Mario & Luigi: Brothership

I like the game but there’s TOO MUCH dialogue and the story feels like it never ends.

Game was a lot longer than expected, and felt like it dragged on at the end.
Overall, I really did enjoy playing this game, and I’m excited to see Nintendo revive this series, and will hopefully see more to the Mario and Luigi series in the future.

This game is what I have been wanting since the last entry in this series. I played the heck out of this thing and enjoyed every moment of it. To start at the obvious, the gameplay is obviously the main attraction here. From the various bros attacks to the simple jump and hammer attacks, it all feels incredible. The button timing combat makes this game so fun. I ran away from enemies maybe 2% of the time in my 55+ hour playthrough, the combat is that fun. The plugs also are such an incredible addition. At first it doesn't seem useful, then it becomes useful but boring, but at a certain point, everything clicks and the spark plugs become one of the most fun features in any game ever. It really is an incredible addition. The gear and leveling up is what you can expect from a mario and luigi game, its great. A very high point for me was the story. I never associated a good narrative with mario games, and although the narrative here is extremely basic, the characters and their relationships makes this game a joy to play through and actually want to know what happens. The whole premise revolves around people's relationships with one another, and the characters are all so fun and unique, you genuinely want to know what happens to them throughout your journey. I've seen this game get a lot of complaints and I don't see why. I find the levels really fun with all the different islands to explore. Each island is truly unique besides three islands that are closely related, on purpose however. And the things you do for the most part is different so it's constantly refreshing. I also don't understand the complaints with the side missions. Yes, some are fetch quests, but those quests are few and far between and are super quick. Most side missions enhance the stories of the side characters, which is what makes the narrative as great as it is to me. The one complaint I can agree with is the end of the game. The start of the game to me is not as slow as people say, but the last 15-20% of the game is a little tedious. There are parts in it that are really cool, but others that feel like some completely unnecessary padding considering the game would still be lengthy without it. All in all though, that didn't take away much from my overall experience. The game is 100% a must play in my opinion. It's a true return to form for the series with maybe a few mistakes made by the developers on the design like luigi being a little too independent at times, but if this game ever gets a sequel, that next game might be perfect. People go out there and buy this game so we get another :)

I remember Breath of the Wild being described as a modern take on classic Zelda. Going back to the original NES game and bringing its routes back for a modern audience. Mario and Luigi: Brothership feels like that but for Superstar Saga. Not that the other games in the series don’t evolve the series but the way they built on the series was always on the premise first. Finding funny cartoon subversions of classic Mario. But Brothership wants you to feel engrossed in the world of Concordia in the way you do with Bean Kingdom. And not only does it excel at that but it gets you emotional about it. I genuinely grew to care about the characters of this and wanted Mario and Luigi to save the day, getting really sad when the story was over. And to think kids will have a game like this that’s funny along with having a strong positive message, puts a warm smile on my face. This game was great.

Has some nice ideas in the combat system and the main villain has potential (unfulfilled), but drags for way too long thus making the adventure muddled and repetitive. Also, writing in general feels like the Mario RPG with less original ideas

Thin and stretched. This game does not do enough to make the majority of its playtime enjoyable. Decent Mario and Luigi combat is not enough to make up for going back and forth between the same locations to talk to robotically written NPCs who all look the same with multiple long loading times for each battle and screen transition. The final battle was fun but not enough to justify the rest of the game.