Mario & Luigi: Brothership review

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is, in many ways, a bit of a throwback to Nintendo of old. While the series has been dormant aside from some remakes, what we’re left with here feels almost like a soft reboot, but also a little bit like Nintendo from the Wii U-era in terms of the hand-holding and over-explaining. It may be no bad thing for a younger audience, but for the more experienced player, despite being a good time overall, Brothership won’t be without moments of frustration.

The story is as typical as you’d expect: Mario & Luigi have found themselves in a strange land that isn’t the Mushroom Kingdom, and have become embroiled in a plot to stop the bad guys from ruining Concordia, a world that is akin to a massive archipelago, split into currents and sections. You see, the world has been split asunder, and piloting the good Shipshape Island (part ship, part island), you have to go around reconnecting them along with your friendly “not a pig” pig, Snoutlet, who you meet early on and whom hides under Luigi’s hat, popping out to give you context for what’s happening regularly.

I mention this early because it’s maybe the biggest negative about the whole of Mario & Luigi: Brothership. Despite being full of mechanics and ideas, whenever one is reused, Snoutlet will pop up and tell you about it again, or the camera will pan to the issue at hand. Then you’ll regain control, walk forward, and likely be stopped in your tracks for another conversation. This starts early and you’d be forgiven for thinking “well, they’ve got to tutorialise”, but when you’re 25 hours in, and control is still being wrestled from you every few footsteps, it’s difficult to not wish for a lighter touch.

Mario & Luigi don’t speak, you see. They have a simlish-like voice, aside the obvious “Woohoo” and “Let’s Go!” comments. They will meet a new person and explain to them the issue in this dialect, and it’s consistent and constant in a way I’ve not seen in a game for a long time. I’ve no issue with lengthy dialogue sections, but Mario & Luigi: Brothership feels like it’s constantly saying a lot without ever saying anything at all, and I’d guess most people will be a few steps ahead, just waiting to regain control and actually play the game.

But when you’re allowed to explore and fight, you do so in a glorious, beautiful world. The combat is simple, but more malleable and interactive than almost all of the other Mario RPG style games you may have experienced. There’s a plug system that lets you create fascinating combos to do more damage, status effects, or even automatically heal outside of your actual turn that’s akin to the Paper Mario badge system. You will interact with every moment of your attack, and the brothers will work together at every turn to do damage.

Every single enemy type has a unique attack that you can dodge and counter, and it really is impressive how deep this runs. You’d expect it from unique boss encounters, but even generic enemies have differing counter moves you’re required to time correctly to negate damage and doll out your own counter-attack for every turn. Likewise, every single “Bros” move (the equivalent of magic attacks) has a unique animation, and I’m torn on whether these are slightly excessive or not.

As the difficulty and hours mount up, you will face off against numerous enemies all at once, and it makes sense to use your Bros attacks for these. But having an interactive and very lengthy scene to action the attack is something I can see winding people up as the hours progress. You can equip a Plug that lets you “auto-excellent” (read: not hit any buttons) if it is an issue, I guess, but it made me wonder if even the developers were concerned about some moments being over-animated.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t a game you’re going to get multiple party members in. It’s called Mario & Luigi: Brothership, and that’s the party right there. This means you’ll be upgrading your jump and hammer attacks from the get-go, and although you can extend the attacks with a Plug, you will need to get used to seeing the same animations an awful lot. The combat is fun, though, and as I say: malleable. Changing your plugs mid fight when they run out of juice can provide surprising moments, showing a deeper system is present than you might otherwise think. There are lots of combos to uncover, and they’re always exciting and interesting.

Exploration, too, is a good time. Each of the islands has its own type of inhabitants to chat to, and the gameplay varies things up from islands that might include a full on maze to explore, to islands that require you to become a sleuth and solve a crime. There are Bros Moves that are outside of combat that are basically MetroidVania elements, allowing you to go back to earlier islands and explore them more fully. Whether it’s turning into a flying saucer to cross a larger gap than you could jump, or rolling into a ball to enter a pipe, they’re fun and delightful to look at.

And that’s the thing: Mario & Luigi: Brothership is all about the character. It’s daft in the best way possible, with the bad guys constantly butchering the names of everyone, Luigi constantly falling asleep, or landing on his face as he is cannon-balled from Shipshape Island to a new land to explore. Luigi Logic moments will appear as Green Mario appears to be the actual smarter of the two brothers, coming up with solutions to problems and often being the one to discover new mechanics that let you get about. I’d say he’s the star of the show, but really, the characterisation of everyone on offer is the star of the show, and is the title’s strongest suit.

The main issue, then, is pacing. For every island that lets you explore and enjoy the beautiful painterly cel-shaded style, there will be one that stops you every few steps to over-explain. For every superb boss battle there will be an instant-fail stealth section before it. For every colourful new character you meet there will be a strangely shoehorned in rhythm mini-game you’re forced to play for the third time. There is an awful lot of repetition in Mario & Luigi: Brothership, yet there are also some touches in the animation and design that show a marked love for detail. It’s an often odd dichotomy that enraptures but also disrespects the time of the player.

But for all that, Brothership is a lovely, fun time. Yes, there are frustrating moments, and you could also argue the difficulty is far too easy to begin with, and spikes at random moments. It looks stunning, has gorgeous music, and a superb battle system. But while titles like Paper Mario are an easy recommendation, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a little harder to be certain of. I’m sure anyone would have a good time with it, but I can’t help feeling that there was an even better game possible given a little more consideration of the player, and a little less repetition overall.