Mario & Luigi: Brothership Review – Fun on a Faraway Island

Mario and Luigi: Brotherhood Review

I love RPGs, but my experience with Mario RPGs is more varied. They tend to get bogged down in frustrating mechanics and plodding stories that disrupt the pace of the game. Mario & Luigi: Brothership suffers from its own momentum issues (loading???), but the mechanics are mostly solid. The combat feels great, the traversal is interesting, and the level design is quite unusual. I wish the puzzles were less frustrating and the boss fights less predictable, but I still had fun with this game.

The puzzle design in Brothership is something of a mixed bag. Some puzzles involve tons of backtracking, some are clever, and some are deeply frustrating. Plus, there's more math than I expected. Maybe I'm getting more impatient, but I felt like the puzzle sections interrupted my momentum. At least those who relied on retreating did. Making me walk around inside a building doesn't make things more challenging, just more annoying. On a relative scale, I'm pretty sure the puzzles are the hardest part of the game. I'm less confident that this challenge will be fun, fair, or engaging. To be fair, not all puzzles make me feel this way. But many of them were frustrating enough that I dreaded their arrival.

Puzzles are a pain

I mentioned loading screens in my preview. I'm sorry to report that they continued to be a hindrance during my playthrough. Just a bunch of loading screens around every corner, waiting to ruin my day. And it's not like they are long loading times either. It's just that they add up pretty quickly. Going six extra seconds isn't a big deal at first. But having to do it every time I finish a scene, exit a building, or enter a battle is downright atrocious. I finally got used to the battle loading screens, but the transition ones still bothered me.

The color schemes chosen for this game really pop. In particular, there's a gradient on Luigi's hat that's super refreshing. It goes from blue to green with a seamless wave that looks like a high-quality dessert. I just want to lick his hat like it's an ice cream cone. Mario's hat does the same thing, but feels a little more subtle. The rest of the colors are intense, lush and downright charming. Even enemies have a wonderful palette that rewards closer inspection. Although the animation is smooth and expressive, it's the color scheme that really brings Brothership to life.

Colors that really stand out

Battles are won or lost based on your timed attack and dodge skills. Fans of the series know this is nothing new, but still! It's a great way to ensure battles never get old. The fights are repetitive but still fun. The need to execute dodges and timed hits ensures that your concentration never wavers. You could perform those movements over and over again all day long. I was less enamored of the boss battles. At first they feel good, but the Luigi Logic sections appear so regularly that it becomes a routine. You're just killing time and staying alive until that all-important message from Luigi Logic activates. At least the fights don't go on too long, which I appreciate.

While the well-timed hits and dodges feel great, the traversal is somewhat floaty and ineffective. The traversal skills feel as slow as the transitions, like a loading screen that you have under control. Your jumps are limited, which I understand. After all, certain areas are closed because of the height of the jump. But any version of Mario without proper jumping powers will always feel a little restricted and slow. Perhaps Nintendo's in-house development team is the only one to master Mario's movement?

Although the premise of Brothership is quite fascinating, the actual story is a little boring. 'Drifting islands held together by energy bonds' is such a successful story theme, you know? And yet, the execution couldn't hold my attention. Most of his time is spent doing regular MacGuffin-style work. The villains of the game appear, yell at you for a while, and leave for the first encounters. I usually don't worry about narrative in games like this. Clearly my gaze must be drawn to more mechanical concerns. But I liked the conceit so much that I started wanting more of the plot, something I never got. Fortunately, the mechanical parts in question are more convincing.

Mainly island hopping

If you've played the other games, there are a handful of returning characters scattered throughout this title. It's a minor detail, but it makes Brothership feel more complete. You also have a lot of little systems to delve into and master, although none of them are very deep. On the other hand, it's nice to have something to try if you ever get stuck. Buy equipment, build battle sockets, finish side quests, grind levels. There's even a fishing minigame, albeit a simple one. You'll be constantly rewarded when you slow down and take on additional content.

This game suffers when subjected to a reviewer's brutal pace. Maybe if I hadn't been racing towards the finish line, the tiny endless loading screens wouldn't have bothered me so much. I was also forced to discard much of the secondary content. It's not very compelling, but the act of completing it can be quite relaxing. Finding Sprite Bulbs scratches that completionist itch in a big way. In addition, the game is beautiful and the battles are very fun. I still wish the puzzles weren't so frustrating for me. But again, they benefit from having more patience than I could ever have. My momentum while playing felt shaky and uneven, but it's still a well-crafted game. Maybe you'll make good use of your time (if you can offer more than I can) playing Mario & Luigi: Brothership.

***A Nintendo Switch code was provided by the publisher***