Review: MARIO & LUIGI: FRATELLATA Sailing on (almost) calm waters

Earlier this month, Nintendo released Mario and Luigi: Brotherhood on Nintendo Switch. The game was developed by Acquire and is the first game in the series since 2015 Mario and Luigi: Paper jam for Nintendo 3DS.

This is my first foray into Mario&Luigi series, but I’ve heard great things about it, so I was excited to give it as a gift Brotherhood ago. Nintendo provided me with a digital code for this review, but all thoughts are my own. If you want to play it you can purchase it from your favorite retailers including GameStop (affiliate link) and Humble (affiliate link) with an MSRP of $59.99.

The brothers return for a new adventure on the high seas! When the Uni-Tree is destroyed and the world of Concordia is torn apart, Mario and Luigi must try to reconnect a fractured world, one island at a time.

The first thing you’ll notice Brotherhood it’s the artistic style. The cel-shaded animation really pops and looks great. All the characters look fun and lively and have a personality which is always great to see in a game.

In terms of performance, I didn’t notice any major issues with the game. Maybe I notice something here or there, but it’s never been a decline or problem large enough to warrant any complaints.

In game terms, Brotherhood It’s very similar to other RPGs. You walk around an overworld as Mario and Luigi and can interact with some objects like blocks, crates and buttons, but when you encounter an enemy it switches to a turn-based combat system.

In the overworld there are some puzzles and such that you have to solve in various ways, and as you progress you’ll unlock abilities that allow you to revisit certain parts of the previous islands. Then we get to the combat and, in my opinion, this is my least favorite part of Brothership.

The fight of Brotherhood has some things that go against it in my book. First, you only have two characters (sometimes just one) and for the first few hours everything they can do is identical, except Luigi doesn’t do it as well because he’s your defense/support character.

Eventually, the differences are displayed via Bros Moves, but you won’t want to use them constantly since they use BP. This means that at least 80% of the fight tells Mario and Luigi to use the hammer or jump attacks, and about 50% of the time this is dictated based on the enemies you’re facing (some enemies can only be hit with a or the other).

This makes the combat very monotonous and repetitive in my opinion. Combine that with every single attack and counterattack requiring good timing and it becomes frustrating. I know this concept is not new, especially in Mario RPG, but sometimes I don’t want to worry about pressing the A or B button at the right time (not sure when yet) to complete a BASIC ATTACK!

I’m also not a fan of the fact that AoE attacks are only available via Bros Moves or with a Battle Plug. This really makes the first few hours feel a bit boring because I would get sucked into a battle with multiple enemies and just want to continue the story.

That said, there are some interesting things about the combat Brotherhood. You eventually unlock Battle Plugs which augment various aspects of combat. Some of them involve automatically using a specific item like a mushroom when a trigger is met.

Others provide increased damage to specific enemy types and/or when a specific condition is met. Meanwhile, there are some that have various effects such as making Excellent attacks have small area damage or making it easier to perform counterattacks.

There’s quite a bit of variety and I like the Battle Plug system. Each plug has a different number of uses before needing to be recharged for a certain number of turns. Thankfully, you don’t need your turn to swap spikes as needed during combat. This flexibility is amazing to have.

Another aspect of combat that I like Brotherhood involves Luigi. Luigi Logic is an action that happens during boss fights where Luigi will have a stroke of genius during the fight to use something in the environment to help him and Mario gain the upper hand.

You don’t technically have to use it to win boss fights, but they help a lot by dealing a lot of damage or inflicting some kind of condition on the boss to make it more susceptible to damage from what I’ve seen. Each one is unique and requires some timing skills unique to each Luigi Logic, but for something as big as this, I don’t mind having to do a timing minigame.

What’s the story? Brotherhood? Mario, Luigi and other inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom are transported to the world of Concordia, which was once a pangea but has more recently been divided into several islands. Mario (and later Luigi) are tasked with helping connect all the islands again.

As you play you come across the obnoxious (but silly) Extension Corps and have to stop them. Sure, I haven’t finished the story (I’m about 10-11 hours into the game and I just finished Lottacoins Island for reference), but I’m enjoying it. Is it the deepest and most complex story? No. But so far it’s good.

The characters you meet, like IDLE, are also very entertaining. Also, I like Luigi’s characterization. It’s a bit of a scaredy-cat and a klutz that struggles to stick to landings as you launch yourself onto each island via cannon, but it’s also creative (reminiscent of the Luigi Logic mechanic I talked about earlier). There are times in the overworld where Luigi suddenly gets an idea and unlocks an ability like spinning jump or ball.

This brings me to what I think is the real star Brotherhood: the music. Sure, the overall sound design is really good, but the music is incredible. When will we add it? Nintendo Music?

It sounds very jazzy and fast, perfect for gaming. Hell, listen to the battle theme. I find the combat boring at times, but the music sucks! This is definitely a point in the game’s favor, there is no doubt about that.

Outside of combat, are there any other problems? Well, some people may notice performance issues more (based on a quick Google search), but there are other areas that seem a little weak. A good three hours or so pass before the game feels like it’s really started.

The beginning seems a bit boring. Additionally, you’ll have to wait every seven levels to unlock new perks like faster EXP gain, the ability to equip a second accessory, or a stat bonus. I wish these would happen a little more frequently. Also, in RPGs it bothers me when my characters don’t level up at the same time, which is made worse (for me) when there are only two characters.

I’m at a point in the game where Mario is probably a few hundred EXP ahead of Luigi and I’m not aware of any way (yet at least) to capture Luigi.

At the end of the day, Brotherhood It’s not perfect, but I had fun playing it for the most part. I can’t compare it to other Mario & Luigi titles, but on its own I think it’s a good game.

Many of my complaints are very subjective and many will think I’m crazy for complaining about them. That’s right. On a personal level, I would give Brotherhood a 7.5/10, so we’ll go ahead and round up.