Mario & Luigi: Brothership
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 All aboard the Brothership!
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Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a role-playing game developed by Acquire, Inc. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the sequel to Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, and the first title in the series to not be developed by AlphaDream due to their closure in 2020, It is the eighth installment in the Mario & Luigi series.
Why It's Connecting to the Brothership
- It's great to see the Mario & Luigi series returning after nine years (five when counting remakes).
- Gorgeous-looking graphics that use cel-shading and have an electrical motif (such as power cords and lightbulbs). This is also one of four first-party Switch games to use the Unreal Engine.
- The navigation and combat system have several new features and overhauls to streamline them:
- You no longer have to use the shoulder buttons to swap between Jump and Hammer commands, as the face buttons fulfill these roles (A and X for Mario, B and Y for Luigi).
- Whenever both Bros. are active in battle, they can combine their Action Commands for a stronger attack, and each Combo Attack is different depending on which Bro is attacking.
- Bros. Attacks are just as fun to use as always, and some require the use of X to execute the final blow. Some of the great Bros. attacks are Green/Red Shell, Hatch Me if You Can (which hatches Yoshi), Zapperator, Conductor Connector, and Max-Mix Vortex.
- Bros. Moves return in this game, and are selected by a radial menu (tilting the right stick to select the move) rather than the shoulder buttons. While there are only three of them in this game (UFO Spin, Bro Ball, and Fire and Ice), they can be further upgraded via story progression and given new features (UFO Spin can vacuum obstacles, Bro Ball can resist air currents, and Fire and Ice can make a Bro Bomb to blow up boulders.
- There is a colorful cast of new characters, including:
- Snoutlet (who is NOT a pig) is the guide character of this game, similar to Stuffwell and Starlow, who helps the Bros. connect the many islands to Shipshape Island.
- Connie the Wattanist is the captain of Shipshape Island who guides the island so she can connect them together again and relight the lighthouses.
- The Concordians are an interesting species who are based on electrical sockets, possibly serving as this game's version of Beanish people. Most of them are helpful characters who assist Mario, Luigi, and Snoutlet on their journey, including Willma, her children Billdit (who specializes in glove-making) and Maykit (who likes to craft accessories), Arc (who is a navigator that guides Shipshape Island along the currents and is looking for his missing father), etc.
- IDLE (Ireen, Dulles, Looger, and Ellow) are a quartet of Desolatt Concordians who serve as hilarious comic relief characters who wish to inspire others, similarly to Prince Peasley from Superstar Saga.
- Reclusa and Zokket, the main antagonists, are an intimidating duo who have a dynamic similar to Cackletta and Fawful, respectively. The former's goal to spread Glohm across Concordia to make everyone resent others is also well-written and makes him who he is, while the latter may seem intimidating but deep down, he holds a secret.
- The Extension Corps (Ecks, Ten, and Shun) are Zokket's minion trio similarly to the Elite Trio and Best Fitness Friends/Brute Federation Force (both from Bowser's Inside Story, the latter appearing in Bowser Jr.'s Journey).
- Good soundtrack composed by Hideki Sakamoto that captures the island vibe of the game well.
- The islands of Concordia are fun locations to explore, with many environments to explore, such as Raynforst Island (which is a rainforest), Florall Island (which is a flower garden), Desolatt Island (which is a desert town where IDLE hide out), Heatfreeze Island (a fire/ice juxtaposition island where the Skorcheen and Slippenglide tribes are in conflict over desserts), and of course, the Soli-Tree (a corrupted version of the Uni-Tree on Shipshape Island).
- Besides islands, there are also many islets to explore in each sea, most of which contain a puzzle so that the Bros. can obtain items and/or gear.
- The main gimmick of this game, Luigi Logic, allows Luigi to solve puzzles and assist Mario in various ways. It can also be used in battle, which stuns the bosses if performed correctly.
- Side missions return from Paper Jam, and are much better executed than the Paper Toad missions from that game. Some side missions are called "Special Missions", which may not be available past certain points in the game and are usually required to progress the game's story.
- Great voice acting. In particular, Kevin Afghani continues to do an excellent job voicing Mario and Luigi, as he does in Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Super Mario Party Jamboree, and many people said he improved upon both Bros.' voices.
- Once you defeat Ten for the first time, you gain access to Battle Plugs, which can be inserted into the Power Tap he drops to give the Bros. powerful support effects in battle (provided they have charges in them, which can be regained through each turn in battle), and can also be combined to make Battle Combo effects.
- Two major side quests involve finding all of the Reefs, which can be found via the cannon so that Issa Rock can make replicas of them on Shipshape Island, and one where you find the Grampy Turnips on each island so that the Golden Grampy Turnip can reward you for doing so.
- Good moral: Accomplishing your goals by yourself may not always be as good as doing so with friends.
Glohmy Qualities
- For some strange reason, pressing B during battles does not activate Luigi's Action Commands; instead, the A button is used to select for both Bros. and B to cancel.
- The Stat Roulette game when you level up is not in this game, which can make improving certain stats difficult without Beans.
- While not as severe as Dream Team, many of the tutorials are unskippable no matter how many times you play the game.
- Unlike the previous two games, Bowser hardly shows up in this one outside of the Gulchrock Sea arc and is barely even a threat! His two boss battles more than make up for this, however.
- Starlow's return raised eyebrows for several people, especially Mario fans and people who hate Starlow and complain that she bullies Luigi, and people who say she has been overused in the franchise, especially considering this is the sixth game in a row to feature her (not counting her appearance as a Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but counting the remakes of Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story). Thankfully, though, she isn't the guide character this time around, instead acting as Princess Peach's assistant.
- Unsurprisingly, just like several other Nintendo Switch games, this one has framerate issues.
- There are a few pace-breaking stealth sections that are tedious to get through, although fortunately there aren't that many of them.
- The game is considered to be slow paced by many, especially when you first start the game, the game can have terrible pacing.
Reception
Mario & Luigi: Brothership received generally favorable reviews from critics and users (scoring 79/100 and 8.6/10, respectively, on Metacritic). Critics praised the game's art style, story, and refined gameplay (particularly the Battle Plug system), but criticized the game's overall length and plodding pace.
Trivia
- This was the first Mario & Luigi game in the series to be released on home consoles.
- This game was released two days before Kevin Afghani's twenty-sixth birthday.
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