Brothership

''Mario & Luigi: Brothership'' is a 2024 role-playing video game developed by Acquire and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the sixth main installment in the ''Mario & Luigi'' series, following '' Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam'' (2015), and is the first ''Mario & Luigi'' game for a home console. Following the appearance of a mysterious portal, Mario and Luigi, alongside other residents of the Mushroom Kingdom, find themselves transported to the world of Concordia, where they find themselves working to reunite the land after a dark force, Glohm, begins to separate and isolate its inhabitants in solitude. In the game, players control the brothers to explore Concordia, solve puzzles and complete quests, while engaging enemies they encounter in turn-based combat.

The game was first announced in a Nintendo Direct on June 18, 2024, revealing a change of developer for the series following the closure of AlphaDream in 2019 due to bankruptcy. The preview revealed that Acquire had focused on creating a fully 3D game, designed for a home console, with a greater emphasis on exploration and quests, and modifications to the battle system to focus on teamwork actions with attacks. ''Brothership''s signature element is world navigation, in which players use Shipshape Island to explore the various lands of Concordia, which initially restrict where the players can go until the island is reconnected, opening up new areas to explore.

''Brothership'' was released on November 7, 2024. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for its art style, combat and story. The game's "Luigi Logic" mechanic in puzzles received mixed reactions, and its pacing and performance were criticized. Brothership served as the last game with Samantha Kelly as the voice of Princess Peach and Toad, before being replaced in 2025's Mario Kart World.

Gameplay

''Brothership'' is a role-playing game that follows a similar format of previous games in the ''Mario & Luigi'' series. 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.

In exploration, ''Brothership'' features a central hub called Shipshape Island which acts like a ship. Through this island, players can explore Concordia's seas, moving between currents in order to find and explore islands and other points of interest via a cannon that can be used to launch Mario and Luigi towards them. On islands, the main focus is to find and reconnect it to Shipshape Island via a giant plug in the island's lighthouse. Once accomplished, new areas on the island open up, with a fast-travel pipe system allowing players to move between the hub and all islands, as well as around each island. ''Brothership'' feature a unique game mechanic called "Luigi Logic", which allows Luigi to act autonomously – either to interact with or collect items, or move him where he can be used to help with solving some of the game's puzzles – or to come up with the series' signature overworld moves that can help Mario and Luigi with exploration. Luigi Logic is also used in some boss fights. Alongside the main story, the player can also explore small islets for extra rewards, and undertake sidequests. Mario and Luigi can also perform special Bros. Moves, including the UFO Spin and Bro Ball for traversal as well as Fire & Ice power-ups for Mario and Luigi respectively for puzzle-solving.

Combat in ''Brothership'' follows a similar pattern of the ''Mario & Luigi'' series, in that battles begin when the characters make contact with enemies; when they do, they can select different actions to attack, use items to heal damage, or flee from battle if the fight is too tough. Button pressing by the player must be timed when making attacks, or when dodging/counterattacking any attacking enemies. With both brothers active, they will now assist each other when performing basic attacks for extra damage, unlike previous entries. Progressing throughout the game opens up Bros. Attacks, which feature a mixture of new and returning moves – the latter improved upon since their first appearance – as well as "Battle Plugs": special upgrades which confer a bonus in battle, including making counterattacks easier, recovering HP, and enhancing attack power. Players acquire two Outlets for plugs, but progressing the game will allow them to use up to five Battle Plugs for battles. These can be switched around at any time during a character's turn, but each plug has a set number of charges that drain out when used and which must be recharged once drained.

Synopsis

Setting

The game takes place in the world of Concordia, a formerly peaceful land held together by the power of a large tree known as the Uni-Tree, and an energy called Connectar that flowed from giant lighthouses. Following a disaster to the Uni-Tree, the world was separated into a series of islands floating in a vast sea, with one island known as Shipshape Island, due to resembling a ship, capable of moving around the seas and acting as the central hub for the game's story. Each island encompasses its own biome and theme, such as an artisan town, and a land of ice and fire inhabited by tribes in each area.

Plot

One day in the Mushroom Kingdom, a mysterious portal appears and transports Mario, Luigi, and the kingdom's inhabitants – including Princess Peach, the star sprite Starlow, Bowser, and Bowser Jr. – to the world of Concordia. After reuniting on Shipshape Island, Mario and Luigi befriend Connie, a Wattanist, who reveals how Concordia used to be one continent connected together by a large Uni-Tree and the energy of Connectar, until a dark force emerged and destroyed the tree, separating the land into islands. Revealing she is working to create a new Uni-Tree on Shipshape, the brothers agree to help her reconnect the separated land with Shipshape, and are accompanied on their journey by Snoutlet, a pig-like Conductor. To reconnect the islands, the brothers seek out each island's Lighthouse which can be used to bind the island to Shipshape and its Uni-Tree with a magical plug outlet. During their efforts to do so, the brothers reunite with Peach and Starlow, who decide to assist them on their quest.

The group soon discovers that the original Uni-Tree was destroyed by a mysterious villain called Zokket, who is aided by minions known as the Extension Corps. Converting Connectar into a dark energy called Glohm, Zokket seeks to use this to turn everyone into creatures of solitude who will shun everyone away. As they use Glohm to cause havoc on Concordia's inhabitants, Mario and Luigi soon learn of a fruit known as an Ampberry, which can neutralize Glohm. As they seek out the fruit, Mario and Luigi discover Bowser and Bowser Jr. are battling with Zokket over control of Concordia. When the brothers engage with Bowser to claim the Ampberries he was hoarding, Zokket has Bowser Jr. kidnapped in order to lure him into a trap. After being forced to fight a Glohm-infected Bowser, Mario and Luigi retreat to safety upon finding that Zokket is too powerful for them.

Becoming stranded on Conductor Island, they encounter the Great Conductor, Snoutlet's teacher, who reveals he had been guiding the brothers in hope their strong bond could save Concordia. He also discloses that Zokket's true identity is Cozette, Connie's mentor, who had been brainwashed by an evil entity called Reclusa. The brothers learn that Reclusa desires a world of solitude, and has been residing in an egg, waiting to be reawakened with Glohm. After returning to Fortress Zokket, the brothers defeat both the Extension Corps (who flee the fortress upon defeat) and Zokket, freeing Cozette from her brainwashing. However, momentarily after Zokket's defeat, Reclusa hatches and drives the brothers and Cozette out of the fortress. Using his power, Reclusa soon creates a mirror opposite of the Uni-Tree called the Soli-Tree, and traps most of the population inside flowers simulating a virtual reality as preparations to socially isolate Concordia. Whilst Cozette reconciles with Connie, Mario and Luigi work to acquire Bond Energy from companions they've encountered in their quest, including the now-reformed Extension Corps, in order to penetrate the Soli-Tree's defenses.

Upon reaching the Soli-Tree, Mario and Luigi escape being trapped in a virtual simulation, and receive aid from Bowser in defeating Reclusa's forces. After chasing Reclusa back to the base of the Soli-Tree, Reclusa uses Glohm to fuse with the tree to overpower them. However, with guidance from Cozette, Connie helps the brothers by empowering Snoutlet with a special power that allows them to defeat Reclusa and free Concordia. Delighted their world can now be healed, the Great Conductor reconnects Concordia, before sending Mario, Luigi and the others back to the Mushroom Kingdom after bidding farewell with the Concordians. Mario and Luigi then celebrate their return to the Mushroom Kingdom, only for Bowser to launch a new plan of conquest. Meanwhile, a planted Uni-Tree sapling is seen growing in the distance.

Development

After '' Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam'' wrapped up the development in 2015, producer Akira Otani returned to work on the game along with many of AlphaDream's staff (as the former was shutdown after bankruptcy following '' Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story'' 2019 Nintendo 3DS remake's release and eventual financial failure) moving to Acquire with director Haruyuki Ohashi taking over the directional role. The game's soundtrack was composed by Hideki Sakamoto, rather than series composer Yoko Shimomura. According to Otani, Nintendo once considered "giving up" on the ''Mario & Luigi'' series before changing their mind and contracted Acquire to develop the game. Art director Hitomi Furuta stated that game originally was planned to feature a more "rugged Mario" art style before Nintendo changed it to be more in-line with the series' usual style. Otani said that he wanted to come up with new ideas that would involve the hardware advancements while "keeping the series' classic appeal" for those who played the previous installments.

When it came to the settings, the developers chose Concordia to be the main setting due to the game's theme of connections and electricity. Connie was first designed to be a human before becoming a plug-like character because it would result in Mario appearing to be redundant and unnecessary. Snoutlet was later created to act as the protagonists' new ally, originally envisioned as a generic plug before becoming a pig-like outlet. To translate the series' formerly pixellated art style to 3D realm, the developers attempted to use the 3DS sprites of Mario and Luigi for expressions and animations that would work from the technical perspective with CPU-intensive and albeit limited by what could be done properly. Mario's running animation, according to Furuta, was inspired by '' Super Mario Odyssey'' (2017).

According to Otani, Acquire's approach was quite different from AlphaDream's main approach as Ohashi's main goal was to have an external story-writing company to come up with the story while coming up with the island-drifting gameplay which led to Shipshape Island's creation. Tomoki Fukushima, the game's associate producer, felt that the Mario Bros.'s cooperation got more focus than previous games and decided that Luigi could act as an automated character which the Luigi Logic was invented as a new idea. Otani noted how the developers were unaware that the animated feature film '' The Super Mario Bros. Movie'' (2023) was released last year but noted how the opening cutscene shows Mario and Luigi getting taken to the portal and separated in a similar fashion as a coincidence.

Unlike previous installments of the series which were numbered sequels in Japan with the exception of ''Paper Jam'', ''Brothership'' Japanese title is almost entirely the same as the English one with the difference being that it has an exclamation mark in the end. Otani stated that they decided to keep the English title the same as a Japanese one, the title referring to the titular brothers' bond and the game's hub Shipshape Island. Hideki Sakamoto composed the game's soundtrack, with Otani stating that ''Brothership'' music makes the use of the wind instruments, accordions, brass bands, and tropical steelpans to match the game's theme of ocean adventure. However, he stated that the game would not use generic music tracks for the story events and cutscenes in which they ended up having up to 40-80 tracks.

After series creator AlphaDream filed for bankruptcy in 2019, Nintendo filed a new trademark for ''Mario & Luigi'' in January 2020. In June 2024, following the reveal of the game in a Nintendo Direct, Nintendo noted that "some of the original developers" from the franchise, referring to AlphaDream, are involved in the development of ''Brothership'', but did not reveal what studio was producing the game. The primary developer was later 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. The game released on the Nintendo Switch on November 7, 2024.

Reception

''Mario & Luigi: Brothership'' has received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, four critics from ''Famitsu'' gave the game a total score of 34 out of 40.

PJ O'Reilly of ''Nintendo Life'' and Ozzie Mejia of ''Shacknews'' praised the game's combat system, story, and art style. ''The Gamer''s Eric Switzer praised the story for being "surprisingly mature and impactful for a Mario game" and praised the combat, while criticizing the game's sailing system. Writing for the ''Daily Mirror'', Aaron Potter lauded the aesthetics, stating that the game "looks absolutely gorgeous" and was "the best the RPG series has ever looked". ''PCMag''s Will Greenwald gave the game an Editor's Choice award, describing it as "colorful, charming, mechanically engaging". Josephine Watson of ''Tech Radar'' praised the characters, combat, puzzles, and visuals, while criticizing the performance issues described as the "Nintendo Switch generational curse". ''GameSpot''s Steve Watts commended the Plug battle mechanic and praised the art style, as well as the story for telling a "sweet if simple fable about togetherness and human connection", while criticizing the pacing and performance, and felt that the game was too ambitious for its own good due to its length.

Critical reviews include Giovanni Colantonio's of ''Digital Trends'' who criticized the pacing and writing of humor for what he described as devoid of wit, but praised the story for being "the most socially relevant a Mario game has ever felt". Logan Plant of ''IGN'' was also highly critical of the game overall, giving it a 5/10. He considered its technical performance one of the worst on the Switch and criticized Luigi's automated controls in the overworld and his role in puzzle-solving with the Luigi Logic mechanic, the game's writing, and what he described as a lack of originality in its locations. Other 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. It sold 1.84 million copies as of December 31, 2024.

Notes

References

External links

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{{Luigi

2024 video games
Acquire (company) games
Brothership
Nintendo Switch games
Nintendo Switch-only games
Open-world video games
Portal fantasy
Role-playing video games
Single-player video games
Unreal Engine 4 games
Video games about parallel universes
Video games developed in Japan
Video games set on fictional islands
Video games with cel-shaded animation
Video games scored by Hideki Sakamoto
Works about weddings