Mario & Luigi: Brothership hands-on: the fun, whimsical, and tactical Nintendo Switch RPG I’ve been waiting for
The long-awaited Mario & Luigi RPG pairs classic controls and humor with inventive strategy
Pros:
✅ 🍄 Great mix of classical mechanics and new ideas
✅ ✏️ The New cartoony art style fits the comedic and animated tone
✅ 🎭 Smart, witty, and funny written dialogue
✅ 🎮 Bros. specific buttons make combat more active
✅ ♟️ Battle Plugs add much more variety and strategy
Cons
❌ 🔀 Bros. specific buttons can make the first few hours challenging
❌ 😣 Timed button presses are hard to nail for the uncoordinated (me)
Mario & Luigi: Brothership comes nearly a decade after the series’ last installment, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam and it feels like the revival the series needs. The new action role-playing game releasing on November 7th brings back the whimsy, humor, and a return to its classic control scheme. But aside from the return to form, I love the new deeply shaded art style and expressive animations. Combat also feels deeper with the addition of Battle Plugs that can augment your basic attacks with group damage, status effects, and other bonuses.
📝 The premise. Mario & Luigi: Brothership starts with the titular pair getting sucked into the world of the mystical world of Concordia, which has been split into a massive archipelago with dozens of islands. From there, Mario and Luigi set off on a mission to reconnect the islands with the mystical Uni-Tree by helping the Concordian residents find their hair wax, reuniting families, and pulling off timed dance moves. You’ll journey the great seas on the Shipshape Island, a moving island vessel, and over time, gather crewmates and vendors.
✏️ Cartoon style. I love Mario & Luigi: Brothership’s new cartoon style. It looks a bit like cell-shaded graphics but with darker lining and more vibrant colors. The cartoonish art style also lends itself well to the two brother’s animated expressions, especially for Luigi’s sillier antics.
🤣 Barrel of laughs. Brothership’s writing is equally as light and irreverent as its art style. I laughed and grinned throughout my demo at things like my companion constantly telling people it's not a pig (or a bug) or the absurdity of fixing a deejay's bad hair day with hair gel as a main quest. All the dialogue is smart and witty, with lines like “Your groove had a growdacious effect” and “A groove is shared by one and all. The vibe is strong.”
🤔 Luigi Logic. Luigi also brings laughs as the goofball of the pair, but he is given more time to shine with a new mechanic called Luigi Logic. Basically Luigi will prompt you to press the L-bumper when his overactive imagination calls for him to solve a puzzle or smash some boxes for coins and items. Mario and Luigi will also pull off some inspired bros. moves together for traversal. One move has the brothers tango and spin into a flying saucer to traverse over large gaps.
🛠️ Old school battles. Brothership’s combat reintroduces bros. specific buttons from previous Mario & Luigi games. You individually control Mario and Luigi’s jumps with B and A, respectively, or their hammer strikes with Y and X, respectively. Hitting timed button presses is crucial for pulling off stronger attacks and evading, but it’s easy to mix up and take a lot of unnecessary damage in your first few battles. It honestly took me half the demo to acclimate to this, but it makes combat feel more active than your usual turn-based RPGs.
♟️ Expansive Strategy. Beyond the familiar Mario & Luigi combat, Brothership introduces Battle Plugs to add attack, defense, or dodge effects to your basic moves. Battle Plugs can make it easier to deal with spiked or flying enemies, extend the timing window for dodging, and automatically use items to heal or revive yourself.
🥊 Laying down the hurt. Specific options like Kaboom Attack add group damage to every jump attack, while Surprise Iron Ball adds extra damage from a spiked metal ball whenever you land an “Excellent” timed attack. Battle Plugs can also combine together to produce more powerful effects; like Kaboom Attack and Surprise Iron Ball together create a special Iron Ka-Ball effect that drops drop spiked metal balls on all enemies hit by the shock wave of a Kaboom Attack.
🐍 No infinite ammo bandana. Battle Plugs are an interesting upgrade since they’re not unlocked, but craftable. So you can pick and choose the options that work for your playstyle. Battle Plugs also are not infinitely reusable. Instead, they have a set number of uses that recharge over time, so you’re forced to constantly switch between different options and try new combinations. It’s a refreshing change from most RPGs that allow me to coast through combat using my most powerful combos over and over again.
I was only able to try out a few Battle Plugs during my demo, but there’s a long list of them, including:
🪩 Surprise Iron Ball: When you get an EXCELLENT rating with a Jump or Hammer attack, an iron ball drops on the target to deal more damage.
🥾 Surefooted Guard: Prevents the effects of Trip and Dizzy.
🍄 Auto Mushroom: When your HP becomes low, will automatically use a Mushroom.
✴ Anti-Spike Specialist: Hammer attacks against spiky enemies are guaranteed critical hits.
🥊 Empower Counters: Turns jump counters into ground pounds, and charges up hammer counters to do an extra 30% damage.
🪽 Anti-Flying Specialist: Jump attacks against flying enemies are guaranteed critical hits.
📦 Loot Booster: Makes it more likely that defeated enemies will drop items.
💫 Dizzifying Attack: Increases the damage you deal with Jump and Hammer attacks by 15%. Also, an EXCELLENT rating can make a target
🐚 Performance Bonus: Restores 50% of BP used on a Bros. Attack that earns an EXCELLENT rating.
🗺️ So much to explore. Brothership also promises as much variety with the islands you’ll be exploring. During my demo, I explored two early game locations, including the dancing-focused Twistee Island and the carnival-themed Merrygo Island. Beyond that, there’s also Lottacoins Island, which will supposedly be inhabited by depressed office workers as the economic hub of the world. Concordia is a massive map with many more themed islands to explore. I was blown away by how massive the world map looks when fully zoomed out.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership will be released for the Nintendo Switch on November 7, 2024.
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.