Mario & Luigi: Brothership Reviews
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.
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. 🚢
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is an excellent choice for those who love unique twists, dynamic combat, and a gorgeous world to explore.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is worth trying! The game is a top-notch RPG, beautiful and funny, with extremely fun dynamics, solid and challenging combat, an engaging story with charismatic characters, highlighting Tetê, Pligue and the villains' design, and best of all, the game is fully localized into Brazilian Portuguese.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Mario & Luigi series began to grow stale over time, so I’m happy to say that Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a welcome refresher in several gameplay areas. When it’s fun, it’s very fun, and there are a lot of neat ideas and sections that make this game get generally better as you get more into it. The Plugs and some of the overworld abilities make those sections some of the most fun I’ve seen from the M&L series to date. It also made the leap from handheld to console quite well, with some really nice aesthetics and animations to its visual components. In some ways, Brothership feels like two steps forward and one step back for the series. While not quite the worst game in the series pacing-wise, Brothership still has its share of slow sections that drag on a fair bit more than I would have liked. This ultimately holds it back from being as tight and consistently great as it could have been. I also appreciate that the game’s attempts with its story are a touch more earnest rather than just being fully comedic, and the game still has its charm, but I found its narrative a touch too basic and lacking in interesting developments despite the amount of its runtime taken up by cutscenes. Ultimately though, there’s a lot to like with Brothership. If you want a generally upbeat and at times wacky RPG with a neat and skill-rewarding combat system and don’t mind something a bit simple on the story, it’s a pretty fun game.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a worthy successor and at the same time an attempt to modernize the series. The new mechanics such as the “Luigi Logic” and the “Battle Plug System” add interesting levels, while the proven gameplay of the predecessors is retained. There is criticism mainly on the technical side: performance problems on the Nintendo Switch and occasional backtracking tarnish the overall impression a little. Nevertheless, the strengths outweigh the drawbacks - especially the charming narrative, the creative characters and the captivating battles. Fans of the series and newcomers alike can look forward to an adventure that will leave them with a big smile on their face.
Review in German | Read full review
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is yet another little gem in the impressive Nintendo Switch lineup. Acquire takes the helm of a saga born over twenty years ago on handheld consoles and successfully ferries it into 2024. Fun and multifaceted in its play proposition, the colorful new installment of the RPG adventures of the video game media's most famous plumber brothers is a must-have experience for Nintendo fans. There may be little in the way of ruolistics (apart from perhaps far too verbose dialogues), but one thing is for sure: it's really nice to experience a new odyssey with Mario and Luigi.
Review in Italian | Read full review
I was unimpressed with Brothership. I wanted a new Mario and Luigi game quite badly and as this shows, you should probably watch what you wish for. It’s lacking in story, presentation, a stable framerate and the constant hand-holding is infuriating. The only saving grace is that the premise of it is interesting and the battle system is massively entertaining.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is exactly the game the series needed. It captures all the essence fans love: fun, clever humor, and outstanding battle mechanics. If you’re a fan of RPGs and the Mario universe, this game is perfect for you. Without a doubt, it’s one of the best RPG experiences ever created in the world of Mario.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Mario & Luigi: Brothership tells a charming and positive story with incredibly poor pacing and some impressive combat and exploration mechanics that have quite a bit of depth.
At the end of the day, Mario and Luigi: Brothership has plenty of great elements to it that are also trapped behind a game that just wants to take its time and squeeze as much juice out of itself as it can.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership takes far too long to get to the point, and the journey to get there isn’t nearly as interesting as it needs to be to make it feel worthwhile. Again, there are some great ideas here, and the game looks amazing, but unless you want your hand held for dozens upon dozens of hours, you’ll probably find yourself a little let down by it all.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership delivers everything fans expect from a new game in the franchise: a solid use of the dynamic between the two brothers in its combat and exploration systems. Unfortunately, Mario & Luigi: Brothership falters by overextending itself, stretching its story beyond what's necessary with unnecessarily long dialogues and secondary content that, overall, does not significantly enhance the player experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review