As the Nintendo Switch is on the precipice of being replaced by a successor console, Nintendo has sought fit to give the successful piece of hardware one last turn-based RPG based on its franchise mascots. Mario & Luigi: Brothership releases in the tail end of 2024 to bring with its the unique version of gameplay and storytelling that only comes from one of these non-platforming Super Mario Bros. games.

Like with many games from the years of Super Mario Bros., we’re off to somewhere new outside of the familiar Mushroom Kingdom. This time we’re in Concordia, a world broken apart that needs to be stitched back together through the course of the game. The titular Mario and Luigi are joined by newcomers Snoutlet (the game’s Navi that moves stuff along) and Connie, who is seeking to fix the world, as well as many other characters that come aboard as you join more of the land together.

Homebase is Shipshape Island which you can see in the header image above – an island that is also a ship and a big reason why this game is called “Brothership”. Get it? Shipshape is not just your main hub world, but a central gathering point that all the islands will join to as you progress.

The gameplay loop in Brothership goes like this: sail across the sees using a map that Shipshape will follow, find a new island and travel to it, explore and defeat enemies to claim the island as yours, upgrade your gear and go again. Between all that new unlocks will happen, the brothers will level up and Shipshape will gain many new NPCs which were inhabitants of the islands.

The initial introduction to all this, the overall presentation of the game and the opening few hours of Brothership are all superb. If the Nintendo Seal of Quality in any reasonable way, this is exactly the kind of game it would be about. Everything is so vibrant and fun with an astounding attention to detail and a mirror polish.

Unfortunately this sheen wears away as hours are added to the playtime. Not because the quality of the game decreases (the opposite is true as the worlds and combat become more interesting), but because of the horrendous lopsided nature of the game. We’d usually save a criticism like this for later in the review, but it’s so pervasive that it has to be said now.

Let’s talk some napkin maths, some real “what feels right” numbers. 50 percent of this game is walking around, exploring and solving puzzles which is arguably the worst part of the experience. Around 30 percent is dialogue and story stuff which is maybe worse depending on opinions. The last 20 is the actual fun part of the game: combat, levelling, gearing up and other RPG-related mechanics.

This may make us sound like simpletons that only like combat in games, but the exploration and story in Brothership we found was either a bore or actively annoying. Anyone who dislikes kid characters or the dreaded kid sidekick is going to absolutely loathe large portions of this game.

The story, dialogue and character writing are all outright bad. We hate to be so blunt and dismissive but it’s been a while since we were so actively annoyed by writing in a game, especially a Nintendo title where there isn’t even voice acting. We kind of believe that someone involved with this game believes it too since holding down the B button will fast-forward almost all dialogue.

The exploration is less offensive but often feels like it’s wasting your time. Mario and Luigi could have easily had a double or at least 50 percent increase in their walking speed to make getting around faster, and many annoying elements like “trail by failure” puzzles and scavenger hunting should have been cut or reduced in time.

All of this is a real shame because the turn-based combat and other mechanics which feed into it are all great. The combat itself is heavily rhythm-based as, while this is turn-based, timed button presses are needed. If you can’t nail these to do extra damage, dodge or counter, you won’t make it far.

Brothership’s biggest attempt at innovation in this space is the Battle Plug system. By collecting a certain resource, you can craft Battle Plugs that have effects in battle. These can change absolutely every aspect of combat and acts as a complete gamechanger once it’s unlocked.

To make Battle Plugs unique compared to other gear in other games, each plug has a charge that is used up every time that plug’s effect comes into action. Once depleted the plug needs to be swapped out and left to recharge.

The system goes even deeper than that too, as certain plugs create special combos and you can freely swap plugs in and out inside of combat without using up your turn.

It’s a great system and, without it, the combat would have fallen flat just like the exploration and story.

What excited us less in the RPG mechanics here is the levelling and equipment. Levelling is very straightforward with flat stat increases and certain bonuses at level milestones. The one unique element here is that Mario and Luigi have differing stats and this needs to be balanced with equipment. For example: Mario hits harder and Luigi has more defence. You could assign gear to make them both more well-rounded, or you could go full glass cannon with Mario and make a tank build out of Luigi.

Unfortunately the gear is a bit too milquetoast for that example to fully come into fruition. Almost all new gear is better stats-wise as it unlocks and the only real trade-offs happen very rarely when a piece of gear will offer a unique benefit over raw stats.

The pool of items is extremely shallow and uninteresting, and that is made worse by the lack of visual customisation. Mario and Luigi don’t change their appearances based on their gear which is a massive missed opportunity. Visual changes would have been a massive incentive to find all the gear in the game and try it out, unlike how the game actually works where you’re linearly replacing old gear with obviously better stuff has you go.

Man at some point a vendor even offers “high heel boots” as a piece of gear. We wanted to see what that would look like, but no dice.

This game’s combat and progression system is very flawed but it is, by far, the most enjoyable part of the whole experience. With a few more tweaks to gear and progression this could have been something special, but right now it’s fun enough.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is an odd duck. Many elements bring down would have could been a modern classic, but there are way too many holes here to suggest that one or two more revisions before release could have turned things around.

What we do have is heavily flawed but we can’t deny the huge amount of fun we had once we’d mastered the combat and the internal drive the game created in us to plough through the story and exploration to get back to the good parts.

FINAL SCORE: 6 OUT OF 10.