Visually, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a candy-coated affair that fits right in with the series. There's a cel-shaded quality to the models that reminds me a little of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership doesn't contain many boss fights, but every once in a while the game will throw a tough obstacle in the player's path. One of these is Gobblick, the guardian boss of the first Great Lighthouse Island. This island and boss unlock after the player completes all prior islands in the Lushgreen Sea.

This structure allows for two fundamental truths that keep the combat in Brothership engaging for most of its runtime. Watching Mario and Luigi do stuff together is really charming, and putting quick-time events in turn-based battles makes the proceedings feel just a bit more exciting. Stats don’t dictate whether an attack lands, you do.

Side quests are unlocked after connecting the first few islands in Mario and Luigi: Brothership and getting Arc out of the container on the beach. Some side quests do have a time limit, meaning players will need to complete them quickly before progressing the main story otherwise they are lost.

I used to play Mario & Luigi RPGs on the Nintendo DS a long time ago. I always got a kick out of how they cleverly blended controls for both Mario and Luigi with button-mapping, making it feel like you were taking both on an adventure.

Brothership, you'll run into Issa Rock, a young girl with a thirst for knowledge. As you explore the islands, you'll find all sorts of side-quests, secrets, and more, but you can only find Hidden Reefs out in the open ocean.

Legend of the Seven Stars, Mario, and his party members are given typical pieces of armor like cloaks and hats. In the Mario & Luigi series, the two plumbers have always received various overalls to equip.

Brothership has a pretty slow start. It takes a good 20 minutes to get through all of the cutscenes and intro dialogue that sets up Mario and Luigis adventure, but even when you finally get control of the brothers,

Brothership sticks to tradition in plenty of essential regards, but one major change is a big step forward for the series.

Mario and Luigi have two different types of weapons they can equip in Mario & Luigi: Brothership. First, the pair can only jump on enemies with a nice pair of boots. Second, they will unlock hammers that they can use to smash enemies into pieces with or rocks while exploring the various islands that they will sail to.