Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Developer(s)	Acquire
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release Date(s)
Nintendo Switch	WW: November 7, 2024
Nintendo Switch	WW: November 7, 2024
Platform(s)
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Download Size	10GB
Rating(s)
ESRB	03
PEGI	02
CERO	01
ACB	02
USK	02
SMECCV	01
GRAC	01
CID	01
GSRR	00

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a role-playing game for the Nintendo Switch, and is the first new entry to the Mario & Luigi RPG series in nine years. It was released on November 7, 2024.

Gameplay

For the first time in the sub-series' history, Brothership has full 3D gameplay, while retaining elements and combat from the past games. Players simultaneously control Mario and Luigi, as they explore the world of Concordia by visiting the islands of the shattered land in order to reconnect them to each other, whilst battling against a new group of enemies causing havoc, along the way encountering old friends and foes in the process. Each of the brothers have their own buttons assigned to them for use with exploring the overworld and battling enemies. Exploration includes talking to non-player characters (NPCs), completing quests and solving puzzles, some of which are required to be solved in order to progress.

The game would have an emphasis on Mario and Luigi's bonding, hence the name.

Plot

The game takes place on the sea of the world of Concordia and its islands, which Mario and Luigi traverse on Shipshape Island, a structure that is described as "part ship, part island".

Characters

Playable characters

• Mario
• Luigi

Support Characters

• Snoulet
• Connie

NPCs

• Arc, A blue childlike member of this species in a sailor hat
• A yellow adult-like member of this species that appears to run a shop
• IDLE, A team of characters wearing orange bands that includes:
  • Princess Peach, who wears her band around her wrist
  • Dorrie, who wears his band around his neck
  • Ireen, A short pink member of the Concordian species that wears her band like a hairbow and the leader
  • Dulles, A thin green member of the Concordian species that wears his band off of his antenna
  • Loog, A tiny blue member of the Concordian species that wears their band like a scarf
  • Ellow, A round-bodied yellow member of the Concordian species that wears his band like a cape
• Furen, a Concordian who befriends Bowser Jr.

Antagonists

• The Zokket Army, the main antagonists in the game which include:
  • Zokket, A villainous-looking figure who appears to be the leader of the organization wearing a cloak held together by what seems to be a wire cutter, a tall hat that has two cables coming out of it (both have a different color, with one of them being red and the other being green), and a masquerade mask
  • The Extension Corps
    • Ecks, A floating magenta high-ranking member similar to a VHF/UHF coaxial transformer and wearing a yellow cape
    • Ten, A lanky purple high-ranking member similar to a headphone jack
    • Shun, A stout turquoise/blue high-ranking member similar to a VGA connector
  • Mettozokettohei, the footsoldiers
• Bowser
• Bowser Jr.

Moves

Field

• Jump
• Hammer
• UFO Spin
• Bros. Ball
• Fire & Ice
• Luigi Logic

Combat

• Jump
• Hammer
• Bros. Attack: No other types of Special Attack can be found in the game.
  • Mario:
    • 3D Red Shell
    • Hatch Me if You Can
    • Bomb Derby
    • Flash Clock
    • Conductor Connector
  • Luigi:
    • 3D Green Shell
    • Thunder Dynamo
    • Jump Helmet
    • Yoo Who Cannon
    • Mix Tornado

Development

While the developer studio is yet to be announced, some of the crew members from past Mario & Luigi games were confirmed to be involved. The primary developer was revealed to be Acquire from the game's intellectual property notices; they had previously worked on Octopath Traveler, which Nintendo initially published outside of Japan.

Reception

Mario & Luigi: Brothership has received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic at 78/100. Some of its humour and Luigi's role in puzzles with the Luigi Logic mechanic received mixed reactions. Giovanni Colantonio of Digital Trends and Logan Plant of IGN gave more mixed reviews, criticizing the pacing. Reviewers generally criticized the game's performance issues.

Sales

Mario & Luigi: Brothership was the bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 63,441 physical copies being sold across the country.

Gallery

Main article: Mario & Luigi: Brothership/gallery

Release

The game was first announced at a Nintendo Direct presentation in June 2024.

Trivia

• This is the first Mario & Luigi game:
  • To be developed for a home console.
  • Since AlphaDream's closure in 2019, consequently being developed by a different studio.
  • To have live-performed orchestra music.
  • To have new voices (performed by Kevin Afghani) after Charles Martinet's departure.
  • Where series' longtime composer Yoko Shimomura was absent. Instead, Hideki Sakamoto took over as the game's composer. He is also the main theme composer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• The game's opening cutscene with Mario and Luigi traveling through a portal where they try to hold onto each other bears a striking resemblance to the Warp Zone scene in The Super Mario Bros. Movie where the brothers travel to the Mushroom Kingdom through the mysterious pipe. Despite the similarities, the developers stated in an interview that it was only a coincidence as they had no information on the movie while working on Mario & Luigi: Brothership, and were surprised by the similarity upon seeing the movie.
  • Despite having no information on the movie itself, it being in production influenced the developers to take a more dramatic approach with the game's story, as it would not be out of the ordinary for the franchise at that point.

External links

• Mario & Luigi: Brothership at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Mario & Luigi: Brothership at GameFAQs