Review: MARIO & LUIGI: BROTHERSHIP Sails on (Mostly) Smooth Waters

Earlier this month, Nintendo released Mario & Luigi: Brothership on the Nintendo Switch. The game was developed by Acquire and is the first game in the series since 2015’s Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam for the Nintendo 3DS.

This is my first foray into the Mario & Luigi series, but i’ve heard fantastic things about it so I was excited to give Brothership a go. Nintendo did provide me with a digital code for this review, but all thoughts are my own. If you want to play it you can purchase it from your favorite retailers including GameStop (affiliate link) and Humble (affiliate link) with an MSRP of $59.99.

The brothers return for a brand-new adventure on the high seas! When the Uni-Tree is destroyed and the world of Concordia is broken apart, Mario and Luigi must try to reconnect a fractured world, one island at a time.

The first thing you’ll notice with Brothership is the art style. The cel-shaded animation really pops and looks good. All of the characters look fun and lively and have personality which is always great to see in a game.

In terms of performance, I have not noticed any major problems with the game. Maybe here or there I notice something, but it has never been enough of a drop nor a consistent enough problem to warrant any complaints.

In terms of gameplay, Brothership is very similar to other RPGs. You walk around an overworld as Mario and Luigi and can interact with some objects such as blocks, crates, and buttons, but when you run into an enemy it switches to a turn-based combat system.

In the overworld, there are some puzzles and the like that you have to solve through a variety of means and you’ll unlock abilities as you progress that let you revisit certain parts of previous islands. Then, you get to combat, and in my opinion, this is my least favorite part of Brothership.

The combat of Brothership has a few things going against it in my book. First, you only have two characters (sometimes only one) and for the first few hours everything they can do is identical, just that Luigi doesn’t do it as well because he’s your defense/support character.

Eventually, the differences show up via Bros Moves, but you don’t want to constantly be using those since they use BP. This means that at least 80% of combat is telling Mario and Luigi to either use the hammer or jump attacks and about 50% of the time that’s dictated for you based on the enemies you’re facing (some enemies can only be hit with one or the other).

This makes the combat feel very monotonous and repetitive in my opinion. Combine that with every single attack and counter requiring good timing and it does get frustrating. I know that this concept is not new, especially in Mario RPGs, but sometimes I don’t want to worry about hitting the A or B button at the right time (I’m still not sure when that is sometimes) in order to complete a BASIC ATTACK!

I am also not a fan of the fact that AoE attacks are only available via Bros Moves or with a Battle Plug. This really makes the first several hours feel like a bit of a drag to me as I would get sucked into a battle with multiple enemies and I just want to continue the story.

That said, there are some cool things about combat in Brothership. Eventually you unlock Battle Plugs which augment various aspects of combat. Some of them involve automatically using a specific item such as a Mushroom when a trigger is met.

Others provide increased damage to specific enemy types and/or when a specific condition is met. Meanwhile, there are a few that have various effects such as making Excellent attacks have small splash damage or making it easier to perform counter attacks.

There’s quite a bit of variety and I like the Battle Plug system. Each plug has a different number of uses before it needs to be recharged for a set number of turns. Thankfully, it doesn’t take your turn to swap out plugs as needed during combat. That flexibility is incredible to have.

Another aspect of combat that I like in Brothership involves Luigi. Luigi Logic is an action that occurs during boss fights where Luigi will have a stroke of genius during the fight to use something in the environment to help him and Mario get an upper hand.

You technically don’t have to use it to win boss fights, but they do help a ton by either doing a ton of damage or inflicting some kind of condition on the boss to make them more susceptible to damage from what I’ve seen. Each one is unique and does require some timing skills that are unique to each Luigi Logic, but for something big like this, I don’t mind having to do a timing mini game.

How is the story in Brothership? Mario, Luigi, and other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom get transported to the world of Concordia which used to be a pangaea but more recently was separated into several islands. Mario (and subsequently Luigi) are tasked with helping connect all the islands together again.

As you play you run into the heinous (but silly) Extension Corps and must stop them. Granted, I have not finished the story (I’m about 10-11 hours into the game and just finished Lottacoins Island for reference), but I’m having fun. Is it the most deep and complex story? No. But it is good so far.

The characters you meet such as IDLE are a lot of fun as well. Plus, I like the characterization of Luigi. He is a bit of a scaredy cat and goofball struggling to stick the landings when you launch to each island via cannon, but he’s also creative (remember the Luigi Logic mechanic I spoke about earlier). There are moments in the overworld where Luigi will suddenly get an idea and it unlocks an ability such as the Spin Jump or Ball.

This brings me to what I think is the real star of Brothership: the music. Sure, the sound design overall is really good, but the music is incredible. When are we getting that added to Nintendo Music?

It does feel very jazzy and up tempo which are perfect for the game. Heck, just listen to the Battle Theme. I do find combat to feel boring at times, but the music slaps! This is definitely a point in the game’s favor, no questions about it.

Outside of combat, are there any other problems? Well, some people might notice performance problems more (based on a cursory Google search), but there are other areas that felt a little weak. It is a good three hours or so before the game really feels like it has begun.

The beginning does feel like a bit of a drag. In addition, you have to wait every seven levels to unlock new perks such as faster EXP gain, being able to equip a second accessory, or a stat bonus. I wish that these occurred a little more frequently. Also, I get annoyed in RPGs when my characters don’t level up at the same time which is made worse (for me) when there are only two characters.

I’m at a point in the game where Mario is probably a few hundred EXP ahead of Luigi and I’m not aware of any way (yet at least) to get Luigi caught up.

At the end of the day, Brothership is not perfect, but I have enjoyed most of my time playing it. I cannot compare it to other Mario & Luigi titles, but on its own, I think it’s a good game.

Many of my complaints are very subjective and there will be many who think that I’m crazy for complaining about them. That’s fair. On a personal level, I would give Brothership a 7.5/10, so we’ll go ahead and round it up.