t find this a deal breaker.

Whenever developers try something new with a familiar franchise, they do risk alienating some long-time fans. While I do understand this, I also think trying new things and art styles keeps the series fresh and can bring in new fans. I admire developers who aren’t afraid to shake up the formula and keep the franchise from becoming stale. I found the new art style, character design and button pressing a nice change of pace.

It’s A Whopper!

Mario & Luigi: Brothership’s main adventure will take up to 35 hours to beat and up to 45-50 hours to complete all side quests and find all the items. You’ll see Luigi’s Logic pop up a lot , just like Echoes of Wisdom (which I adore), there are hundreds of secret blocks, items and coins to find.

For people who thought Super Mario RPG was on the short side, you won’t be saying that about Mario & Luigi: Brothership. The size of each area is huge. If you want big areas to explore, have you come to the right game. Each area has around 3-5 Islands with a different amount of Islets in each area. There are a total of 44 Islands and Islets combined! The Islets aren’t that big, but the Islands are and you’ll be a busy beaver finding items, secrets, and doing the side quests. The boss battles are also amazing, with the final fight being a particular favorite in the Mario and Luigi series.

Thankfully, the game doesn’t overdo it and unnecessarily pad things out. Some modern RPGs can overstuff their games to the point where it becomes a chore to play, and Mario & Luigi: Brothership doesn’t fall into that category. It’s nice to see an RPG not stuff too much into a game. Just because a game has thousands of story choices, or items, etc., that doesn’t make it great. If the content is filled or bogs the experience down, that’s not a good thing. Sometimes, less is more.

It Ain’t Perfect!

I love the look of Brothership. Each Island looks gorgeous with stunning detail, wonderful lighting and very good textures and it runs at a consistent 1080p, but the frame rate does stutter a little and it makes no sense. The drops occur when there’s no combat going on and when there’s not a lot of characters on screen. This didn’t get too bad, and it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen and it can be annoying. This isn’t like Tears of the Kingdom or Xenoblade Chronicles 3 where the landscapes are huge. Mario & Lugi’s locales are big, but they’re not all on the screen at one time. Hopefully a patch will come soon to fix this.

While I love how organized the items and mission objectives are. I found navigating the map would’ve been easier if they had given the map it’s own button. Maybe this is a me issue, but I found it a little clumsy to use the right stick to look at the map. Yes it does streamline all your info into one screen, but I wish they had done a separate button. That would’ve made it more convenient for me.

I love the music in the game. It has a nice tropical feel and each island gets it’s own flavor of music, I don’t find these tunes stand out as much as Super Mario Bros. Wonder or Super Mario Odyssey’s brilliant soundtracks. The score is very good, but I wish there had been a few more hummers and toe tappers.

Nonetheless, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a welcome return for a series we never thought we’d see again. While some people don’t like the new art style or characters. I found them to be charming, gorgeous and memorable. The boss fights are fun, and never too tough. The gameplay is fast, fun and easy to learn, but hard to master. All of these are trademarks for Nintendo games.

For a series that a lot of us was worried could be dead, Brothership marks a welcome return to a classic franchise with tons of Islands to explore, a thoughtful story with funny moments and cute characters remind us why we fell in love with this franchise to begin with!

SCORE: 9.5/10