Mario & Luigi Brothership Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Features

Mario & Luigi Brothership is a must-play game for being among the most unique and creative RPGs on Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo clearly went 'all out' for Mario & Luigi's debut on a home console after previously only publishing the series on handheld consoles since 2003. As a result, Brothership reigns supreme as the most expansive game in the series. It features impressive gameplay, a heartfelt story, a stunning art style and the grandest journey in the series.

For gamers who may have waited 21 years to finally play the Mario & Luigi series, Brothership is well worth the wait and one of the best experiences on Switch in 2024.

Gameplay Impressions

Mario & Luigi: Brothership boasts a major expansion of the gameplay from Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario series. An active turn-based style becomes even more active with the ability to jump during enemy turns in order to dodge or use a massive hammer to counter attacks. Timing is crucial during combat beyond just dodging and countering attacks because pressing the correct button at the precise time will increase the player's damage output.

In the open world exploration and combat sequences, the player controls both Mario and Luigi. This works very well during exploration but it may be an adjustment period for some gamers to get comfortable during combat. For example, the player presses 'A' to initiate an action during combat and to choose which enemy to attack, which then when controlling Mario is easy to be familiar with because Mario is associated with the 'A' button. However, with Luigi everything's the same except he is linked to the 'B' button for attacking, dodging or countering, so it may take some muscle memory to get comfortable with switching to the 'B' button during these moments since most are used to pressing the 'A' button.

During exploration, players can attack enemies to initiate a battle. This will provide an advantage by chipping away at the enemies' hit points before entering battle. However, this is easier said than done as enemies are aggressive in the open world and may even have projectiles to initiate battle. While the player can initiate battle by jumping on an enemy or hitting an enemy with the hammer, it can be difficult at times to do so because of the angles and perspective during exploration. The camera is fixed on Mario's character with a limited view of the world while exploring. This will certainly be a point of contention among gamers, especially those coming from recent turn-based RPGs like Metaphor: ReFantazio where the player has more control of spinning the camera around to see different points of interest. However, to Nintendo's credit, the fixed camera creates a cinematic feel when approaching different points of interest, especially when the camera pans back to show more of the greater world.

During combat, Mario and Luigi can perform combo moves together, as if they were a wrestling tag team. These combos are showcased with awesome animations and can connect for massive damage. so it's vital to nail these timed sequences. During exploration, Mario and Luigi can also perform tag team moves to reach new areas. These animations are so well done that it's difficult not to wonder how amazing it would be if Nintendo developed a wrestling game similar to the WWF No Mercy and WCW/nWo Revenge games on N64.

There's a great upgrade tree, fun perks, useful gear and excellent economy system in Brothership. Over the course of the game, players will unlock different 'Challenges' that they can look to accomplish to unlock items to help Mario and Luigi. There's a lot of gear and passive buffs that are of interest so it'll make the gamer really think about how they want to level up Mario and Luigi in their game. It may be disappointing to some that there's no option to respec decisions when advancing to a new rank but that does add replayability for future playthroughs.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the gameplay is the Battle Plugs, which is somewhat similar to the badge system from Super Mario Bros. Wonder but far more enhanced. These Battle Plugs can enhance different elements of the combat. For example, one Battle Plug can cause an enemy to become dizzy, which will make them more vulnerable to attacks and lose turns. There's a ton of Battle Plugs and it will be very fun to see which gamers gravitate towards.

Although there is no difficulty option from the onset of the game, players can lower the difficulty for a specific battle if they fail that same battle after two attempts. Of course, players can also grind experience to level up and the game recommends taking the time to do so. It would certainly be nicer for newer or younger games to have difficulty options but Mario & Luigi: Brothership is still an accessible RPG thanks to this eventual failsafe trigger and some of the unique Battle Plugs that may assist with combat or item usage.

As far as other accessibility options, the text bubbles are large and easy to read compared to many games now that feature tiny text for subtitles and menus. The map system is great and includes clear points of interest. While there is no mini-map on the main screen during exploration like other open-world games, the player can open the menu and see the entire area map, which is extremely useful for exploration. Although there is no ship combat, it is fun to explore the seas for new islands and points of interest.

Otherwise, options are fairly limited. While the game does autosave in certain spots, the player must manually save at Save Blocks in the world. This is an old-school design approach that will likely be another point of contention among gamers as it would be preferred to be able to save at any point outside of combat.

Overall, the pacing of the game is very well done with the story beats and especially with unlockable perks. The gameplay and story gets better as the game goes on. It's impressive how the game never plateaus or regresses but instead just continuously improves as the adventure unfolds. Nintendo does a great job of incorporating many different side quests along with the main quests as the story unfolds, while also clearly defining when players should complete them.

Variety is one of the aspects Brothership excels with. There are so many different islands to explore with different enemy types. themes, puzzles and mysteries to solve. There's a lot of different enemies with their own defined movesets and animations. Throughout the journey, Mario and Luigi encounter many characters who are oozing with charm and personality, some of who have funny one-liners and quirks. Of course, there's a lot of easter eggs for fans of the Mario universe.

Brothership is among the most cinematic games Nintendo has developed. It features incredible artwork for the cartoon-style cutscenes and the in-game graphic style is timeless. During cutscenes, there's amazing camera angles to make it more engaging for players, which truly captures the grand nature of the epic adventure. The game simply looks fantastic in handheld mode on the Switch OLED and runs perfectly whether docked or in handheld mode.

Conclusion

Nintendo must be credited for its release schedule over the past year to build up to Brothership.

The release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Super Mario RPG remake in 2023, plus Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake in May, set up perfectly the release of Brothership. Those games allowed players to get acclimated to the combat mechanics, gameplay systems, puzzles and tropes that would be featured throughout Brothership. This game effortlessly takes those successful features to create a remarkably complete package that can be enjoyed by newcomers and veterans of the series.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is such an impressive effort by Nintendo that it feels like the swan song for the Switch even though Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has been announced for a 2025 release. However, to close out 2024, Nintendo manages to take Mario and Luigi to new levels of immersion and cinematography not regularly seen. Brothership is a must-play for Switch owners and will surely rival The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom as Nintendo's best game of the year.