Mario & Luigi: Brothership Review

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fast Facts

Brothers in Arms

I have grown up with this pair of plucky plumbers. I have played just about everything they have been in, from Karts to Golf and from Platforming to RPGs, I have been there for it all. Even though we have had a few decent RPG remakes recently, we are certainly due a new Mario and Luigi game. Welcome to Mario and Luigi: Brothership.

Unfortunately, due to things I will cover in this review, Brothership gets in its own way too much to elevate it into a ‘must-play’ game among the plethora of Mario titles or even amongst the Mario RPG line of games. It’s such a shame because it has a few things going for it that I genuinely liked.

Sailing Slowly to the Game’s End

Firstly, let’s touch on the story and general formula of the game. Not only did I find the story of Brothership too long, too generic, and uninspiring, but the constant handholding throughout was downright heartening. I mean, the idea of discovering islands on a steerable island-like ship and reconnecting them all together with light sounds great, but its mechanics were merely lacklustre.

The ship-based travel was slow and ran on rails, the design of most of the islands was drab and unremarkable. Having NPC’s and the game itself spell out most of the game’s interesting puzzles was frustrating. Not only that but the performance of the whole thing was spotty at best.

Right, rant over, let’s get on with the review. In Brothership Mario and Luigi are charged with fixing a fractured world. They must discover new islands on their steerable, floating boat island, find the island’s lighthouse and reconnect them all together. Mis-steps aside, the story is unique and the nautical theme is interesting, I just wished it was implemented better and the story had more interesting beats to it.

Gibbering NPCs

From a gameplay standpoint, there’s nothing players of any of the Mario RPG games will find that strays too far from the games well trodden path. Collect items, upgrade your gear, solve puzzles and battle enemies. There are a few things to distract you like side-quests and sub-plots but overall it’s all generic Mario RPG fare. Between glimmers of fun were too many pointless, elongated conversations with NPCs that kept going over the same information. That paired with the handholding, got to me quite quickly.

One thing I did love was the battle system. It was the major force that dragged me to this game’s long, overdue conclusion. You control Mario and Luigi in turn-based battles. You know, the usual stuff, blocking, attacking, special abilities and whatnot. What I loved though was the combination of team-up ‘Bro’ moves and how the whole thing had a rhythmic element to it.

Battling Bro’s

When in battle, dodging attacks and how powerful your attacks are depend on your button presses. It makes the battles seem more interactive and a hell-load more tactile and immersive. You sometimes miss attacks if you don’t hit those combinations correctly. Each brother uses a different button and sometimes, just sometimes, it leads to confusion, which I appreciate. It gave the whole system an extra dimension to the normal, run-of-the-mill, turn-based battles. The whole battle system is well thought out and well implemented, a shining light amongst an otherwise dull-ish affair.

Graphically, while everything is, well, you know, Mario, I found most of the NPCs quite boring, in both character and presentation. As I said earlier too, most of the islands, while looking pretty enough were just very plain. All this paired with a very up-and-down framerate made the whole thing feel and look substandard and for a Nintendo game, this is very disappointing indeed.

Disappointing to Play and Write About

Overall then, as you can probably tell, I was unimpressed with Brothership. I wanted a new Mario and Luigi game quite badly and as this shows, you should probably watch what you wish for. It’s lacking in story, presentation, a stable framerate and the constant hand-holding is infuriating. The only saving grace is that the premise of it is interesting and the battle system is massively entertaining.

If you are looking for a Mario-based RPG, I would buy one of the recent re-releases instead, you will get a lot more out of it. This review hurt me to write, I am a massive Nintendo fan, and I hold their games and their quality control dear to my heart. In my opinion, this title is a certain misstep. I am off to cry into my copy of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

3 out of 5

3

If you want to buy Mario & Luigi: Brothership, you can from the Nintendo eShop here.