After a long nine years of replaying old games and remakes, the beloved Mario and Luigi RPG (Role Playing Game) series is finally back in the new Nintendo Switch game, Mario and Luigi: Brothership. 

It’s bizarre to believe (let alone see) this game series reappearing beside new similar titles, namely Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario. But unlike these titles, which only got remakes, Mario and Luigi: Brothership is an entirely new addition to the five-game series, making this the sixth installment, landing nearly a decade after the last one. 

The Mario and Luigi series dates back to 2003, with their first game being Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, running on the GameBoy Advanced. The second game and direct sequel, Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, launched on the DS console in 2005. Four years later, Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story launched on the same console, with Mario and Luigi: Dream Team launching on the 3DS in 2013. Last in the series currently is Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam, a mix of the M&L series and Paper Mario debuting in 2015. Superstar Saga and Inside Story later got remakes for the 3Ds console in 2017 and 2018 titled Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions and Bowser’s inside Story + Bowser Jr’s Journey, but the series would hold with five games and two remakes until 2024.

Each title is unique and chock full of witty writing, interesting and unique characters, and an innovative plot without the overused “Peach is Captured by Bowser; save her” scheme we see in most mainline Mario games. While Bowser is present in every M&L game and is the most fought character, (having around 12 boss fights throughout the main five games), the main villains are always new to the game and fit the setting and full story (with the exception of Paper Jam). 

Thankfully, from what we’ve seen in the trailers, Brothership will follow the same route with a new setting and villain centering on electricity. Much like the first installment, Superstar Saga, where every aspect of the game involved beans in some way, Brothership involves electrical appliances. Although the new game more heavily takes inspiration from Dream Team, with its look, aesthetic, and villains. In that game the theme was pillows and anything relating to sleep, with the world called Pi’illo Island and the villain named Antazma, prince of nightmares.

BBCHS graduate and adamant Nintendo fan, Parker, agrees that, in regards to video game series additions, the games should ideally keep the core identity of the series and improve on any flaws of the previous games while maintaining or building upon integral characteristics. This would mean Brothership needs to keep a good majority of its concepts from the previous games while also making a creative experience regarding those concepts. 

Parker also says, “I’m neutral (about Brothership) for the time being, just watching your obsession” to which I say, fair enough.

The development team behind the entire Mario and Luigi series, AlphaDream, was a small video game company of no more than 40 people. Unfortunately, due to low income and an overwhelming debt, the company filed for bankruptcy on October 1 of 2019, with their last project being Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020. 

Many fans (including myself) fear that this new game will fail to include that AlphaDream spark the first few games had. In every single game so far, a common collectable object you could find were beans scattered around the map you could dig up and trade in for stat boosts. However, The Brothership trailer had no bean sprouts in the ground, so either they weren’t in the areas showcased in the trailer, or this will be the first game where beans can’t be collected. Which would be devastating since the collectible is a direct reference to the first game.

As previewed by both the trailer and popular blog SuperMarioBroth, the animation for Brothership uses some of the common techniques seen in the old games. While every Mario and Luigi RPG has used 2D character sprites, Brothership will be the first game to use newly rendered 3D models and have a non-pixelated look that was unattainable on the DS consoles. And with the new, smooth look of the characters, their movements are also exaggerated or stretched to give the game that cartoony feel. The older games also did this to an extent, but instead used smear frames and exaggerated sprites to simulate whatever motion was being used.

With the animation, concept, characters, and plot looking like an original Mario and Luigi game, it will be interesting to see how this game stands up to its past success in the long run. It won’t be the new bestseller, but it’ll hopefully be close, and fans will be able to finally get a new, real Mario and Luigi game. By the time this is published the game will be out and in the hands of fans and newcomers alike, and no matter the outcome, I hope everyone playing it has fun and stops to appreciate the series as a whole.