by 
As the very first Mario & Luigi RPG to be released on a full-fledged home console, we did our best to discover whether or not Nintendo would take advantage of the Switch’s extra grunt to bring us the biggest and best. turn-based Bros. still romp in the form of Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
We had some concerns during our preview. Just as much as we do Love The new graphics and flashy additions to the series’ core combat made the initial areas quite small-scale and not as challenging or inventive as we had prepared for. However! Fear not intrepid explorers, because more tempting high seas tricks were, it turns out, waiting just around the corner. They have corners on the sea, right?
As you know by now, Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood sees everyone’s favorite plumbers take on the challenge of reconnecting the fragmented land of Concordia, where the entire Mario gang – and a number of other Mushroom Kingdom tag-alongs – reside after a mysterious warping incident. We’ve all been there.
And so our dynamic duo willingly fires themselves from a big yellow cannon aboard the game’s beautiful Shipshape Island hub to deal with an ever-growing threat. It seems that the residents of Concordia are struck by a gloomy illness, one that makes them feel alone, as if they are disconnected from everything and everyone around them.
It’s all about connecting in Concordia, you see, and Mario and Luigi must now travel to each fragmented land to reconnect the world in its entirety, while also defeating the great evil at the heart of what’s gone wrong . We really can’t give too much away as there are a lot of things we can’t talk about, but the adventure that follows genuinely surprised us with its size and scope, but also in terms of its challenge and, yes, that all-important variety.
Those already familiar with the series’ turn-based combat will feel right at home here, but we now have a system of attack and defense that addresses the whole connection and Brotherhood motif of the game, keeping you working together. more than ever before to get the job done. In the series you always had to command each brother to jump and attack on individual buttons – it’s the beating heart of the whole thing – but now these sequences of attack and defense have been fleshed out, making for incredibly rewarding battles that never really getting old.
When attacking; jump and hammer attacks are the backbone of what you do, with each brother playing his or her role as you rhythmically press buttons to make them hit their hammers as hard as possible, or get as much air into their jumps as possible for maximum damage . Then, for defense, you must time enemy attacks (of which there are many) to dodge and counter incoming shots.
Plus, we’re then adding Bros. moves, big, fancy upgradeable specials that let you team up to fire red and green grenades (and a bunch of other stuff we’re not allowed to reveal), as well as an all-new Battle Plug system that adds a lot of strategy to an already fascinating system.
Plugs initially seem like a pretty standard way to add small perks and boosts, things like extra defense to help with a tricky scrap or added AOE damage during a jump. However, it’s the extent to which this plug system evolves that really gives the game the kick it needs to rise above all previous entries.
Once you get a little further into the campaign, Battle Plugs become more interesting, giving you the ability to automate healing and BP potions so you don’t have to process them in turns, prevent elemental damage, drop surprise iron balls, and more . Then it introduces the ability to mix plugs together, resulting in things like loot boosts, anti-air specializations, and a bunch of stuff we haven’t even managed to unlock yet after 40+ hours of play. Yes, this is a big old game and it has depth.
Battle Plugs also allows you to directly adjust certain parameters of the game’s difficulty. You can take the sting out of enemy shots, automate dodges and counters, and those automatic healing and potions give you a big advantage. If it’s still too tough, or you just want to relax to the max, you can dial the difficulty down to a story-focused mode that turns our protagonists into unstoppable tanks in battle.
In addition to Battle Plugs, you also have Luigi Logic moments. You already know from our preview that Luigi’s moments of inspiration are used during explorations to break open boxes, press switches, and so on. This aspect is also explored in a lot of fun ways, but it can also be used during boss fights for some really fun, big moments. As you reach certain checkpoints during a boss fight, certain environmental details will catch Luigi’s attention, leading to the chance to deal major damage that can change the course of a fight.
All of these things make for a bright and busy, comedy-infused combat system that’s really great to dive into, one that’s bolstered by a selection of excellent enemies (there’s so much fun stuff around how the enemy variants change later in the game) , and an art style that makes for Bros.’s most emotional video game iteration. that we have ever seen. There’s so much detail and expression in the way this pair attacks now, in the way they dodge incoming shots by the skin of their teeth, and sweat and panic at the thought of what’s next. Luigi in particular is a constant source of joy with his awkward landings and anxious behavior.
It all fits right into the game’s whole idea of connecting on a more meaningful level, and we can connect just that little bit more with the characters of Mario and Luigi thanks to the OTT expressions the developers use in old-school anime use style. have chosen here, gives us.
And so the only piece of the puzzle left now is the real world of Concordia itself, and it turns out that’s the best and most surprising part of the whole thing.
We were honestly a little concerned after completing the first part of the impressively large ocean world. The islands we visited were certainly fun and colorful, but at that early stage it was all a bit monotonous and safe. So thank goodness that as Concordia opens up, as you discover new sailing routes while blasting around at full speed aboard Shipshape (a fun reef-spotting mini-game in itself), Mario & Luigi: Brothership raises the bar 100% and serves up a world that constantly gives us new mechanisms, environmental obstacles, twists and turns.
The islands and islets (mini challenge areas!) you map as you cruise around start to take on a Mario Galaxy-lite feel. Sure, there’s no full-on platforming or anything like that, but the different gimmicks, vastly different environments, and fun things to do outside of combat create a world and story that you’ll definitely want to see. its entirety. From rolling around on timed platforms like a very large Mario Bros. ball to switching from hot to cold weather in the blink of an eye to kill enemies, there’s always something new to do. Building paths, diverting lava flows, working closely with electricity (the citizens of Concordia are small sockets, after all) – there’s so much variety that you can stay completely connected.
Side quests can be completed at your leisure by the various NPCs you encounter, and these open up the replayability factor that comes to the fore when you revisit islands once you’ve connected them to Shipshape. Once you’ve linked them to your hub, you can return to find new paths, new areas to visit, and challenges to complete. There’s also a whole bunch of collectibles to be found, of course, and collecting everything that appears on your map and finding all the good gear and secrets takes a lot of cooperation to uncover the tricks behind islands that are uniformly good. designed.
Added to this ever-evolving creativity, we get a story that actually goes places, writing that keeps the comedic aspects of this series alive, and a menagerie of bosses keeping up the crazy challenges. We should also mention that there are a number of built-in achievements for you to complete, which is always a big bonus for us absolutely terrible Cheevo fans.
There Are a few negative points to think about. If you don’t like random encounters with the old-fashioned, turn-based RPG nature, then there’s a lot going on there. You can escape 90% of them without any problem, but there’s no easy or slick way to avoid these battles, as the game is more focused on whether you or your enemy strike first to get a foot up.
Equipment is also nice in terms of naming and there are plenty of cool items to find, but we can’t help but feel that it’s a missed opportunity not to have our appearance changed a bit. Boots, overalls and gloves that all look the same, it’s just a bit boring, really. We get it, and we know why it is the way it is, but the fun we could have here with gear that changes how you look! Maybe next time?
These minor issues aside, and with performance in both dock and handheld being decent apart from a few minor wobbles in busy areas, here’s what we have: easy the best Mario & Luigi RPG yet. The combat is sharp, the world-building is impressive throughout, the platforming and puzzles are clever, and there’s a lot of variety. Nintendo seems to keep finding ways to squeeze more and more magic out of this seven and a half year old console. You like to see it.
