Although the attention is on Super Mario Party Jamboree this week, next month sees the arrival of the new RPG Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
If you haven't already seen our own 'hands on' here on Nintendo Life, we think this entry will be worth the wait as it seems to take the best bits from the AlphaDream playbook:
"The wait for a new Mario and Luigi RPG has felt like a long time coming, but, from what we've seen so far, Brothership is going to be well worth the wait. We still don't know the development team behind this one — though Nintendo has confirmed that "some of the original developers" are involved — but this entry already feels like it has taken all of the best bits from the AlphaDream playbook."
As for the other critics, here's what's been said so far in the latest round of previews:
RPG Site:
"Mario & Luigi: Brothership’s scope is certainly wider, and its console-bound presentation is a beauty to behold. The RPG mechanics are bigger and bolder than ever. But in all the right ways, it’s still got that smallness and coziness"
God Is A Geek:
"Fans of the series will lap this one up, I am sure. But Mario & Luigi: Brothership also has a level of challenge and deep gameplay mechanics that run far deeper than its super-bright cartoon aesthetics. It looks like being one of the best entries in the series thus far and I am excited to see what more fun I can have sailing around Concordia with two of gaming’s most beloved and enduring icons."
Mashable:
"It seems like experimentation will pay off in Brothership, which is a hallmark of any decent RPG...Between that and a simple leveling system in which you choose from a series of permanent upgrades at set level intervals, it seems like Brothership has enough customization to bolster the tactile satisfaction of the combat."
NME:
"Mario & Luigi games have always been fan-favourites, but the future looked bleak after longtime developers AlphaDream went bankrupt in 2019. Brothership has been worked on by some of the original team (though Nintendo is keeping which studio has created the game under wraps for the time being) and from what we experienced, the whole thing has been lovingly created."
Are you excited about this upcoming Mario & Luigi release? Tell us in the comments.
Comments 38
This is a game I'm definitely going to have to be sold on after it's already been out awhile. I'm open to the possibility of it but really the only Mario & Luigi game I actually particularly like is Superstar Saga and even then I'm not really super fond of it. And Paper Jam in particular I honestly kind of hated even more than Sticker Star, game just felt interminable.
@Lizuka What's keeping you from fully clicking with them?
The core gameplay sounds like it's solid, even if there are cracks in the art direction I personally can't ignore.
This will be the first mario luigi game in the alphadream (plus this one) series i ever play. Looking forward to it :]
@N00BiSH Mostly it's just that I think Superstar Saga suffers a lot from being really overly aggressive with its tutorials, thinking it's way funnier than it actually is, and constantly breaking up the game's momentum with pointless minigames and every subsequent game those problems just get worse and worse.
I can at least recognize the appeal and I've played most of them - never touched Dream Team but I've beaten Partners in Time twice, Paper Jam once, and tapped out like halfway through Inside Story - but they're just not for me.
@Lizuka I think the tutorials are the most justified in Superstar - it WAS the first game in a then-new subseries after all - but I get it, they do tend to kill the pace, especially by Dream Team.
I also think the minigames improve as the series goes on, especially in BIS, but I'm not here to change your mind and you've given them enough of a chance to warrant your take.
I just find it so amazing that Nintendo has created so many great (8) or excellent (9) games this generation in most series. This most likely will turn out as one as well, when reading through the previews. Their floor is consistently high (except maybe for a few games such as everybody 1-2-switch).
And most games have been original but kept their core to appease the fans.
As an RPG fan, can't wait for this one now too!
Just curious.
Is there any summon magic in the game like Paper Mario Sticker Star / Color Splash?
@N00BiSH The art direction is immaculate. Very expressive, beautiful, and charming.
"𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒂𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒖𝒑" what are we dogs? lol
@SlasherZ from a surface-level perspective sure, but I've studying Mario & Luigi's visual style for a while now and I wouldn't say Brothership nails the transition to 3D - not entirely. But I'm keeping my full thoughts on the art to myself until I get the game in my hands.
So looking forward to this one!!!
Mario RPGs/Paper Marios are my fav kind of Mario game.
Because we have yet to hear otherwise, I am choosing to stay with my wild card guess.
"1st Sep 2024.
If not yet confirmed then my wild card guess...Summerfall Studios are doing it. Those behind Stray Gods.
Lol."
@N00BiSH The transition from 3D is nearly perfect here. It very reminiscent of the old artwork AlphaDream used to make. It looks so good.
@SlasherZ All I have to say for now is that it's a good first step, but there's room for improvement.
@Lizuka Same, I replayed the original on NSO thinking I beat it long ago when I borrowed it (I guess I never did because there's a lot I don't remember) and there's a lot of problems I had with the game that I kept putting it down and picking it up weeks/months later. I also found the overworld switching annoying
This game Pfff looks amazing. It has everything i want in a Mario rpg. The funny clumsy stuff is finally back.
I only hope we see more classic Mario attacks, fire flower etc. But for now, day one from me.
This game and Mario Party will be the two last games i buy for this switch. After that i wait for the switch 2.
@NintonicGamer if that what it takes for me to get more M&L then yes.
Can’t wait for this. Love the M&L series!
Sounds good. I am also glad that a part of the original Alpha Dream team has worked on Brothership.
It will be a day one buy or pre order.
Love to hear it, so looking forward to finally playing Mario & Luigi again thanks to Brothership (obviously preordered it physically and slightly discounted as soon as my usual retailer here in Italy had it)!
Never played a Mario & Luigi game before but I am super excited for this one and have it pre-ordered based on the previews and trailers. Can't wait!
The image of Mario and Luigi used in this article is dreadful! Did Nintendo really share that with media to use to promote the game?! Or have NL created this "asset" - the quality is really poor and the art style is... yikes! Maybe it's just too zoomed in. In any case, it's not selling the game to me...!!
I’m a newcomer to rpg Mario. I played GBA superstar saga a few months ago and loved it. That led me on to thousand year door, which I also loved. So I’m really excited for this.
I think after that football kick animation we can assume it’s next level games makers of Mario Strikers and Luigi’s Mansion 3
I wasn’t expecting the games to be coming so fast and furious this late in the switch’s life - I just pre-bought Mario party and now this, I can’t keep up!
This year has seen some very big releases for Switch and this late in its lifecycle, I must admit that it's great to see Nintendo still going strong with it. This gives me a lot of hope for the future console.
This game will surely be added to my extensive library. I don't think I've ever owned so many (physical) games on any platform before!
That full NME hands-on write up is atrocious. It reads like someone who isn't a Nintendo fan trying to appear like a super fan by naming as many Nintendo franchises as possible. Much like a former editor from around these parts, whose name shall not be mentioned.
Love the previous games, and played them to death, so a lot of hope on this one, I will get around to it once I am though a few backlog games
@SwitchplayerJohn Doubtful, since Next Level Games are in Canada and this game has been developed in part by some of the old developers formerly from Alphadream which was in Japan. Unless NLG did some support work on the animations.
I continue to be shocked by people's reactions to the art style in this game. It's charming the hell out of me and I consider it the best the bros have ever looked in a video game, but in every article there's people in the comments bashing the art direction, saying things from "it looks like a fan game" to just "yikes". I truly don't get it.
Oh, well. I'll just wait for the New Frame Plus video on the game so I can listen to someone who appreciates character animation as much as (or, who am I kidding, way WAY more than) me.
Caaannttt waaaaaiittt…!
I’m playing through silent hill 2, and in between finally playing Mario RPG and I’m LOVING that. I don’t want to start Brothership until I beat RPG, and I probably won’t beat RPG until I finish Silent Hill 2. Point is, these 3 gams have my full attention at the moment. After these 3 I’ll have to go back to Zelda, which I put down when Silent Hill 2 came out.
The art style is fantastic. The haters just have bad taste.
Hope I'm wrong, but these almost read like "your blind date has a great personality"
I am realy happy, nintendo finaly used some other graphic pallet. most games look so much the same graphic style. like the world arround mario was already created back in 2016 before swiitch launch. kinda make these games less apealing for me, this is my personal opinnion.
brothership has a total different style wich is great👍
@Lizuka
Why did you play Partner's in Time twice if you didn't like the series?
@Uncle_Franklin Played it when it initially came out, since I thought the first one was okay, and then replayed it a few years ago to see if it'd be any better revisiting it. Wide gap between those playthroughs.
This is a pass for me, out of the 3 rpg styles starring Mario a could never get into these. I just tried the nso version again and blahhh. Give me "paper" or "RPG" any day over "mario&luigi".
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