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Game Information​

Game Title: Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Platforms:

• Nintendo Switch (Nov 7, 2024)

Trailers:

• Mario & Luigi: Brothership — Greetings from Concordia! — Nintendo Switch
• Mario & Luigi: Brothership – Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Switch

Developer: Nintendo

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 82 average - 75% recommended - 16 reviews

Metacritic - 79/100

Critic Reviews​

CGMagazine - Jordan Biordi - 8.5 / 10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is like a perfect representation of the Bros themselves: even though one might trip up here and there, everything works so well together that it makes it an unforgettable experience.

COGconnected - James Paley - 75 / 100

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Checkpoint Gaming - Elliot Attard - 7 / 10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is undeniably endearing, learning from other media forms to present an uplifting adventure with lovable protagonists. With too much dialogue and backtracking implemented within the game's design, it can run at a pace that feels slow, ballooning what should be a fun jaunt into an overly long adventure. There's room for further fine-tuning of ideas, meaning Brothership isn't the flawless seafaring journey we wanted. Though it's also far from a shipwreck with incredible charm and gameplay offerings carrying this title across picturesque waters.

Console Creatures - Bobby Pashalidis - 9 / 10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership may not reinvent the series but it's yet another excellent adventure filled with over the top humour featuring the iconic Mario brothers.

Enternity.gr - Nikitas Kavouklis - Greek - 9 / 10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership will keep you busy for dozens of hours, and the best way to enjoy it is to spend as much time as possible exploring every crevice and pipe.

GAMES.CH - Benjamin Braun - German - 87%

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GRYOnline.pl - Filip Melzacki - Polish - 7.5 / 10

Not everything works here, but the spirit of Maio & Luigi series is strong. Brothership is a successful return, and – in case we don’t get any more installments – a much better finale than Paper Jam. Despite a weak beginning I’m happy with my time with this game, and fans should be as well.

Glitched Africa - Marco Cocomello - 8 / 10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership doesn’t disappoint as the first RPG in the series in nearly ten years. It is a charming adventure that fleshes out a wonderful new world to explore. It looks unlike anything we’ve seen from Nintendo with an impressive coat of cel-shaded paint. While the game might feel like a basic RPG in comparison to the modern greats, there’s a lot more to enjoy here.

Nintendo Life - PJ O'Reilly - 9 / 10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership takes this long-running RPG series to new heights in a high-seas adventure that's packed full of top-notch combat, inventive variety, a positive and thoughtful story, and lots signature comedy from the dynamic duo themselves. This is a big game, packed full of surprises and fun, and the all-new Battle Plug system, alongside lots of flashy specials, a fittingly emotive art-style, and a world that brimming with puzzles and challenges, make for a must-play in our book.

Press Start - 7.5 / 10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the classic Mario & Luigi experience that fans have been clamouring for since Bowser's Inside Story. While there are significant pacing issues that means the game takes a while to get going, a simple but engaging battle system and incredibly intriguing second half of the story helps to keep Brothership on course.

SECTOR.sk - Michal Korec - Slovak - 9 / 10

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.

Shacknews - Ozzie Mejia - 9 / 10

Mario has ventured to massive worlds before. He's even surfed the cosmos across different galaxies. Rarely has a world in any of his games felt this connected. Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a game about building bonds, the kind that Mario shares with his cherished brother.

Stevivor - Matt Gosper - 9.5 / 10

With so many bespoke moments for each little mini-story, complete with unique minigames and interesting character arcs, Brothership is bursting at the seams with fun things to do.

TheSixthAxis - Stefan L - 7 / 10

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a welcome return for the other Mario RPG series, taking a more straightforward, less gimmicky approach to bring new players into the fold. The rhythm of the brothers in combat is pleasingly engaging, as ever, and there's a solid adventure here, but it's just lacking that spark to match the franchise's very best.

VGC - Andy Robinson - 4 / 5

Mario & Luigi Brothership is a triumphant return for the series, maintaining the spirit and action-oriented platforming of its predecessors, coupled with fantastic exploration and satisfying battle mechanics.

WellPlayed - Kieron Verbrugge - 8 / 10

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.

 

[justiceiro]

Way better than I expected

 

[hemo memo]

5 from IGN

 

[DonF]

unexpectedly low for a mario rpg game.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Overall length? Post-game content? Can you save after the credits? That’s all I need to know.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

5 from IGN

I wouldn’t go by the outlier. Look at the overall consensus and average.

 

[Davevil]

the artstyle is wrong

 

[Roman Empire]

IGN being the con-artist they are. Veilguard gets a 9 but Brothership gets a 5? Holy macaroni!

 

[amigastar]

Never been a big fan of the Mario and Luigi Rpgs, i think i will pass on this one.

 

[Banjo64]

If Luigi was non-binary this would have got 10/10 from IGN.

 

[tkscz]

unexpectedly low for a mario rpg game.

7s, 8s, and 9s are low for a Mario RPG game? I've seen much lower, those are really good scores. Plus the 7s say nothing but good things about the games, just bothered mostly by back tracking and some bloat which is in pretty much all Mario & Luigi RPGs.

 

[Punished Miku]

Splatoon / Starfox / Metroid / Wii Fit RPG please.

 

[hemo memo]

I wouldn’t go by the outlier. Look at the overall consensus and average.

I know, but the outlier is not some unknown website. This is IGN, and 5 is a really bad score by their standards. Keep in mind it says nothing about the quality of the game but how terribly inconsistent IGN's reviews are.

 

[tommib]

If Luigi was non-binary this would have got 10/10 from IGN.

Are we sure he isn’t?

 

[Hookshot]

5 from IGN

Makes it as good as Slitterhead

 

[Branded]

5 from IGN

I mean we know that IGN is the perpetual contrarian but perhaps Brothership is actually mediocre?

Then again it's kind of hard to take IGN serious these days with their random ass scores and their infamous Alien Isolation review.

 

[KàIRóS]

IGNorant clowns

 

[Branded]

I have to say, if the handholding is as egregious as IGN shows in their review then it's not for me. I hate it when games take away control (or the player's camera) whenever you enter a new area and draw it out to boot. Let me explore at my own pace!
The "overly chatty" dialogue is a big no-no in my book as well. You don't need to have tons of exposition or yappin' to tell a great story or explain mechanics.

It's a shame as I was really looking forward to this but it appears to be aimed at younger audiences (which is fine) but I'll skip the ship myself then.

 

[Fake]

5 from IGN

After Dragon Age everything is possible.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

I have to say, if the handholding is as egregious as IGN shows in their review then it's not for me. I hate it when games take away control (or the player's camera) whenever you enter a new area and draw it out to boot. Let me explore at my own pace!
The "overly chatty" dialogue is a big no-no in my book as well. You don't need to have tons of exposition or yappin' to tell a great story or explain mechanics.

It's a shame as I was really looking forward to this but it appears to be aimed at younger audiences (which is fine) but I'll skip the ship myself then.

Overly chatty dialogue? It’s a turn-based RPG. That’s the hallmark of these types of games. The question isn’t how much dialogue there is, the question is the writing good?

Specifically, Mario RPGs in general are all aimed at younger audiences, but allow for complex game systems for those that want the extra challenge. They’re all like that.

 

[tkscz]

IGNorant clowns

IGN lost their credibility a long time ago. Also how is Luigi's role for puzzle-solving and exploration a pain? The controls for every game is that you control both and use either mario or luigi to solve a puzzle in a silly cartoonish way. Why specify Luigi?

 

[Branded]

Overly chatty dialogue? It’s a turn-based RPG. That’s the hallmark of these types of games. The question isn’t how much dialogue there is, the question is the writing good?

Specifically, Mario RPGs in general are all aimed at younger audiences, but allow for complex game systems for those that want the extra challenge. They’re all like that.

Yeah that's fair enough but it's not for me. Though I would argue that just because it's a certain genre it doesn't need to have certain tropes or 'hallmarks'. Nintendo writing is mostly very witty and charming but sometimes it can also get in the way.

The 5/10 score from IGN is harsh but I can see where the guy is coming from tbh. The performance issues shouldn't be overlooked either and makes me wonder how it managed to release in such a shoddy state to begin with.

 

[KàIRóS]

This one has me confused AF too

Wait that sounds like a good game to me WTF?! do these reviewers even reread what they wrote?

 

[Little Mac]

79 metacritic?!?!

 

[crobb2305]

ign can piss off... havent been good at reviewing games in years.

if luigi was trans itd be 10 out 10

 

[DanielG165]

I just laugh at IGN these days. They haven’t been relevant nor a trustworthy source in over 10 years.

 

[GametimeUK]

This one has me confused AF too

Wait that sounds like a good game to me WTF?! do these reviewers even reread what they wrote?

That sounds exactly like what a sequel is supposed to accomplish. Strange quote.

 

[Robb]

Seems to be in line with the rest of the series.

That IGN review though.. Although if this is true;

This is easily one of the worst-performing Nintendo games on Switch – worse than Link’s Awakening but not quite to the level of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet – with incessant framerate issues while exploring the overworld […] it can cause issues during some platforming segments that require precisely timed jumps.

It might be the 9/10 reviews we should be doubting tbh. That sounds bad.

Anyway, can’t wait to play it myself!

 

[Bruno_Arrais85]

I'm playing the "early copy" (around 30h of playtime so far) and I kinda agree with IGN in this one. The overall game loop is kinda boring. I would give it a 7 tho.

 

[Bridges]

If Luigi was non-binary this would have got 10/10 from IGN.

There's a scene where Mario accidentally misgenders a Toad and the proceeds to "pull a Waluigi" by Wah-ing in the corner ten times. It made me feel very seen and I did cry uncontrollably, probably the best writing in a Nintendo RPG so far.

 

[Roman Empire]

This one has me confused AF too

Wait that sounds like a good game to me WTF?! do these reviewers even reread what they wrote?

This has me puzzled. Maybe they expected more but 5 for keeping the core mechanics and giving a solid sequel feels too low. I know in a perfect world a 5/10 world mean not a bad game per se but unremarkable, but we know that anything below a 6/10 generally is considered a dumpster fire.

 

[hemo memo]

If Luigi was non-binary this would have got 10/10 from IGN.

It's funny because it's true.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

I am excited for the game because I have played all of them. While their quality over the life time of all the released games isn't as great as some of the other series that showcase mario&luigi I am surprised by the overall scores here. Will see if the performance referenced in the review is bad enough to warrant the score.

 

[Metnut]

The reviews seem to be saying good things about the game but giving mostly mediocre scores. Weird.

 

[tkscz]

This one has me confused AF too

Wait that sounds like a good game to me WTF?! do these reviewers even reread what they wrote?

Ok, I need to read the entire review because first of all, gimmicks aren't why people don't like those two games. Being RPGs but trying to remove the need for the battles are why I didn't like it.

This sounds like hating for the sake of it.

 

[Astray]

Planning on picking this up once I'm done with ReFantazio and DQ3.

This year (and gen overall) has been incredible for JRPGs tbh. I personally hated the PS360 era because quality JRPGs were becoming rarer, so last gen and this have been good eating for me.

 

[PatientGamer]

A mario game that isn't getting a free pass from gaming media? Wow, is the Moon still where it should be?

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Yeah that's fair enough but it's not for me. Though I would argue that just because it's a certain genre it doesn't need to have certain tropes or 'hallmarks'. Nintendo writing is mostly very witty and charming but sometimes it can also get in the way.

The 5/10 score from IGN is harsh but I can see where the guy is coming from tbh. The performance issues shouldn't be overlooked either and makes me wonder how it managed to release in such a shoddy state to begin with.

It’s an outlier score. The vast, vast majority are all in the 7, 8s and 9s so why all this focus on one score out of 50+ reviews is odd. But to each their own, I guess. It would be more accurate of the quality of the game to look at the overall average scores, and what the general consensus is. Which clearly is positive.

 

[Rran]

I read the IGN review because the score was curiously low, but I can definitely see where the guy is coming from with some of it. And he does seem to be speaking from the perspective of a fan of Nintendo and Mario, not just a dude with some chip on his shoulder.

The writing criticism deserves special mention because it's something I've been saying for years: NOA's writing has gotten actively worse over the past decade, and most recently it really bugged me in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. NPCs are flavorless and lack verve. Everyone has the same tone. Much of the story with NPCs was about characters having minor emotional woes and talking about their feelings at length. IF a character broke the rules even a little (like in the Gerudo beetle-slaying sidequest) they had to show that they were sorry and were going to fix things and be better and all that junk. Tri's dialogue was entirely bland and repetitive. And the M&L series is no stranger to having way too many text boxes to say way too little.

It's not even about the amount of dialogue because I love visual novels like Phoenix Wright. It's that the dialogue is overly-simplistic and uninteresting. It's like a small step above Pokemon levels now for crying out loud.

Granted, I haven't played the game, but the story complaints sound like exactly what I'd expect with modern Treehouse writing. I'd say their last great localization work was 2012's Kid Icarus Uprising. Gimme a story with that level of fun and personality please!

 

[TheAtomicPile]

As someone who only has time for gaming after everyone else is in bed, I was worried that this one would fail my personal "Will it put me to sleep?" test.

If IGN is right that it's full of extended sequences of poorly written dialogue, hand holding, and braindead objectives, I think this one's a skip for me.

Nintendo has been falling into the hand-holdy / braindead trap more and more lately and it makes me sad.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

It's time to ditch the numbered score and go with Karack's review system that doesn't allow for divisive politics by abusing scores.

 

[Rran]

I know people are joking about IGN's low score being politically motivated, but if anything, Nintendo of America's writing has become overly sanitized, pronoun-neutral* corporate fluff in-line with "modern market demands" and deserves to be criticized. Y'all are pointing fingers at the wrong target.

*Echoes of Wisdom did this weird thing where many non-human characters such as the floating partner Tri were "they/them." This was especially egregious with the Dekus who've already been established as male and female (and are even designed that way with mustaches etc) as far back as Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

 

[nial]

Are you guys going to cry about IGN and the woke mob in every review thread?
I say that as someone who is looking forward to this game (mostly due to the dev behind it).A bit worried about the writing and performance, but I'll wait until it's out.

 

[mckmas8808]

unexpectedly low for a mario rpg game.

Super surprised.

 

[mckmas8808]

It's time to ditch the numbered score and go with Karack's review system that doesn't allow for divisive politics by abusing scores.

Or just accept that some games that we are looking forward to, sometimes don't score well.

 

[Emedan]

As someone who only has time for gaming after everyone else is in bed, I was worried that this one would fail my personal "Will it put me to sleep?" test.

If IGN is right that it's full of extended sequences of poorly written dialogue, hand holding, and braindead objectives, I think this one's a skip for me.

Nintendo has been falling into the hand-holdy / braindead trap more and more lately and it makes me sad.

Let’s not forget the Wii and Mario Galaxys DVD tutorial on how to move a thumb stick..

I think IGNs score seem harsh if you compare it to other reviews. I’m picking it up and shall see for myself.

 

[The Wheel of Fortune]

I'm surprised it's reviewing so badly -- sure, the start was quite slow for my liking, but the animations have been quite good and the characters have been interesting so far. I've been enjoying my time with it a lot and I just defeated the first major boss.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Super surprised.

Or just accept that some games that we are looking forward to, sometimes don't score well.

The Metacritic is 79. Why is everyone making such a big deal about one score out of dozens and dozens? There’s always outliers with any game launch, this is no different. Other than some making such a big to do about it. Very odd

 

[Lokaum D+]

5 from IGN

to white guys killing every diversity character in the game, i m impressed that didnt get a 0

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

I'm surprised it's reviewing so badly -- sure, the start was quite slow for my liking, but the animations have been quite good and the characters have been interesting so far. I've been enjoying my time with it a lot and I just defeated the first major boss.

How is it “reviewing badly”? It’s at a 79 Metacritic. IGN is one score. Out of several dozen. There are always outliers.