Blair Loveday
There have been two Mario & Luigi games on Switch, with the remakes of Bowser’s Inside story and Superstar Saga bringing great old games to a new audience.
These were great, but it was about time for a brand new journey, well we got one now with Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership kicks off with Mario and Luigi doing there thing when they get sucked into a vortex. Luigi falls out a bit early and Mario finds himself alone on a strange island. Don’t worry, Mario is only solo for the glorified tutorial. He quickly finds his brother where they discover a lot about the weird world they are in.
It turns out they are on an island that is also a ship.
The ship has a big tree in the middle with a lightbulb… You know, normal things. Well it turns out a bunch of other islands used to be tethered to this tree but after a big disaster the tethers broke.
To save the day, the brothers need to be rocketed out of a canon to these islands to reconnect them. Again, totally normal stuff. It’s a silly weird story, with some funny interactions as each islands inhabitants are shocked to see new people after they have been isolated. The story, while silly, is fun. And that’s what I am after in a Mario games story.
If you are new to the series, it’s a turned based JRPG of sorts. Mario and Luigi stand on one side of the battle screen with the foes on the other. You choose your action when it’s your turn, such as jumping on your opponent. One thing it does is that when your character attacks, you can press a button at the right time to cause a second attack. For the most part, it’s a very simple turned based battle system, but this forces you to stay engage which is nice.
For the most part, playing the game is simple, but fun. You can jump in at this game as it does hold your hand for a while. The only part of the game that is rough is the sea map. The island boat navigates around set tracks, and you can choose to pop it on different tracks, you then use this to get close to an island to be sent to. It’s an idea that’s intriguing, but it does get tedious at times.
The thing I love most is the animation style. They have given them a nice cell shaded 3D style which makes cutscenes look beautiful. Running around the world would also be up there, if it didn’t struggle to perform. The animations get stuttery which is really jarring when compared against the absolutely gorgeous character and world design.
For the most part Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a fun game and a great new romp for fans of the series to go on. I just wish the sea map was less boring, and it ran a little better. It really must be about time for the Switch 2, though the Zelda games were stunning and ran fine.
So buggered if I know, maybe a patch or two to clean it up?
Released: November 2024
Rating: G
Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Acquire
Publisher: Nintendo