Mario & Luigi: Brothership Reviews
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a delightful return for the beloved series, with deep gameplay and vibrant worlds that make it a must-have on Nintendo Switch, despite a few minor design shortcomings.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Although the formula is bordering over-familiar at this point, it's been long enough between entries that this return to the Mario & Luigi series is incredibly welcome. It manages to feel fresh enough with interesting new wrinkles that play on this new world and story's overall themes, and its obsession with fraternal bonds results in probably my favourite take on the Bros. to date.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is an epic RPG for Mario standards. It has everything one might hope for, all wrapped up in a beefy package. The erratic framerate won’t impress long-time gamers and even the load times might wear down a kid’s patience, but the trade-off is some of the most appealing art and animation seen on an RPG on Switch.
Overall, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a sensational game that features the well-worn mechanics of Mario RPGs but takes them to a higher level, keeping each new step fresh, yet consistent. As you explore, you keep on encountering new characters, new lands, and battles that keep you hooked for almost the whole game, an extremely impressive feat across the many hours it takes to finish. Bros. Moves and Attacks allow you to continue to explore new avenues for the brothers, and Luigi Logic gives you more freedom than ever in a Mario & Luigi game. Power Plugs allow you to take control of battles, deal massive amounts of damage, or gain amazing buffs for the brothers, which may change the outcome of battles. Each enemy and boss brings something new to the table, continuously testing your comprehension of the skills you’ve acquired. For anyone with a Switch, you should play Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is far from the duo's best RPG outing, but that's not to say it is a bad one. The combat is engaging enough to remain entertaining throughout the 40+ hour adventure, even as it crawls along against the tide.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership falls into that odd zone of being fine but not exceptional. I think it's comfortably the third best Mario & Luigi game, but it's a distant third and a far cry from the franchise's heights. I had a lot of fun, and I don't regret playing it, but it lacks that certain special something that made the first and third games in the franchise really shine. It's still a fun RPG adventure with some fantastic combat, but it's the weakest of all the Mario RPGs released this year.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a fun addition to the series and for the Switch. It has fun gameplay and great humour, but feels repetitive at times and quite long.
By Mario RPG standards, this is not one of the better ones, particularly when it comes to the pacing, design, and story. What saves Mario & Luigi: Brothership from sinking completely is the strategically engaging and fun battle system, delightful animations that go hand-in-hand with the cartoony art style, and the excellent soundtrack. Other gameplay ideas miss their target, and things become a drag far too quickly.
Nintendo says goodbye to the platform with another very enjoyable title. Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a solid offering that should interest many gamers. If the Big N hardware is your main platform, you should not hesitate.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the biggest and most ambitious game from the franchise, and it was worth the wait. It maintains the soul of the Mario & Luigi games and it also adds a lot of interesting things that makes it a complete and sublime experience. It can be the beginning of a new and bright future for the brothers.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A game carried by its scrappiness more than its technical feats or original ideas. It might be overshadowed by its older sibling series, but that doesn't mean it can't be a fun and packed experience.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
It takes a while, but when The Brothership is in full swing, it is an excellent action RPG after all these years: exploration, arcade elements, tactical strategy and the mix of gameplay is top-notch. We are so glad that the Switch has its entry in the series.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a silly and surprisingly challenging RPG with a unique world traversal mechanic and superb variety of puzzles. However, the unavoidable enemies and lengthy battles might put off folks who are looking for a more casual affair. 🚢
Ultimately, Mario & Luigi: Brothership was an immense pain to play. Between trying to constantly time things perfectly and button mashing my way through to inflict damage, plus constantly having to heal when enemies finally stopped attacking, it was not a fun time. I wouldn’t call it a bad game necessarily, I do think some people may enjoy it. If you love button mashing and timing stuff and don’t mind getting very few turns in between your enemies’ attacks, then this may very well be the game for you. But for anyone who wants a fun RPG adventure with an amazing story, atmosphere, charm that actually sucks you in and enjoyable battles that don’t take an eternity and kill your button mashing muscles, this is not the game for you, whatsoever. I feel like if the story, characters and everything else outside of battles, was just better and more worth going through these battles for, I would’ve liked the game a lot more. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be picking up another Mario & Luigi title anytime soon.
Brothership is a great first-time-RPG, one that teaches about the genre as much as it does about kindness and compassion. Give it to someone who hasn't played Final Fantasy yet, and they'll be enamored by the possibilities Acquire's adventure presents. On that level, Brothership is a huge success.
The Mario & Luigi series returns to us after a long absence, this time with a new release called Brothership, in which it presents a lot of interesting and ambitious ideas, but the implementation in some aspects was not implemented in the best possible way, but you will still have a fun journey across the seas with Mario and Luigi, and the game maintains its sense of adventure well.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a natural and triumphant evolution of the 20 years of games in the saga, which in no way shows that it was assisted by a new developer. The puzzles and combat capture the series' supreme fun and magic, and the story and presentation propel it to new heights. It feels like this was the grand goal Mario & Luigi always aimed to achieve, but was previously made impossible by the inferior scope and hardware of the past: a game unrestrained in its sincere joy, in which flaws like the languid initial pacing are eventually silenced by the polish and charm that permeates our journey through Concordia.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Mario and Luigi: Brothership is better than some make it out to be. It has its downsides, like a lot of annoyingly long dialogue, the fighting getting a little repetitive or having to wait a period before the next island, but if you look past those few cons, there is genuinely a good time to be had.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership offers a charming adventure that combines classic elements of the series with new mechanics that enrich the gameplay. In the end it is "just okay", which is not bad, but the series certainly deserved much more.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Nintendo games are at their best when they’re approachable and polished to a sheen, and Mario and Luigi Brothership is great at both of these. This is a sizeable RPG that contextualizes classic turn-based mechanics in a platformer framework. This isn’t anything new, but it shows that this current run of Mario RPG remakes wasn’t a fluke. The mechanics are strong, and even as someone who doesn’t usually like RPGs like this, I had a pretty great time. Brothership might be a bit on the longer side, but I think this is a fantastic game to give to a younger gamer looking to understand the appeal of the genre. There’s a ton of personality on display that I think will make people of any age smile, and the systems are flexible enough to keep most of your time enjoyable.