Tickets for the 14th Annual New York Game Awards on 1/21/25 are now available!

By Isaac Espinosa

The strength of Mario and Luigi’s brotherly bond is enough to get them through thick and thin. But will it be enough to save a world on the brink of disaster? Mario and Luigi: Brothership is the newest game in the Mario and Luigi RPG line of games, released to the Nintendo Switch on November 7th of this year. Before the game’s release, I had feared that the Mario and Luigi series would never return, since its parent company Alpha Dream filed for bankruptcy and shut down in 2019. Now under the development of Acquire, the company responsible for Octopath Traveler 1 and 2, Brothership has a chance to continue the legacy of this beloved series. Does it succeed?

Let’s start from the beginning of the Brothership story. It seems to be a normal day in the Mushroom Kingdom, with Mario helping Luigi out, protecting his little bro from a swarm of bees. But soon the Mario Bros. encounter a strange phenomenon, as their hands begin to glow and open up a portal. They’re both pulled straight in and are separated before they arrive in a land they don’t recognize. Mario ends up on a beach, and imagines he is exploring it with Luigi, hoping that his brother is safe.

And thankfully, Luigi is safe, and aboard some kind of ship-shaped island that Mario manages to reach. There, the bros are greeted by two islanders: Connie, a young woman who describes herself as a Wattanist, a role that means Connie must protect something known as the Uni-Tree and Snoutlet, a pig shaped outlet that REALLY is determined to tell you he isn’t pig shaped whatsoever. They explain to Mario and Luigi that they’ve arrived in Concordia, a once peaceful land that was held together by the Uni-Tree. Unfortunately, the Uni-Tree was destroyed by an unknown entity, and all of Concordia has split into smaller islands that must be reconnected by a new Uni-Tree. Zokket, the game’s main antagonist, is intent on keeping Concordia separated and its inhabitants in a seemingly endless state of solitude. As a Wattanist, it’s Connie’s job to oversee Concordia’s re-unification where the Uni-Tree now grows: Shipshape Island. Mario and Luigi immediately put aside their need to return home and agree to help Connie and Snoutlet complete their mission.

At this point, Brothership’s story truly begins to blossom and we learn about the importance of bonds and relationships in Concordia. Mario and Luigi use Shipshape Island as a base as they travel across the sea and toward the smaller islands they need to join, using each island’s Lighthouse. The journey from Lighthouse to Lighthouse is filled with charm and enjoyment, whether it’s helping a dance master get his groove back so that he can bring good vibes to the people, aiding a village in their battle against a monster trying to destroy their art, or assisting a married couple as they reunite their feuding nations. All of these things illustrate the theme of how strong and beautiful true connections can be. 

The gameplay of Brothership also delivers, in so many ways. The world of Concordia is extremely smooth to explore, whether over the seas or on the islands. You launch yourself toward an island using Shipshape’s cannon and roam to your heart’s content. Finding items to use in battle, coins to purchase gear and equipment to up the bros’ stats feels even more satisfying than in the previous Mario and Luigi titles, as does using new Bros. Moves like the UFO Spin to reach difficult heights. With so many islands to visit, and the immensely convenient Fast Travel system, you’ll find yourself returning to each of them time and time again in order to find something new, especially since reconnecting an island’s Lighthouse to Shipshape opens up new pathways to find and secrets to uncover. 

Combat is truly where Brothership shines, as it does in most of the Mario and Luigi titles. The synergy of Mario and Luigi has never felt better, with the two working together even in their simple Jump and Hammer attacks. And these new Bros. Attacks are some of the best in the series, both aesthetically and execution-wise. You have some familiar attacks like the Green and Red Shell, or the Jump Helmet and Yoohoo Cannon from Bowser’s Inside Story. But there are also new attacks like Hatch Me if You Can, which has the bros volley a Yoshi Egg towards the enemy as Yoshi hatches out to deliver the final blow, or the Zapperator, where Mario and Luigi use a machine to summon a thunder cloud and bombard their foes with lightning. 

You definitely will be making use of these new attacks, especially since the enemy encounters in Brothership are quite challenging. Even with good gear to boost your defenses, enemies will hit like a truck, especially when there are more than one of them. Five enemies on screen at once usually signifies that they’ll sync their attack, which means you have to time your action commands to ensure that you either get the counterattack right, or you simply avoid taking damage. I wouldn’t call Brothership the hardest game in the series, but it’s no cakewalk, and that’s a good thing. 

The biggest “issue” I have with Brothership is one of the newest features added to the game: Battle Plugs. These devices act as combat buffs that you can apply to Mario and Luigi. Some let you automatically use a Mushroom that’ll heal you so you don’t have to use a turn for it, and some make you perform a critical hit against certain kinds of enemies. They’re great buffs to have, and they can really come in clutch when you’re struggling. But they don’t feel all that essential, and not because they’re outright broken or trivialize combat. They just kind of… exist? Even in the more dangerous spots against certain enemies or even bosses, I never felt like Battle Plugs were vital. And since they’re supposed to be a stand-in for Badges and Battle Cards, which were both powerful tools in the previous Mario and Luigi games that were sometimes indispensable for victory, you’d think that would be the case here as well. It’s a shame, because Battle Plugs are a really interesting idea, and you can acquire so many of them that it feels tragic that a lot of them ended up going unused.

Overall, I am thrilled that Brothership is so good, and not just because of the game’s elegant, straightforward story, or it’s incredibly intuitive gameplay loop. It just feels so nice to be able to play this game after being nervous about the uncertain future of Mario RPGs. For the longest time, I was sure that series like Paper Mario and M&L wouldn’t see this level of quality for the foreseeable future. But now, we have a Super Mario RPG remake, a Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake, and this brand new Mario and Luigi title. Mario and Luigi: Brothership shows just how bright the future’s for new Mario RPG titles. 

Bronx native Isaac Espinosa is a Member of the New York Videogame Critics Circle. Along with being named the Circle’s first assistant Mentor, Isaac also coaches students for CEI Esports.