Mario & Luigi: Brothership Review
Sailing for Brotherly Bonds
When the development company AlphaDream closed down in 2019, the future of the Mario & Luigi series was left hanging. After nine years since the last original game in the series and five since the remake of Bowser’s Inside Story, a new game has finally come out, this time developed by Acquire. Being a long-awaited game, Mario & Luigi: Brothership has a lot to live up to, especially after how underwhelming Paper Jam was. While the game is certainly not without its flaws, its fun battle system, pleasing aesthetic, endearing story and characters, and the series’ trademark quirkiness make Brothership a return to form for Mario & Luigi.
Brothership starts off with the Mario brothers, as well as many other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom, suddenly being transported to another world called Concordia. This land was once one continent, but after the central pillar of the world, the Uni-Tree, was destroyed, Concordia broke apart into several islands. The Mario brothers are tasked with connecting these disparate areas to Shipshape Island, where a new Uni-Tree was planted, in order to reunite Concordia. Along the way, Mario and Luigi must fight back against the forces of the enigmatic Zokket, who fractured Concordia for their own nefarious purposes. Like the prior Mario & Luigi games, the story is not complex or all that original, with predictable plot twists. There are a few surprises, but what this story excels surprisingly well at is its theme of the power and importance of bonds. It’s an obvious, even cheesy theme, but the way the game handles it is actually quite heartfelt. For instance, one early island has the brothers help a family to reunite after the calamity separated a mother from her two children. Later in the game, they strengthen their familial ties with a character who is an estranged, adopted nephew to the mother.
The new characters are also endearing and memorable, and several even undergo their own simple development arcs. For example, Technikki is a genius inventor who at first is a bit stoic but does become closer to the brothers and other characters on ShipShape. She also has an inferiority complex when it comes to her rival. Mario and Luigi can help her to overcome this depending on certain in-game choices. The humor in Brothership is less wacky than in prior games and it’s arguably less funny, too. The writing is also less snappy, although it is still fairly good. Players may not laugh out loud at Brothership, but there are still plenty of quirky characters and scenes that will elicit a few chuckles.
He says that, yet he likes to use pig-based puns.
The combat in Brothership is the best it has ever been and is largely unchanged from prior games in the series. Battles are turn-based, with the use of timed hits for attacking, dodging, and counterattacking opponents. The more precise the press, the better the outcome. Bros. Attacks are special moves that deal a lot of damage, and several even hit multiple targets. Normal attacks make regular encounters engaging, and it’s gratifying to get an Excellent rating by timing the A or B button just right. Dodging and countering can be tricky, but damage can be reduced by having the brothers defend by holding the R button. Bros. Attacks can also be hard to pull off, especially the last few learned. While it is satisfying to get the timing right and deal massive damage with a complex Bros. Attack, players may prefer a simpler attack they are better at performing. To help with this, there is always the option to practice Bros. Attacks in the main menu. While the game’s battles tend to be easy, it’s fun to decide on the best move to use in each situation, and the best way to avoid damage and counter enemies. For series veterans, muscle memory may get in the way of attacking with Luigi, at least at the beginning of the game. Luigi now uses A to confirm battle menus, while still using B to perform timed hits, as opposed to B for both.
A new mechanic to Brothership is the Battle Plugs system. These items bestow various effects on the Mario brothers in battle when equipped. For instance, there are plugs to increase the likelihood of item drops and plugs that deal extra damage to certain enemy types. As the game progresses, the number of plugs the brothers can equip increases to a total of five, and they can even be swapped around during battle. Not only are these abilities useful, they can also combine in various ways for additional effects. Plugs have a limited number of uses before they must recharge, with more powerful plugs requiring longer charging times. Thus, there is a layer of strategy in deciding which plugs to use during which battles.
How the Mario brothers traverse the world of Concordia is interesting and rather different from earlier games. The boat-like Shipshape Island is capable of sailing along currents in a vast ocean made up of multiple seas. The ship can only travel in one direction on these currents to find the islands that have broken off from the original continent. From Shipshape, the brothers shoot themselves from a cannon onto the island, where they then must the traverse the area, fight enemies, solve puzzles, and help the locals with their problems. Once they reach the island’s lighthouse, they can connect it to Shipshape, after which the brothers can warp back to the island at any time. Like in earlier games, there are Bros. Moves that enable Mario and Luigi to traverse locations or find hidden areas, such as the UFO Spin, which has the brothers spin together quickly to hover across gaps. This time around, it’s Luigi who brainstorms the moves using his new Luigi Logic ability. He can also come up with ways to aid in puzzle-solving and even has brain blasts during certain boss fights. It’s rather exciting to hear him say “Leave it to me!”, which initiates a minigame that can greatly damage the boss and stun it.
Mario showing off the Kaboom Battle Plug.
For the first island, the player actually has to wait a few real-time minutes until it is in sight of the cannon. Fortunately, the developers saw how tedious this would be and, soon after, the ability to greatly speed up Shipshape Island is unlocked so that the player doesn’t have to wait as long. A way to warp to any point on the ocean map is also introduced very late in the game. Shipshape will even slow down when it gets near an island or other object of interest so that there is enough time to view it. This slow pacing is actually an issue in the first five or so hours of the game. Aside from having to wait to get to the first island, the first boss fight takes a while to reach and the first Bros. Attack is earned about five hours in. The game’s pacing improves greatly after this, although it does have a somewhat long ending sequence. As such, Brothership‘s pacing, while good most of the time, can feel uneven.
For being the first game in the series released on a home console, Brothership made the jump to fully rendered 3D cel-shaded characters and environments very well. It’s not the most visually impressive game on the Nintendo Switch, but it does replicate the game covers and promotional artwork from the series excellently. The brothers and several other characters are very expressive, both with their facial expressions and body language. The animations are appropriately cartoony and, overall, the graphics are very charming and colorful. There are some frame rate drops, particularly on Shipshape Island in the late game, but nothing too major.
Luigi Logic time!
Yoko Shimomura did not compose the music for this game, which is a first for the series, but it was instead scored by Hideki Sakamoto. The music is competent and fitting. The boss themes are appropriately exciting, with the best battle themes reserved for the end of the game. Sadly, the greatest tracks in Brothership don’t quite reach the same heights as Shimomura’s pieces in prior games. There isn’t much in the way of voice-acting, as most characters “speak” with odd noises that vaguely sound like voices. While there are mostly non-verbal vocalizations like sighs and yelps, the brothers and one or two other characters do get a few fully voiced words and phrases, which are quite well done. The brothers’ iconic Italian gibberish is back and is as entertaining and charming as ever.
The game has bit of a slow start, but despite this, I thought the pacing was mostly good, especially compared to Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Despite a few other issues like the frame rate and some mild frustration with muscle memory, Brothership is one of the better games in the series. It’s fun, it’s engaging, it’s creative, and it’s even full of heart. It may not be as laugh-out-loud funny as prior games, but for the first time, this game went for an overarching theme and a good but basic message of bonds and connections. It certainly warmed my heart. If Acquire were to continue developing Mario & Luigi games, I’d say it’s in good hands.
A story with an overarching theme and heartfelt moments
Best version of the Mario & Luigi battle system yet
Luigi Logic moments in and out of battle are a hoot
Slow start, uneven pacing
Not as laugh-out-loud funny as prior games
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