Test – Mario & Luigi The Brotherly Epic: a new successful episode

We thought the series had been put aside following the closure of its official studio, but Mario & Luigi is indeed back with a new episode. The Mario brothers are once again the stars of their role-playing game in the iconic Nintendo universe.

Nintendo’s famous plumber is definitely very active in the RPG genre at the moment. After offering a complete remake of Super Mario RPG last year, as well as an overhaul of Paper Mario: The Millennium Door a little earlier in the year, this time it’s “Mario & Luigi” which returns to Switch with a brand new episode. This series, which had marked the game libraries of the publisher’s portable consoles since the Game Boy Advance, had nevertheless seen its historic developer (AlphaDream) close its doors in 2018. The license nevertheless rose from its ashes with “The Fraternal Epic” , a brand new episode developed exclusively for the Switch.

“The Brotherhood Epic” begins as Mario and Luigi get sucked into a strange portal that sends them to the island of Connexia, or at least what’s left of it. Once a large continent held together by the powers of a gigantic tree, Connexia has mysteriously fractured into a whole bunch of small islands scattered across the sea. Stuck on Navisthmus, a small island capable of moving across the sea and containing a new tree, Mario and Luigi will help the inhabitants of Connexia find themselves by connecting these islands one by one. This long adventure will lead the two brothers to visit a whole bunch of environments, to find well-known characters, and also to realize that new antagonists are pulling the strings.

If the scenario is not very complex, it is nevertheless very pleasant to follow and is a perfect pretext to launch this gripping adventure. We find the characteristics of the series, starting with a very light atmosphere and writing and with a little humor. This concept of small islands allows us to travel to completely different atmospheres and immerse us in several small intrigues that are not always exciting, but never unpleasant. The islands are built a bit like “levels”, they are linear areas where you often have to reach the end to find the socket to connect it to the Navisthmus.

Each island offers its own challenges, puzzles and game mechanics that must be mastered with the abilities of our heroes. Mario and Luigi are initially able to jump, but they soon gain a hammer and several special techniques to traverse environments. We control Mario as a priority and Luigi automatically follows us, but the latter sometimes has a “flash of genius”, a new mechanic which allows him to be sent to break decorative elements or search for objects automatically. The little brother is also at the origin of many of our new skills thanks to his extraordinary intuition.

Obviously, the areas also contain enemies that you will have to face with a turn-based combat system. Those familiar with previous games will not be disoriented since the combat remains essentially the same. Both Mario and Luigi can attack by jumping or using their hammer, and the effectiveness of these attacks can be increased by pressing the buttons corresponding to the character performing an action (Mario being assigned to the A button and Luigi to the B button). Just like in other Mario RPGs, pressing these same buttons during enemy attacks allows you to defend yourself and avoid damage with a little dexterity. The two brothers can also spend PF to carry out more powerful attacks, but requiring more important contextual actions.

The combat system is still as effective, allowing you to remain active despite turn-based combat. Its major flaw is that it only shows its potential long after the start of the adventure. The first hours limit us to little variety in abilities, which makes the fights quite repetitive. The title also doesn’t offer much challenge and exploring the areas well allows us to accumulate many healing items, even if the clashes against the bosses raise the level a little. The latter are also very successful and exploit Luigi’s flash of genius by allowing new unique contextual actions for these fights.

The title offers a very good lifespan, spanning several dozen hours thanks to its large number of islands to explore, but also thanks to the presence of side quests which push us to return to places already explored. The great practicality of the title in exploration and gameplay even makes it a little addictive, always making you want to discover new areas.

We can’t finish without talking about the excellent artistic direction of the game. The developers have managed to transpose the very cartoonish style used since the beginning of the series into a particularly colorful and lively 3D rendering. The settings are very pretty and the characters very expressive, starting with Mario and Luigi whose interactions are always pleasant to see. The soundtrack is also really successful, wonderfully accompanying the different atmospheres that the adventure offers.

Mario & Luigi: The Brotherhood Epic is a new episode worthy of bearing the name of its license. There is ultimately little to criticize him as the work is efficient. The title takes up the codes of RPGs already very well used by its predecessors to accompany an adventure that is always pleasant to navigate.

Conclusion

The RPG license “Mario & Luigi” is back after almost ten years of absence. Nintendo offers a new adventure featuring the plumber brothers. “The Brotherly Epic” begins as they both land on Connexia, a continent that has been mysteriously split into many small islands. Mario and Luigi will then travel to all these islands and reconnect them to save their inhabitants. With a nice storyline, and despite some subplots that are not always exciting, this new episode offers a really pleasant adventure to follow. The same goes for its gameplay where we must explore these different islands using the abilities of the heroes. Its combat system remains close to what the license did before, with turn-based confrontations during which we must carry out contextual actions to maximize the effectiveness of our actions. With its very good lifespan and excellent artistic direction, Mario & Luigi: The Brotherhood Epic is an episode not to be missed for fans of the saga.

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