Mario & Luigi: Brothership Review

Nintendo’s been on an RPG hot streak since last fall. In that time, the company released the gorgeous Super Mario RPG remake, followed by the excellent Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake. Now, Mario & Luigi: Brothership ($59.99) sees the brothers take on a new adventure, and it’s excellent. The pair travel to a new land they must save from evil forces, hopping between islands along the way. It’s fresh, fun, and stands alongside the best titles in the RPG series, making it an Editors’ Choice winners for Nintendo Switch games. 

Connecting the Stranded Islands

Brothership takes the Mario Bros. to the land of Concordia. It’s a former continent shattered into islands after the destruction of the Uni-Tree, the giant plant at its center. Mario and Luigi find themselves on the boat-like Shipshape Island with a new Uni-Tree sapling and its keeper, Connie. They must reconnect the other islands to the Uni-Tree to make it grow while solving the residents’ problems stemming from their sudden isolation.

(Credit: Nintendo/PCMag)

I didn’t expect a Mario & Luigi RPG to be a thematic cross between Death Stranding and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, but it works. Brothership is a refreshing change from the series’ typical “find a certain number of magical items to stop a villain” plot. The seafaring adventure isn’t quite as wild a hook as the other Mario & Luigi games, but it’s a fun change in setting and context.

It helps that Concordia isn’t anywhere near the Mushroom Kingdom, so the characters and enemies are mostly different. Despite featuring an ocean-dwelling society, Brothership has a slightly electronics-themed world. Concordians have faces that look like power outlets, enemies often resemble plugs, and connecting the islands involves Mario & Luigi attaching the island’s giant electrical cable to the Uni-tree. It’s a specific and consistent enough aesthetic to give Concordia much more identity than the mushroom- and bean-themed characters featured in most Mario & Luigi titles.

(Credit: Nintendo/PCMag)

The Mario & Luigi Dance

Despite the new plot and setting, Brotherhood’s controls are exactly what you’d expect from a Mario & Luigi game. You guide the pair (Mario in front, with Luigi mirroring his actions) while jumping and hammering to solve puzzles. However, you can send Luigi out independently to perform certain tasks separate from Mario. For example, he can hit a switch to move platforms so Mario can navigate an area. That usually opens a gate or lower stairs so Luigi can reunite with him.

As the game progresses, the brothers gain new abilities to solve puzzles and reach harder-to-access areas, usually from forms that combine the two in amusing ways. They can hold each other in a waltz and spin into a UFO shape to hover over long gaps. Likewise, they can roll into a ball to get under obstacles.

These new moves often come directly from Luigi. The less famous brother is struck by bouts of inspiration that let him figure out how the two should move forward. It’s a nice change that gives Luigi more identity as the less brave but more thoughtful brother.

(Credit: Nintendo/PCMag)

Combat resembles other Mario & Luigi RPGs, with basic attacks causing the brothers to work together. For example, you can make Mario jump on an enemy and then make Luigi fling him back at the foe for a second hit. Special moves are a bit more complicated because they’re essentially mini-games. In one instance, you alternate between Luigi throwing bombs and Mario hitting them with his hammer to nail enemies.

If either brother is knocked out, the other can’t power up his attacks or use skills. As a result, you must prioritize getting the KO’d one back on his feet by using a recovery item. It’s standard Mario & Luigi fare, making fights longer but more active than most turn-based RPG systems.

(Credit: Nintendo/PCMag)

You also explore the ocean. This involves navigating a world map by selecting different looping currents. Shipshape Island will take the quickest path to the current you want to reach, so you can see if there’s a nearby island or reef.

When approaching a location of interest, you use the cannon telescope to identify the new spot and head toward it. It’s an extra bit of gameplay that makes Brothership feel more open than other Mario RPGs. New currents only open after you complete the main quests on certain islands, so it’s still a fairly linear experience. The exploration isn’t nearly as mechanically engaging as Wind Waker’s sailing.

(Credit: Nintendo/PCMag)

Side Quests

Brothership is a surprisingly large game for a Mario RPG, with more than a dozen large islands and a few smaller islands. It will take nearly 20 hours to beat the game, which doesn’t factor in the many side quests. The side quests are usually short errands that send you back to an island you already visited to talk to a character and maybe fight a monster.

They don’t offer compelling rewards, though. Although you’ll occasionally receive a good piece of equipment or a bean that permanently improves Mario or Luigi’s stats, most side quests offer dull rewards like consumable healing items. They at least let you see more of Concordia’s quirky, funny people, and some challenges involve mini-games or puzzles that make them more interesting than the usual talk-and-fight encounters. Besides some side quests, the islands have enough variety to avoid feeling repetitive.

(Credit: Nintendo/PCMag)

Colorful, Cartoony, and Simple

Nintendo keeps Mario & Luigi looking good by focusing on style and charm more than powerful graphics and advanced effects. Brothership is a bright, colorful adventure oozing with charm that doesn’t tax the Switch’s seven-year-old hardware. It goes for a specifically cartoonish look in line with other Mario & Luigi games, with flat, simple shading and solid black outlines around characters. It fits with its respective Mario subseries style just as well as the remakes of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Mario RPG.

(Credit: Nintendo/PCMag)

Like Paper Mario, Brothership’s look intentionally results in relatively little detail. It’s amusing that the recent Super Mario RPG, a remake of the oldest series entry, is by far the most detailed of the three titles, thanks to its faithful HD recreations of pre-rendered elements.

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Verdict: An RPG Full of Brotherly Love

Mario & Luigi: Brothership proves there’s room in Nintendo’s lineup for more Mario & Luigi games. It’s a fantastic return to form, offering a bigger, better-looking adventure than past RPGs. It’s colorful, charming, mechanically engaging, and worth playing for anyone who loves Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Mario RPG (or any previous Mario & Luigi games). That’s enough to earn our Editors’ Choice award.

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About Will Greenwald

Lead Analyst, Consumer Electronics

I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).

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