Mario and Luigi are back once more, in the newest entry in the Mario & Luigi RPG series, this time in Brotherho—Brothership! Following on from the success of Super Mario RPG remake and Paper Mari: The Thousand-Year Door remake, we get a brand new and unique adventure in the Mario & Luigi series.

For the first time in nearly 10 years, we’ve been given a brand new and unique entry, following on from what started with Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga all the way back in 2003 on the Gameboy Advance, Brothership looks to reignite the series that, for better or worse, has somewhat fallen off the radar with gamers. How does Brothership hold up in comparison to not only the other Mario & Luigi titles, but the other Mario RPGs that we’ve had this year as well?

There are some really good parts of Mario & Luigi Brothership, and there are some questionable parts as well. So let’s start with that good. Brothership may have the most responsive and enjoyable combat of the series. The team at Acquire (who you may be familiar with as the developers behind Octopath Traveler), have managed to keep the cooperative and actively involved combat of the Mario & Luigi series whilst putting their own twist on it. The game feels appropriately difficult across the entirety of its length, and learning the correct timings for both your own attacks and the different ways to block attacks feels incredibly rewarding.

The different skills all require you to be pretty precise with your inputs, and the use of two face buttons being assigned to either brother (A and X for Mario, B and Y for Luigi), makes the gameplay almost feel like a rhythm game at times. This is in turn lends itself to feeling competent at the game with great and excellent inputs resulting in more damage. Even timing your dodges can both result in you dealing more damage, or potentially doing a dis-service to yourself by accidentally damaging your own characters. The combat feels incredibly slick, and easily makes the thirty to forty hours experience a mostly enjoyable experience to get through.

On the note of enjoyable experiences, the visual direction of the game is something that grew on me. At first the overall design seemed a little strange. Mario in particular had somewhat strange proportions in the cutscenes. Both characters models seemed a little too leggy, which is an odd thing to say about the typically lanky character that is Luigi. Whilst Mario and Luigi’s design somewhat continued to be bothersome, the rest of the art direction was appealing in contrast. The focus on sockets and electrical appliances as both the NPCS and different enemy and boss varieties felt refreshing and new. Interestingly the main villains despite being unique in their own designs, are very reminiscent of Cackletta. Particularly the main antagonist reminded me heavily of different boss models from the Superstar Saga game.

Unfortunately, beyond the refreshing art direction and deeply enjoyable combat, there is some parts of Mario & Luigi Brothership that really drag it down too. Brothership feels very much like “Baby’s first RPG”, which would be fine, were it not for the fact that both Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door felt far less handholding in their approach, and don’t spend a majority of their game time being overly obnoxious tutorials and ‘lightbulb’ moments. Whilst the game does get better at simply letting you play it as you go, which is appreciated because the gameplay is so much fun, it never stops being almost insulting in the way that it treats you as the player.

Further to this, the story itself feels like it could have been fleshed out far more. The villains feel more comedic relief than threatening, and the bosses throughout the game don’t actually feel all that intimidating. Which is frustrating because there are moments where the game really feels like it was on the cusp of having a deeper narrative. Approaching the bright world in a way that could also show a nasty and darker side without being innately ‘horrifying’. It feels like the developers were scared of treating the game too much like the previous entries, that in turn we are presented with an inoffensive but bland narrative, with far too much hand holding in progress.

Perhaps the most obnoxious change is with ‘Luigi Logic’, which replaced the cooperative overworld abilities. Whilst there are still some cooperative actions, there is not much in the way of using them in an interesting way for puzzle solving. Luigi Logic is basically a slap in the face that there is a puzzle here that needs a modicum of your attention to solve. Ninety percent of the time the Luigi Logic just involves Luigi standing in front of a switch that you hit with his hammer now and then to change a wall or moving platforms direction. This becomes even more offensive when the platforming puzzles are reduced to simply wait here, UFO spin over a gap, or jump at the right time. There is very little in the way of actual challenge.

Whilst previous entries hadn’t had super challenging platforming puzzles, there was always some level of thought involved. Luigi Logic mitigates the necessity of using your brain, as you get a slow and obnoxious little animation of Luigi having his ‘lightbulb’ moment, every single time you come to a new Luigi Logic location. There was an attempt at including this mechanic as a fun part of boss battles, which is probably where it should have been left. As a boss battle mechanic, and not as a puzzle mechanic.

Add to all of that the game never stops treating you like everything is a tutorial, and that the NPCs have about as much interesting personality as a dead door nail, the game feels like it is in two distinct parts. An enjoyable art direction and gameplay loop, with an undercooked and somewhat obnoxious tutorialesque narrative progression and storyline. Brothership is interesting at times but struggles to be as engaging or captivating as other Mario RPGs, and particularly that of the Mario & Luigi RPG series.

Mario & Luigi Brothership is an interesting entry but is definitely the weakest of the three RPGs that we’ve had this year. Brothership has a great gameplay experience when you get to enjoy it, and not having your hand held. Despite Mario and Luigi themselves being somewhat strange in their design, the overall world and art direction of all the other characters is unique and enjoyable, and something that I’d love to see more of in future games. The persistent need to baby the player with repeating tutorials and over the top lightbulb moments mitigates the overall fun of the game, which dulls the good parts of the game. Whilst not a bad game at all, Mario & Luigi Brothership finds itself somewhat middling, which is disappointing in what really needed to be a breakout hit for the somewhat forgotten Mario & Luigi RPG series.