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Unique and vibrant art style; engaging combat system; fun and interactive overworld; strong and unique characters
Enemy encounters may occasionally become stale
Welcome to another Backlog Review, where we take a look at an older game that fans might have sitting waiting to be played or are still considering giving a purchase. This time we’re looking at Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
For about a year, Nintendo has been in a Mario RPG renaissance, with a remake of Super Mario RPG, and a remaster of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Now, we have the latest release of this genre with Mario & Luigi: Brothership, a formal revival of the fan-favorite series, which has not had a new installment since Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam on 3DS almost ten years ago. With Acquire taking the reins of development, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a near-perfect RPG that still holds that signature Mario RPG flair that has built a legacy among fans.
In this new adventure, Mario and Luigi are suddenly transported to the land of Concordia. There, the brothers meet Connie and Snoutlet, who tell the story of how the Uni-Tree was destroyed along with the islands of Concordia, separating them off into the sea. You then set sail to adventure the uncharted oceans to reconnect the islands, along with stopping the forces who seek to impede your efforts. As you adventure further, you learn more about the story of Concordia and the people who resided in it before its separation.
You come across characters that have unique and strong personalities that can give funny or more serious scenes a lot of life. Also, any moment with Luigi is pure comedy, especially when you go through the first few islands as he somehow ends up in a completely different circumstance compared to his brother. However, Luigi slowly begins to stick his landings as you reach the final act of the game, showing a little character development via the brother’s growing confidence. This game brings its characters and their personalities to life as you meet more allies and enemies who can offer comedic or even deep moments in the story.
Unlike most Mario games, Mario & Luigi: Brothership has a simple, yet appealing hand-drawn art style. Characters sport vibrant colors complimented by cool colors and lines around their body that make each character pop in the environment. However, characters only have about six colors and simple facial features, creating a cartoony look, which creates an eye-captivating theme to the game that I haven’t seen for many others. It may look weird initially when seeing returning characters compared to their traditional designs, but it has grown on me and has become my favorite look for Mario and Luigi.
As you traverse the islands of Concordia, you meet with new characters, and the overworld is a fun treat to explore. You interact with destructible objects that may contain valuable items and clear many assortments of obstacles to further explore. You encounter many types of these challenges in the game’s different levels, requiring an understanding of your environment and objective in order to proceed.
For many of these levels, you use the new Luigi Logic mechanic. This ability allows Luigi to passively interact with the overworld. Luigi Logic makes it much easier to explore, as you can have Luigi collect items for you. This new mechanic is also integral to most puzzles in the overworld. Luigi Logic is needed to solve many of them, requiring synergy and understanding of both brothers and their capabilities on the part of the player. The game also controls Luigi as Mario and Luigi explore and use different buttons to make it across different sections of each island. These moments can also be genuinely funny at times as you witness a spark of genius come from Luigi. All of this allows Luigi to feel much more like a separate character, which provides much funner and more diverse gameplay.
There are also Bros. Moves as you gain new abilities that will change your approach to exploring the overworld to clear obstacles and levels. As you go deeper into the story, you are further tested with your ability to use each of your Bros. Moves and progress through the game. The many ways to interact with your environment along with meeting new characters and going through the creative, interesting islands give the user a challenging, yet fun, experience.
When fighting enemies, Mario & Luigi: Brothership has the trademark game mechanics for Mario RPGs: precision and timing. Before entering battle, you can catch enemies off guard and attack them to deal extra damage at the start of the battle. With the hammer and jumping attacks, you alternate between the A and B buttons during battles and must press them the moment the attack lands in order to deal the maximum amount of damage. The same applies to Bros. Moves, although with slightly more complex variations. These controls offer an easy-to-learn, yet hard-to-master system that continues to reinvent itself while staying true to its core mechanics.
Each enemy you encounter is also different in battle style, requiring you to analyze and understand patterns in an attack to avoid damage. Opponents will have fast or deceptive attacks that demand an understanding of your opponent’s window of vulnerability. This creates unique enemy encounters that engage the player during battle and keep them on their toes as they continue to encounter new opponents. When you are defending, you can jump or use your hammer to avoid attacks or even counter them, but there’s also Emergency Guard, which minimizes damage but doesn’t allow you to counter or completely avoid losing health. This approach to defense in the game gives the player a risk-and-reward option. Players can risk their health in return for dealing damage to the enemy, or defend to stay away from damage or master enemy attacks.
The introduction of Power Plugs, a new battle mechanic in this installment, gives Mario and Luigi abilities to gain an edge in battle. You can combine Power Plugs to deal massive amounts of damage to opponents or help the brothers. This mechanic allows you to explore possible combinations that can completely change the outcome of a battle. During boss battles, there will also be moments where Luigi Logic is used, allowing you to land massive amounts of damage to your opponent. Each of these mechanics tie in to create a fun, captivating, and experimental battle system.
Unfortunately, as the options for Power Plugs and Bros. Attacks decline, and you begin to return to islands that have been run over by Glohmed enemies, it may begin to feel like you are retreading very old steps that may have already felt like have been conquered. This is especially true in a game that will take thirty-five to forty hours to finish on average. Despite this hindrance, this does not take away from the overall battle system and may only begin to feel slightly monotonous when facing against the same Glohmed enemies repeatedly.
Overall, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a sensational game that features the well-worn mechanics of Mario RPGs but takes them to a higher level, keeping each new step fresh, yet consistent. As you explore, you keep on encountering new characters, new lands, and battles that keep you hooked for almost the whole game, an extremely impressive feat across the many hours it takes to finish. Bros. Moves and Attacks allow you to continue to explore new avenues for the brothers, and Luigi Logic gives you more freedom than ever in a Mario & Luigi game. Power Plugs allow you to take control of battles, deal massive amounts of damage, or gain amazing buffs for the brothers, which may change the outcome of battles. Each enemy and boss brings something new to the table, continuously testing your comprehension of the skills you’ve acquired. For anyone with a Switch, you should play Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
