Mario & Luigi: Brothership Review | A Big Job for a Pair of Plumbers

Mario and Luigi are one of the most iconic duos in gaming history. So, what could go wrong with these two icons working together to save the day once again? Not too much, apparently! But, admittedly, it’s not all shiny sprites and rainbows either.

This Time, On Mario & Luigi…

Mario and Luigi are far from your regular plumbers. They often find that the fate of some world has fallen into their hands. This time, the vast world of Concordia has split into several different disconnected islands, and it’s your job as Mario and Luigi’s puppetmaster to reconnect them all.

You spend a good chunk of the adventure sailing around on a massive floating landmass called Shipshape Island, making your way from island to island, solving whatever problems each location has, and ultimately plugging them back into the mainland to reconnect them.

It’s a charming and heartwarming premise that serves as a perfectly reasonable driving force to the adventure. The overarching themes of isolation and the importance of family, friends, and a network of peers are pleasant enough to play through, but it isn’t the most groundbreaking or gripping story of all time.

There is a decent amount of repetition as you have to revisit the islands more than once throughout the 35-hour campaign, which doesn’t necessarily add that much in terms of value. I do wonder if the experience would have been more impactful without the fluff of having to revisit the same locations multiple times. But this is a small gripe, and exploring in Brothership is still a joy, even if it was somewhere I had visited before.

The Lands of Concordia

Exploration is one of the best parts of Mario & Luigi: Brothership. The islands are full of interesting puzzles that masterfully walk the line of being simple yet still entertaining, and the world is rendered in such a cheerful, colorful art style that it’s hard not to feel cheerful yourself wandering through it.

I do, however, wish that the character sprites had a little more depth to them. The background itself is wonderfully three-dimensional but compared to that, the sprites fall a little flat. The character models themselves are more two-dimensional with a thick, black outline, and feature very little shading compared to the backdrop.

It almost reminds me of an attempt at an HD-2D sort of deal that didn’t hit the mark. But it was clearly a stylistic choice, so it’s fine really. I just can’t help but feel like it would have looked a little more polished if the sprites enjoyed as much attention as the background.

Full of Adventure

There has to be some platforming involved wherever Mario is concerned, and while Brothership is certainly nowhere near as platform-heavy as other Mario titles, there is still enough to keep things interesting. One of my favorite parts of the exploration in Brothership is the platform mini-games.

These mini-games give you a series of platforms to jump across. But rather than having them all accessible from the get-go, they are unlocked as you progress through the mini-game. And if you fall, you have to start all over again. Having to wait for Luigi to jump onto his platform before you jump onto yours makes the entire process far more entertaining than simply jumping from one ledge to another to reach your destination.

I found this same sort of charm while collecting Sprite Bulbs. Sprite Bulbs are small glowing orbs that serve a mysterious purpose when they are first introduced, but collecting them is essential. They live in little nests that, when pulled, release the Sprite Bulbs which immediately begin floating away.

You can collect them all yourself, but pressing L allows Luigi to join in. And although it’s probably not even meant to be a game, I always found myself rushing to collect more Sprite Bulbs than Luigi. These moments create a sort of sibling rivalry that adds so much charm to the overall feel of Brothership.

Sorry, Luigi

But as much as I loved the exploration, there is one gripe I have about it, and that’s the lack of control you have over Luigi. The past Mario & Luigi games gave you much more control over the green plumber. You actually had to play Luigi, whereas here, he is more of a party member and moves and jumps around on his own accord.

This deviation from the tried and true Mario and Luigi formula was a little disappointing, especially because sometimes Luigi can be, for lack of a better word, annoying. Mario and Luigi are a team, and they have to move around together. If Luigi falls too far behind, he yells out and Mario runs back to meet him. This occurred at several points where I was doing some sort of tricky platforming.

Luigi would fall behind, shout “Wait for me!” in Luigi language, and Mario would run straight off the platform I had slaved to reach, leaving me audibly cursing Luigi for being too slow. At least if I had full control over Luigi, it would have been my own fault if we fell. But poor Luigi always took all of the blame. Perhaps if he followed along a little closer, it wouldn’t be too noticeable, but the best and most obvious solution would be to give you full control over both Luigi and Mario.

The Shining Jewel

There is one thing I don’t have a single gripe about, and that’s the combat system. The combat system is the crown jewel of Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood. It follows the same overarching theme of the game – being simple but not too simple. It still requires some thought to keep you entertained.

Sure, it’s just a couple of timed button presses. But those button presses are flipped for each brother. So, if you’re not paying enough attention, it’s easy to forget what brother you’re controlling and press A instead of B, causing you to fumble your shot.

The battle animations are also extremely satisfying, giving the combat a sense of tangibility rather than a series of empty hits with no real impact. Some of them can get rather tricky, too, especially when it comes to the Bros. Attacks that require a saga of perfect button presses rather than the traditional three. These are relatively easy to mess up, especially when you first start learning and unlocking your Bros. Attacks. But when you get it right, they hit hard, and it feels good.

I’m also a big fan of the dodging system. Each enemy has their own attack pattern that you have to memorize so you know exactly when and how to avoid their blows. This brings some variety into the combat system. You’re not just swinging your hammer or jumping on heads. You also have to know your enemy, and mastering the timing for each one is extremely satisfying.

The combat system really starts getting interesting when you dive into Battle Plugs. Battle Plugs are essentially combat modifiers that have a whole range of different effects, some of which work together to form some formidable combinations. The Battle Plugs introduce a whole new strategic side to the battle system that brings a lot of depth to the experience.

It’s the Same Switch Song

Mario & Luigi: Brothership, of course, was released on the Nintendo Switch. And, of course, that calls for an obligatory paragraph about performance issues. The Nintendo Switch is an extremely outdated piece of hardware at this point, and Switch owners have pretty much resigned themselves to the fact that whatever game you play on it is most likely going to have performance issues in some shape or form.

But that doesn’t mean that it’s not disappointing when long load times and frame rate dips permeate almost every aspect of the game. That is the case with Mario & Luigi: Brothership, with the exception of the combat system that runs as smooth as butter, thankfully. At least you’re safe from the FPS drops there.

With any luck, the game will run great on the second iteration of the Nintendo Switch. But that’s not really helpful for anyone who owns the game right now. Thankfully, the performance issues are easy enough to ignore. There are much worse-performing games on the system, but it is still worth noting.

Big Shoes to Fill

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is charming, charismatic, lighthearted, and, most of all, fun. There are some gripes and issues here and there, but for the most part, it’s a great experience that is well worth playing. Is it a perfect game? No. But are you going to purchase it and be disappointed? Also no.

Any Mario & Luigi game has some pretty big shoes to fill, and Brothership does a wonderful job at filling them.

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