Brothership is one of the most charming games I’ve played in ages

Over the past year, I’ve had a blast going through Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on the Nintendo Switch. Given that I never owned an SNES or GameCube, these remasters have been perfect for me, especially as someone who’s always loved RPGs.

But of course, getting a brand-new game is a different — and arguably more exciting — matter entirely, and thankfully, Nintendo has done just that with Mario & Luigi: Brothership. It’s the first entry in the Mario & Luigi series since 2015’s Paper Jam on the 3DS, which makes it even more notable. And as someone who’s never played any of those older games, Brothership has certainly held my interest. That interest has more than paid off, with Brothership proving to be an absolutely delightful experience and the perfect way to wrap up a surprisingly strong year for the aged Switch.

In Brothership, our favourite Italian brothers must sail across the seas to reach distant islands and restore the all-connecting Uni-Tree. It’s a fun premise that lends Brothership a compelling nautical theme à la Wind Waker while also focusing on Mario and Luigi. While I adore the other Mario RPGs I’ve played, there really is nothing quite like having one centred around their utterly endearing brotherly dynamic. (It’s always great seeing my boy Luigi get more love.)

A key reason that all works boils down to the visuals. Nintendo has always prioritized aesthetically pleasing art styles over photorealism, and Mario & Luigi: Brothership might just be one of the company’s finest-ever efforts in that department. That’s because the game mixes lovingly understated, almost hand-drawn character models and environments with some truly dynamic animation work. It’s all about the little details, like how Mario disappointedly hangs his head after finding out they have to be launched to other islands via cannon, which then causes him to have to adjust his hat that’s now sunk over his eyes. Or how, to scale a platform, Mario will jump and grab onto a handhold before Luigi yanks his legs to slingshot them both over the edge. (You control Mario in the overworld while Luigi follows, although you can command him to perform certain actions, like jumping.) My particular favourite bit of animation involves one of the game’s new features, Luigi Logic, where the camera dramatically zooms in on a moving portrait of Luigi as he tries to figure out how to overcome an environmental obstacle before having a little dance as the lightbulb goes off.

That level of charm extends to combat. Like the other Mario RPGs, Brothership is all about turn-based battles in which contextual button presses will either increase your damage output or reduce your incurred damage. And because this game focuses on just a party of two, it really encourages more mid-battle interplay between them. With your basic attacks, Mario and Luigi will alternate between launching one another with flashy, almost cheerleader-esque assisted leaps as you successfully land those button presses. (Screwing these up also leads to some wonderful slapstick, like Luigi failing to catch Mario as he cartwheels offscreen, leading the green-clad brother to chase after him and bring him back to the party formation.)

But what impressed me most with the combat are the new Battle Plugs, a form of craftable gear that applies various boosts to your combat repertoire. This includes one that gives Luigi’s basic attack an AoE effect to hit a group of enemies or, for a more defensive strategy, the ability to use recovery items automatically. You can even set multiple Battle Plugs that can be used in tandem to great effect, like allowing one Surprise Iron Ball to turn into a hail of them. At the same time, these are balanced in that they have limited charges and require you to fulfill certain mid-battle criteria, like proper inputs for certain attacks. It’s a deeper system than I expected, and it leads to some creative combos.

If I have any issues with Brothership, it’s that the pacing can sometimes drag a bit. On the one hand, I appreciate that each island is simultaneously geographically diverse yet also not egregiously large, like some dungeons in RPGs can feel. What’s more, they reward you for returning upon completion to reach previously inaccessible areas, acquire new items and other benefits. But on the flip side, Brothership does take a handful of hours before you get through the tutorial areas and start unlocking Hammers (a Mario RPG staple that complements your basic Jump attack) and Battle Plugs, which is when the game truly comes to life. You’ll also sometimes be waiting several seconds for battles to start in the overworld, which can lead them to sometimes feels tedious.

Those aren’t major problems, though, and they’re easy to forgive since the game is otherwise so winsome. Indeed, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is one of the most purely blissful and fun games I’ve played all year, in no small part because of its infectious amount of charm.

Image credit: Nintendo