Game review: Mario & Luigi: Brothership
Nintendo has been on fire in 2024, which is going to be the last year for the Nintendo Switch console before its successor releases sometime next year. It's near the end of the year, but Nintendo has released yet another Switch exclusive called Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
Nintendo has dived into the turn-based RPG a lot, releasing the Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remakes earlier this year. Mario & Luigi: Brother is yet another turn-based RPG, but this entry is entirely original, with an all-new story featuring the famous plumber brothers.
In this game, Mario and Luigi are sucked into a mysterious portal where they are transported to a new world called Concordia. Concordia used to be a world where all of the islands were united by the big Uni-Tree. However, disaster strikes and the islands have all separated. It's now up to Mario and Luigi to unite everyone back again.
What I admire most about Mario & Luigi: Brothership is its 2D art style for its beautiful graphics. Nintendo has been pretty smart for not using 'realistic-looking' graphics for the aging Switch console, so 2D visuals help hide the hardware's limitations. The graphics look good no matter if you're playing on a handheld or hooked up to the TV.
Not to mention, fans of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker will love the game's setting, too. This is because players can commandeer an island called Shipshape Island that acts like a sailing ship. In order to find new islands to unite, you have to literally sail around the high seas to seek them out.
Gameplay-wise, Mario & Luigi: Brothership may have one of the best turn-based RPG combat systems that I have ever seen. I have a love/hate relationship with turn-based combat systems because sometimes they feel unfair to the player.
For example, Final Fantasy X is one of my favorite games of all time, but sometimes the combat system can frustrate me. Aside from featuring random battles, the enemies can kill off your entire party in one turn. You have no chance to fight back if the enemy attacks first and wipes everyone out!
The combat system in Mario & Luigi: Brothership is much better and less frustrating. There are no random battles whatsoever because you can initiate combat by literally running into enemies on the battlefield. Enemies also don't respawn as well, so they stay dead unless you visit the island again.
The best part about the combat, though, is that both Mario and Luigi can dodge or counterattack enemies during battles! If an enemy attacks the brothers, the player can press either A or B on the controller, and they will jump and dodge attacks. In special cases, you can even counterattack enemies, meaning you don't have to sit and eat attacks like in Final Fantasy X.
The fact that you can dodge attacks in this game means you don't have to spend so many coins on mushrooms to replenish health or anything like that. Dodging means it allows me to spend my money more on better weapons for attacks and better equipment for armor. I remember playing older Final Fantasy games and spending way too much money on potions all the time…
Another cool thing about combat is that Mario and Luigi can do some tag team-style moves on enemies to do more damage. The player has to do some quick time events (QTEs), and if successful, you can defeat enemies at a faster rate. Some even more special moves can be made during boss fights, too.
Aside from just roaming around the islands and fighting enemies, Mario and Luigi will also have to solve some puzzles while they are traversing the environments. Sometimes there might be a high ledge for them to reach, or they have to open up a locked door or something like that.
To make exploration and puzzles easier for young players, Luigi has a special ability in this game called 'Luigi Logic.' By pressing the L button, Luigi can give you clues to solve puzzles or come up with new ideas. In one instance, Mario and Luigi can perform a rotating ballroom dance to fly like a helicopter to get to higher ledges. The 'Luigi Logic' can also be handy during some boss fights as well.
Even though I enjoyed a majority of what Mario & Luigi: Brothership has to offer, the game still has some minor flaws. For one thing, I still feel 'sailing' to new islands is too time-consuming and boring. It can take a long time to get to a new location, and you're kind of forced to wait or do side quests before you're able to continue on to the main mission.
Speaking of the main story, some players may think Mario & Luigi: Brothership is too long despite having a simplistic narrative. The main story takes around 34 hours to finish, which is much longer than the 12 hours it takes to complete Super Mario RPG. That being said, most JRPGs are very long, so most players might not have a problem with this.
Despite being a bit too long, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is yet another excellent exclusive for the Switch console. The turn-based RPG mechanics are innovative, and the graphics are nice and colorful. This game is worth getting until we wait for the Switch 2 to come out in 2025.
Verdict: 8.5/10
