
Nintendo's latest entry in the Mario & Luigi RPG series arrives exclusively on the Switch this week and critic reviews are now rolling in.
If you haven't already seen our review of Mario & Luigi: Brothership here on Nintendo Life, our reviewer PJ O'Reilly gave the game an "excellent" 9 out of 10 stars - mentioning how this latest entry takes the long-running series to "new heights".
"This is a big game, packed full of surprises and fun, and the all-new Battle Plug system, alongside lots of flashy specials, a fittingly emotive art-style, and a world that brimming with puzzles and challenges, make for a must-play in our book."
On Metacritic right now, the aggregate critic score for Brothership is 80 out of 100, and on Open Critic it's got an average of 79 out of 100. So, what did other critics have to say about Mario & Luigi's new high-seas adventure? We've put together this round up to highlight some of the reactions so far.
Starting with Vooks, it thought Brothership was a great way for the Switch to sail off into the sunset, awarding this new title 4.5 out of 5 stars:
"Mario & Luigi Brothership is a joy to play, as well as an excellent entry in the Mario & Luigi series. Even as the Switch era is sailing towards new waters, it is a real treat to see them release such amazing games."
My Nintendo News also had high praise for Brothership scoring it 9 out of 10 and calling it an "exceptional adventure that's just as much about the "journey as it is the destination":
"Whether you’re new to the series or have played every Mario & Luigi game up to this point, the captivating narrative with well-written and comedic characters is sure to keep you thoroughly engaged as you travel from island to island to help reconnect the land of Concordia. From the brain-stimulating puzzles to the extensive RPG battle mechanics, there is a boatload of fun to be had around every turn."
VGC labelled this new game a "triumphant return" for Nintendo's RPG series awarding it 4 out of 5 stars:
"Mario & Luigi Brothership is a triumphant return for the series, maintaining the spirit and action-oriented platforming of its predecessors, coupled with fantastic exploration and satisfying battle mechanics."
Eurogamer also gave Brothership 4 out of 5 stars, and was mostly satisfied with what it had to offer:
"While Brothership isn't the series at its very best, it's still a Mario & Luigi RPG, and these always contain moments of colour and wit and invention ... A relatively minor instalment, but in a series this magical, that's still good news."
Siliconera wasn't immediately sold on Brothership, but once it had adjusted to it, it found "genuine enjoyment" awarding it 7 out of 10:
"We spent our first few hours with Mario & Luigi: Brothership figuring this was just another Nintendo hand-hold, an overly tutorialized early game that would open up and relax a bit over time. Instead, it basically doesn’t?... It took us some real adjustment to accept Mario & Luigi: Brothership for what it is, but once you do, there’s genuine enjoyment to be found here. You have to learn to follow its pace and accept its shortcomings, because it won’t change its ways and blossom into a top-tier Mario RPG."
RPG Site thought Brothership was the "biggest and boldest" the series has ever been, giving it 7 out of 10, but also felt it had some issues:
"Mario & Luigi Brothership is the biggest and boldest the series has ever been, with some novel battle mechanics and colorful presentation. However, an overstuffed runtime and exhausting pacing severely dilute the experience in both narrative and gameplay. Had Brothership been a snappier, more compact entry, it could have been one of the best in the series, but as it is, we're left with an enjoyable game that overstays its welcome once again."
And IGN described Brothership as a "disappointing revival", scoring this new entry 5 out of 10 and calling out the "boring gameplay and dialogue" as well as the game's performance:
"Apart from its great battle system, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is an incredibly disappointing revival that suffers from boring gameplay and dialogue, a bloated runtime, shockingly bad performance, and a fundamental misunderstanding of what made the series great."
So, will you be jumping aboard Mario & Luigi's new adventure when it arrives later this week? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 90
Everyone else: Amazing game!!!
IGN: ...5/10.
Luigi was crying because he thought their game was not great by one review from IGN = 5/10. 🤭
My personal impression so far = 7/10
I tried to watch the IGN video review and it was just too snarky. I don’t believe this is a perfect game but theirs felt like a grudge review.
“Shockingly bad performance”??! Definitely an indulgent statement based off the lot that I’ve seen.
IGN throwing out another banger review I see.
There's always gotta be that review.
negativity can get more attention so from a business perspective a low review score can help with the amount of people who read/watch their reviews (in short-term), IGN doesn't have that much credibility anymore and giving false claims about the game (exaggerating performance issues, claiming Luigi feels more like an NPC than playable) doesn't help at all.
It kind of feels like IGN was playing a different game than the other reviewers based off of what they said compared to the other reviews and footage from the game.
IGN saw the ship and immediately thought "too much water"
I've never noticed before, is IGN always this harsh?
@obijuankanoobie I'm not sure if "harsh" is the correct word moreso than "ignorant" or "stubborn"
I used to read exclusively IGN reviews... So glad I have moved on to reading NL! Far more enjoyable, and accurate!
Maybe the reviewer just sucked at this particular iteration of M&L? Some chip on his shoulder, I bet. Probably got paid extra to bash this entry.
Lol okay IGN, Mario & Luigi has "boring gameplay and dialogue". But Dragon Age: The Veilguard? That's a masterpiece.
IGN makes up like 70% of the total impression that game journalists shouldn't be taken seriously.
@Arkay You can't like your own comments. If you try to do so, it displays a pop-up giving you a big fat "nope."
oh look IGN let's all point and laugh.
That ign review is gonna make the reviewer’s life heck.
But I also don’t think it’s accurate? Not saying the game I didn’t play is ACTUALLY good (I didn’t play it!) but a 5/10 review implies some amount of failure as a software no?
I feel like it’s weird when as a Nintendo product it surely is a fine product purely even if you don’t personally enjoy what it’s offering
Aside from IGN...(...go figure...), I will buy this once the holidays come around. And I do mean Christmas. Did that with Super Mario RPG.
It’s ign. They are usually like this to Nintendo and it’s games. Not all the time but they used to be during the Wii U days and before them. I stopped taking them seriously years ago even though they used to be my favorite news site for games way back then.
Polygon also didn’t really give it a good review either:
https://www.polygon.com/review/473457/mario-luigi-brothership-review-nintendo-switch
IGN is like a frat-boy drunk on Monster energy and vodka, just trolling around seeing who he can piss off the most.
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I think it's maybe too soon to laught at IGN. It currently has a 80 in Metacritic, so it seems like this is the kind of title we'll have to wait at least a year to see how people think it compares to the previous entries. Because once the honeymoon phase is over, people tend to change their stance towards a game, sometimes their opinions become harsher, and other times they grow to like a title more.
A case in point would be the Nintendo Switch Mario sports titles and how people now says they were lackluster.(Mario Strikers: Battle League even got a 9/10 in this site) Other examples include Tales of Arise, which was initially considered as one of the best Tales of games ever made but is now seen as a B-tier game by a big chunk of the community. Sonic Colors is also a great example of a game being considered great when it was first released but now most people think it was just OK.
It's hilarious seeing people here make such an issue over one Review score. Not everyone likes Mario games or other types of games you and I like and I think everyone here needs to get over that.
One thing I'm not happy about with this game is the fact that enemies are randomly encountered. I prefer being able to see them so I can choose when and what to fight plus it makes getting around much easier too instead of being interrupted every 5 seconds or so when walking.
@Kingy Just curious but did you play Dragon Age? if not that doesn't exactly put you in a position to say anything.
IGN gave Veilguard 9/10, they can bug off lol
@Soniciskewl It's a Nintendo site there's always going to be a small degree of bias here despite what people say and I can understand that in fairness. We are all video game fans after all.
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Review scores are all over the place on this one. Gonna be interesting to see what everyone thinks once it's released.
@Bigmanfan Random encounters again kills it for me tbh. I mean I'm gonna play it because I'm a sucker for Mario games but I hate gameplay where you get interrupted every few steps you take. I prefer to see the enemies so I can choose if I want to fight them, like if they're worth it or not.
Hmm, I could do with a demo for this one.
@Joeynator3000
A couple of reviews featured here gave it 7 out of 10, which from my understanding is rarely considered 'amazing' under scoring policies.
Weird how so many people are giving attention to the IGN review as if it completely nullifies the majority positive reviews.
The M&L games have been very consistent in quality, and that alone gives me hope for this game even if don't think it will be the best game ever.
@PikminMarioKirby funny thing is even some of the people who emulated it and thought it was okay at best, felt the 5 score was exaggerated
I will only trust RPGFan's review once they actually review it. The rest whether they like it or not does not matter to me.
Everyone was mad that IGN gives most games a 7
Everyone now mad that IGN didn’t give this game a 7
@themightyant its more that IGN's scoring is inconsistent. Their "7/10" scores either mean a game is bad or good.
This sounds like it'll be just as good as Dream Team- which is pretty much my favorite Mario and Luigi game by far (even with the handholding). I'm hopeful that this will be just as good.
@RubyCarbuncle No, not yet, but I have been watching multiple playthroughs since release. The combat is particularly dreadful with overly simplistic enemy attack patterns and incredibly short aggro range (for common enemies AND bosses). One of the people I've been watching is playing on Nightmare, the highest difficulty, which he's remarked that the mode doesn't feel it's providing any sort of real challenge, the only punishing element is that bosses are super spongey (which is a common way for games to make a game FEEL harder without actually being harder, very lazy).
The dialogue speaks for itself, it is unbearably cringe. It's got that Marvel patented flippant attitude where every character has the same tired personality, cracking quips and jokes and taking nothing seriously despite the world-ending stakes. I also find it incredibly weird that your adult party members regularly behave like children and practically all of your dialogue options treat them as such, making me wonder what age demographic this M-rated game is actually for.
This creates a tonal vacuum that on its own would be bad, but once you factor in that this is a sequel to Dragon Age (which at least Origins & 2, the ones I played, have a pretty grimdark setting that takes itself seriously) the whiplash is unreal and I don't know why they didn't just make this game its own IP other than cashing in on an already established brand (which is also all too common).
All this is to say that Brothership very well could have "boring gameplay and dialogue" and could be a 5/10. But considering that they gave what so far is shaping up to be a 3/10 a 9/10, I have no reason to trust any review that comes from IGN because it seems their staff have no standard for quality.
Finally, no, we need to stop this narrative that you aren't allowed to judge a game until you play it yourself from start to finish. Nobody actually believes this. This is why reviews exist. It's why trailers and first impressions exist. And in a world with youtube and twitch playthroughs, you can't tell me with someone is unable to discern a good game from a bad one by watching it all the way through. It'll never be a perfect assessment because a viewer won't have a grasp on the controls or movement mechanics. But as far as anything that you can perceive on screen (something like boring combat or awful dialogue) all you need is a working pair of eyes and ears to judge.
I know ppl will love the 40 hr playtime but not so sure myself
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The bias here is focusing singly on the IGN review score.
I mean, I was always buying this game regardless of any review score.
I know this website gave a 4/10 to a certain game that I love to bits, so I know full well never to take reviews entirely at their word.
You can use them as a rough guage, but you will be the best person to judge if it’s for you or not.
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@RubyCarbuncle Yeah, can't believe we're in the year 2024 still having to deal with random encounters.
@Clammy my concern wasn't the review itself, but rather that some people think one review defines the whole game, even though most reviews are positive.
@Arkay wouldn't surprise me if he does. On topic though I'm sure IGN was probably offended by something take your pick.
Leave it to IGN to give their worst opinion. Essentially, if IGN says it's bad, then it's great.
So weird people unironically still use IGN for how off based they been on reviews especially in more recent days regarding games.
IGN infamously was off base regarding Wukong as another recent example. Not to mention Veilguard lol. IGNorant in the end.
IGN wanted attention, and boy did they get it...
...at the risk of potentially tarnishing the game's critical average.
Shrug. I've never liked IGN, or any other "nerd culture" (ie the most popular media in the world) sites.
Well, either way this has been pre-ordered already. I'm sure I'll be just fine with it. As long as I see it through the 40hrs they're asking of you 🫠
Jeez. Don’t know whether to cancel my preorder and save my credit or not.
If anything IGN has done Nintendo a favour,
as it has apparently given people the avenue to completely ignore the 7 out of 10 reviews.
None of you have played the game yet. How do you know that IGN is wrong?
I wonder if the IGN review mentions Switch 2. I can see them speculating it runs better on it or something.
What's strange is that the other reviews don't even mention the frame rate being abysmal. To me, this implies that IGN is just flat out wrong.
@RubyCarbuncle "Not everyone likes Mario games or other types of games you and I like and I think everyone here needs to get over that."
While I fully agree with your sentiment, I see where the comments are coming from. The IGN reviewer doesn't have to like Mario but should still provide an objective review on pros and cons.
If it was a case of "not everyone likes x game" youd end up seeing Metal Gear or Final Fantasy games get 1/10s by people who only like first person shooters or 3D platformers reviewing them
idk why developers are doing insane hand holding. let players figure things out. that should not happen
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I wont be buying it as it looks like a very dumb down simple game with awful visuals.
(personal take)
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Reviews are subjective. Both the NL and the IGN review scores are valid. They don’t have to agree.
@Uncle_Franklin, right, a demo would help us decide which review we agree with the most. 😊
@fenlix
Final Fantasy also gets that a lot. When it comes out it gets rave reviews, then like a year later everyone talks about how overrated it is, lol.
Remember folks, IGN is the same company the gave Concord ( a game that had a shorter life span than a mosquito) a 7/10. Don’t take them seriously.
@fenlix that’s just typical for media consumption. Something will come out with critical praise, is reassessed and called not as good as we thought, then reassessed again and we realise it’s still great despite the flaws.
Don’t know why the Switch Mario Sports games are only now considered a disappointment, they’ve always been seen as lacklustre in my experience.
@Yosher they lost any respect i had for them a decade ago with their Alien Isolation review
The IGN critic said he felt the game "disrespected his time." IGN disrespects ours with their mainstream bias. I'd like to tell them to do something that would get me banned, so I'll hold my tongue.
That's Paper Jam all over again.
Even more than the score it's the "shockingly bad performance" that leaves me perplexed about IGN's review like others have already mentioned - as can be seen even just here nobody else pointed out such a thing and Nintendo Life's review mentioned it being "decent apart from the odd minor wobble in busy areas".
Anyway, at the end of the day I couldn't care less as if it's overall anything like previous Mario & Luigi games then I'm going to quite enjoy Brothership, can't wait to start it as soon as my physical copy arrives!
I don’t follow IGN, but watched their review video after seeing their score. And I must say that the things the reviewer didn’t like in the game are the sort of things I also don’t like (long and repetitive cut-scenes, slow camera pans of an area, too much dialogue, unfunny dialogue, etc.)
For others, this doesn’t bother them - each to their own. And I hope that whomever buys the game, loves it … but it ain’t for me
It is odd that IGN said the dialogue was boring, considering they gave DA:Veilguard a 9/10 and people’s major criticism of that game is the terrible juvenile dialogue
If you want the best reviews for switch games go to youtube and watch the switchup vidéos, they offer a comprehensive review divided in section like story, gameplay, audio,vidéo, worth. Each out of 20, then the sum gives the percentage for the game.
Sigh...
People are so quick to discredit an opinion without making any effort to test their assumptions.
@Riku3456 @obijuankanoobie @kevinm360
The reviewer Logan Plant does not have a Nintendo bashing agenda or negative bias. He is on their Nintendo podcast most weeks and is clearly a passionate fan.
Empirical evidence: He gave MP Jamboree and the TTYD releases 9s this year.
He gave the Splatoon Side Order DLC an 8 and Peach Showtime a 7.
None of these opinions seem out of step or like they are trying to be controversial.
He did give Ever Oasis a scathing review(4) but his reasoning made sense to me. Clearly games that don't respect the players time are a big issue for him and that gets reflected in his scores.
Looking at IGN Logan Plant's other reviews, he was pretty fair on other games. Honestly I thought his criticisms in the Brothership review were fine and valid points. I'm sorry for people who feel hurt over the low score, but it feels like an honest review to me with points that I can agree on. Even Alex from NL had reserved thoughts, maybe a 9 on this game is too high and it's really not as good as the internet might think it is. Brothership seems to have been designed as "Baby's first RPG", which is not what I and many others wanted from the M&L series on Switch. It follows terrible tutorial and hand-holding trends seen in the latter M&L games which is what turned me off from the series (it started in PiT and somehow just got worse with each entry, this is why SuperStar Saga is still the best in the series. Sorry to side-tangent here but I really dislike Starlow and the side companions). Brothership has dropped from being a day 1 purchase for me, would be better as a sale pickup when I can fully form my own opinion of the game.
Yes certain games with bigger star power get review-inflated (Failguard, cough cough). But don't let reviewers or a few big voices on the internet influence your decision on how to rate a game - look at aggregate scores, checkout smaller reviewers, or just play the game yourself.
@AJWolfTill I was saying in a general sense. They don’t bash all the time, mainly botw is like the one of the very few games they praise a lot when it released. But after all that I saw from ign, they still have a bit of an “attitude” towards Nintendo. You can say whatever you want. It’s your opinion. But from what I’ve seen from them, I still stand by what I said.
@kevinm360 Fair point.
Sounds like it is a fun game. Majority of people enjoyed it, that's all that matters. No game is going to get 100% approval.
Have it preordered, looking forward to it
It doesn't take much for me to enjoy a game. It's very rare that I actually dislike a game.
I've been really looking forward to this one, and chances are that I'll really enjoy it too. Can't wait to play!
@AJWolfTill you make a good point, logical fallacy, hasty generalization. I just was way surprised, sounds like everyone was, so I should have assumed it's not the norm with them.
@daveMcFlave Swinging his schlort around.
The review from IGN feels from someone that didn't even enjoy the previous chapters of the series.
Honestly, I don't read reviews because, sometimes, a game gets bad reviews when it is actually a very enjoyable game.
80% from 79 reviews is certainly good. But by Mario and Luigi standards that is "not elite" like some of the others in the series (Bowser's Inside Story DS for example).
The reliable reviewers have it as 9/10 ish and it reads like an enjoyable time. I'm sure I'll love it. That is what matters.
@obijuankanoobie
No worries, I'm glad you asked the question and I could provide some context. They put out controversial reviews from time to time but they have remained one of the biggest game outlets for decades and have a load of review staff with varying tastes and opinions so that feels natural.
A lot of people would rather assume an opinion they don't want to hear is in bad faith and warp facts than make any effort to engage. Seems like a dangerous precedent to me.
There is NO RANDOM ENCOUNTERS in this game. All the enemies, save for bosses, you can see. If you don't want to fight them, you can work your way past them. Anyone who complains about "random encounters" in this game clearly hasn't played it.
@Bobb that review is a 7.8. This is way worse than that meme review. They let the complete wrong person play this game.
@Simone93 yeah, I usually don't pay much attention to reviews either. I do joke around sometimes, saying 6/10 rated games are my favorite, since many games that I love tend to fall into that score range.
In the end, just enjoy what you enjoy.
A couple misconceptions. The IGN review was written by a superfan of the Mario & Luigi RPGs, who was clearly let down by this entry vs. his expectations. It was not a case of being unfamiliar with the series or biased against Nintendo, Logan Plant is often on their Nintendo Voice Chat podcast. Sometimes the biggest fans are the biggest critics; if NintendoLife asked for my review of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, I might have given that a 5.
Which raises the point: look at the writer, not the website. I keep seeing “but IGN gave [bad game] a 9!” So what? The same reviewer doesn’t give every score, and sites can’t enforce a monolith opinion across their staff. You wouldn’t judge PJ O’Reilly’s review skills by this site’s review of Sonic x Shadow Generations. He didn’t write that one!
IGN is one of the worst sites to get reviews from they are wildly inconsistent with there reviews they could say a game is amazing but the user reviews and YouTubers completely contradict them.
Look, I can understand they were reviewed by different writers with different preferences in two different genres, but this is the same IGN that gave Concord a 7.
At least Concordia will live longer than 2 weeks and will probably get more than 25,000 visitors.
I don't get IGN. I've been playing Brothership since launch and, yeah there's a bit of slowdown, it doesn't make the game unplayable.
and calling the game "boring"? I... think we played VERY different games.
Anyways, can't wait to see Connie in the next Mario Sports game (I'm joking but it would be pretty cool lol)
Bought, played 15 hours so far and I love it. 8 out of ten. Nintendo just know how to make really good games!!
@Servbot_EJ Just yesterday I bought the game. I'm addicted now XD. It's really good IMO.
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