Way back when I used to play Mario & Luigi RPGs on the Nintendo DS, I always got a kick out of how they cleverly blended controls for both Mario and Luigi with button-mapping. As a result, it felt like you were taking both brothers on an adventure. The Nintendo Switch gains a new Mario & Luigi title just as the Nintendo Switch feels like it's at the end of its life cycle, and while the game is a welcome bit of fun, its graphics performance is making the Switch show its age.
We're in a weird spot for the Switch right now. Good games keep coming, but a Switch 2 is a product Nintendo has already admitted is coming in the next year. In the meantime, Switch games are starting to feel like they're holding the fort for that console's arrival, along with a possible run of new games made specifically for it.
As much as I've enjoyed my hours playing Mario & Luigi: Brothership so far, it's a familiar formula for Nintendo. Turn-based RPGs with timing-based mechanics have been plentiful on the Switch, from Paper Mario: Origami King to the remake of Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. This is the first Mario & Luigi game since Bowser's Inside Story on the Nintendo 3DS back in 2018, though, so fans of this particular series are probably thrilled it's back again. But to me, the Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario games have shared a lot of game styles and an offbeat sense of humor, so it doesn't seem like that long an absence.
Brothership has an interesting structure, where a giant island-shaped ship rides the ocean, discovering other lost islands, in a journey to reconnect the adorable world of Concordia. The ocean-bound discovery reminded me a bit of the classic The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, although the on-rails nature of the way the ship rides track-shaped currents to find new areas also felt like the old Nintendo DS Zelda game Spirit Tracks (deep cut there!).
Finding islands, discovering the secrets and challenges in each, and collecting upgrades and new battle techniques for Mario and Luigi while wandering around the 3D islands and doing some puzzly platforming is most of what this game's about. Battles, which are triggered when an enemy gets near you, can get tiring after a while. I felt this way about turn-based battles in Origami King, too. Sometimes I just want to get ahead and find the next island or interesting boss battle. Story and discovery are what interested me, not battles.
The platforming style of some parts of the game is fun, but it's still more of a turn-based RPG.
The relaxed style of Brothership lends itself well to playing in bits and pieces on the go, and nothing feels too incredibly demanding so far. What's a little disappointing is the game's frame rate at times. It gets particularly choppy during moments that otherwise feel like 3D instances of a living Mario and Luigi cartoon.
It's all playable, but it's the sort of compromise I've gotten used to in some recent games on the Switch. The 7-year-old hardware has had a great run, but it's time for a console upgrade that can make these games shine even more.
Am I deeply in love with Brothership so far? Not exactly. Am I enjoying playing it? Absolutely. Much like a solid book you can lose yourself in, this does the job. But it also feels a tiny bit forgettable among a deep roster of amazing Nintendo Switch games.
I found Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom to be more my style, but Brothership is another really good RPG in a lineup of impressively deep Nintendo RPGs already on the Switch. Do we need another? I didn't, but it's hard to complain. I just hope that Brothership and lots of other recent Switch games are on deck to get beautiful upgrades once Nintendo finally announces its next-gen Switch, sometime in the next year.