Mario & Luigi: Brothership

The newest Nintendo RPG Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the first native Switch title of the series. At the same time, it falls into a strong year for Mario RPG remakes of various series.

Fans of the Super Mario RPG games had a good run on Nintendo Switch in recent years. The first Super Mario RPG received a remake in November 2023, and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, a title from the N64 era when the Paper Mario and Super Mario games overall experimented with and shared more systems, came out on Switch just this May. With Mario & Luigi: Brothership, the first new Mario RPG title enters Nintendo Switch. And by that, the third subseries that uses the RPG mechanics. The Mario & Luigi series had gradually developed into Nintendo‘s plumber RPG home from the GameBoy Advance days onward, finding its high on the 2009 title Bowser‘s Inside Story. With several 3DS titles, among them a remake of Bowser‘s Inside Story as late as 2018, the series had then rested until now. Brothership follows Mario and Luigi on a seafaring adventure that includes a sailable overworld. The eponymous ship of the two is half vessel, half island and is used to find new explorable islands, on which Mario and Luigi can then travel via a cannon shot. Gameplaywise, the RPG systems are all there: Turn based combat is enhanced with button prompts, typical for the Mario RPG series. In Mario & Luigi, both prota­gonists have a dedicated button that is used in their attacks. The game also features several moves resembling other Mario franchises, such as a Strikers-inspired soccer attack. And naturally, as a Mario game, the overworld and islands feature jump and run sequences, both in side-scrolling perspective and from a top-down look. The mixed-in gameplay changes foster variety and keep the player experience fresher.

Mario & Luigi is expected to be one of the last full price titles of Nintendo published on the current Switch hardware generation. It follows on Super Mario Party Jamboree which released just a few weeks before, both in time for the holiday season sales period. With the upcoming change of the Japanese fiscal year early in 2025, it is expected by industry experts that Nintendo will share the first announcements on a new hardware generation soon. As a late Switch game, Brothership might even be a contender for an optimised update later on, but that remains to be seen.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership releases on 7 Nomember 2024 digitally and physically for Switch.

Conclusion

A charming RPG adventure that will find its audience with franchise appeal, a new setting for the series and family friendliness.

Unique Selling Points

• Accessible RPG system
• Seafaring adventure
• Charming cartoon graphics