Whether or not you side with Technikki? to turn Shipshape Island into an airship or Adaphne to turn it into a submarine, you’ll need to borrow something from Bowser. An ai??rship engine, to be precise.

I’m going to be honest here, this is probably the only time in the game I got snagged. Reviewing a game early means I don’t have access to guides to get unstuck, so I did circles for a while to figure this out. The solution is something that might be obvious to you, I might have even missed a subtle ??hint spouted by a character, but it left me temporarily flummoxed, so y??ou can learn from my mistakes.

You may have seen the airship engine on your first visit to Wayaway Island. When you enter Bowser’s store room to get the ampberries, the engine can be seen on the other side of a barrier. I want you to forget that you sa??w that, because it?’s very misleading.

My first course of action was to return to that room, then find the way into it based on its layout. However, if you check where the door is and make the assumption that the entrance is on the same floor??, you’re not going to find it. You don’t need to backtrack through Bowser’s Castle on Wayaway Island. In fact, in order to get to the airship engine, you don’t need to go back through Bowser’s Castle at al??l.

Instead, before you would enter the castle the usual way, instead go east down the ?path that runs in front of Bowser’s Castle. Along this way, you’ll find the back door. In there, yo?u’ll need to use a Bros. Bomb (Ice/Fire charged attack) to break the boulder in the way. You can now proceed onward.

From there, it’s a bit of a tricky labyrinth to get to the storage room. It’s mostly skill-based, and it’s a straight shot to your destination. A ??pretty big relief if you had trouble finding where you were supposed to go in the first place.

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This might be a spoiler, but I assume you’re reading this guide because you’re at this part: Bowser shows up in Mario & Luigi: Brothership. He plays a decent role around Gulchrock Sea, but one of the first things you need to do is find the guy. Y??ou’re told his castle is on Wayaway Island, but you need ?to find it first.

If you’re someone who is heavy on exploration, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. You mostly just need to poke around the right Islet after you first start the quest. This happens through the normal course of the story, but if you visit the entrance to Wayaway Island early, it won’t be there. Or, at least, Mario and Luigi won’t know what they’re looking for and, therefore, can’t activate it?.

Anyway, in Gulchrock Sea, if you sail to the?? Northwest, you’ll find? four Islets Meeger Islet, Mynor Islet, Paquette Islet, and Nanoh Islet. They all have a series of fences and pipes, but no real practical use unless you want to grind out some early XP on Spinies. I wouldn’t recommend it. But it’s here that you find your way to Wayaway Island.

How to get to Wayaway Island

To get to Wayaway Island in Mario & Luigi: Brothership, you first need to go to Mynor Islet first. Mynor Islet is essentially just ?one long strip stretching from West to East. Once you arrive, go East and jump down the pipe you find there, which will take you to Paquette Islet.

On Paquette Islet, go south to the pipe at the bottom. This one leads to Meeger Islet. Jump through that one, and you’ll arrive at the islet with three trees that were hinted at. Bet?ween the three trees is a small switch that you can interact with. Flip it, and a new pipe will show up that will lea??d to Wayaway Island.

Once you’re on Wayaway Island, you still won’t be able to jump straight back to Shipshape Island. It can’t be linked up, as there is no lighthouse. However, you don’t need to?? retrace your steps through the Islets. There’s a pipe switch on Wayaway that will create a route straight back to Mynor Islet where you can take the cannon back to Shipshape.

I should also note that this isn’t the only route you can go through. You can go from Mynor, to Paquette, to Nanoh, to Meeger, but you’ll note that there’s an extra step in there. Mynor, Paquette, Meeger is ??m??ore direct.

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Lottacoins Island in Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a unique place, not just because of its corporate culture, but also because it uses combination locks. I’ve been high and low in the game, and I’m fairly confide??nt this?? is the only place that has them.

There are actually three combination locks on Lottacoins Island, but only two are actually necessary to proceed; the third is? only related to an optional side quest. For all three, the intended approach is to find hints and figure out the combination based on those. You might be here because you’re stuck or are maybe just not much for puzzles and would rather just bypass the problem.

I’ll tell you what you need to do to solve them without spoiling things, then just give you the code at the end. So, if you’re just inter?ested in the code, scroll to the bottom of each section. If you just need help, don’t scroll too far.

What is the first combination on Lottacoins Island

To solve the first combination lock on Lottacoins Island, you are given two numbers, but the other two you need to figure out. This is the easiest one by far, requiring the least legwork. The first hint you can get from one of the people at the counter. They give you this ?picture of a table with a plant on it.

The boxes in the top-right corner depict where the digit falls. As for the plant? and table; in order to get the digit for that box, you need to count all the tables in the lobby, the put that number in the far left box.

The second hint is in the office across the bridge to the east of the lobby. You’ll see a shining thing on the ground, pick it up and you’ll be given a much more vague hint. The boxes in the top-right show that this is for the third ??box, and you’re given a crude picture of, uh, something plus something. I don’t know how to describe it; just look at it. What it depicts is the cabinet doors on the shelf in the back of the room, and the utensil holders with, er, paint brushes. Count the cabinets and utensil holders and add those numbers together. That’s the third box.

For the last digits, talk to the radio thing in the corner. A Zokket thug will just give you the remaining two, “Second from the left: 3. On far right: 7.�Simple enough, now you should have what you need. Punch them in order ?in the side room beside the gate in the lobby and hit the last box to confirm it. You should be told its correct.

The code for the first combination lock is: 5387.

What is the second combination on Lottacoins Island

The second?? combination lock on Lottacoins Island is a bit tougher. Talking to the guy behind the bars, you’re given four hints. Like the last hints, the diagram in the upper-right corner shows which box a hint corresponds to.

The first hint shows a drawing of two security cameras and a t??riangle. The two cameras you’re look??ing for in question are in the same room where you got your hints. You’ll find them in the Northwest and Northeast corners. If you walk up to them, you can interact with the screen beneath them. Doing so will show you what they’re looking at, and each will reveal a number of shapes set in a 3x2 grid. Among these shapes are triangles. Count the triangles depicted in both cameras viewpoints and you’ll have the first digit.

The next diagram shows potted pal?m trees (I think, I’m neither a botanist nor an arborist). You’ll find these palm trees in the hallway across the bridge. To decipher the hint, notice that there are four trees, then a gap for the doorway, then another tree. This should help you orient yourself. From the south side (closest to the screen), you’re going to want to look at the first and third trees. Examine their bases, and you’ll be given a greater-than number and a less-than number. Find the number that falls between those two and you’ll have the second digit.

Next up, we have four, uh, sandwich-looking things. Between them is arithmetic symbols, so if an “H�represents a pillar, it looks like this H+H-H+H. On the lower bridge, you may have noticed numbers on the pillar??s, that is ??what the diagram is in reference to. So, you’re going to be looking at 6+4-9+1. Do the math and you have your third digit.

F?inally, we have another camera diagram, this time looking at four boxes in a diamond pattern with the bottom one shaded in. This camera you’ll find on 2F in the corner. Once again, examine the screen below it to see what it’s looking at. You’ll find a diamond of squares with numbers on them. The bottom number is the one you need for the fourth digit.

Now that you have all your numbers, you can now punch them in. You should have found: 6529.

What is the third combination on Lottacoins Island

The last lock turns up in a side quest much later on, well after you complete the main quest on Lottacoins Island. It is also? formatted differently because, while you still gather hints, they’re not diagrams and you get them from people sitting in the lobby. It’s also punched into a set of blocks you already used before; the ones that open the gate.

You can get the hints in whatever ord?er, so I’m going to go from left to right. The first hint is “The secret code has four numbers. If you add them, the total ?is 23.�Cool. Without context, that’s largely meaningless, so keep that in mind and let’s move on.

The second hint is, “It starts with a 3. The next three nu??mbers get larger as you go right.�Now we’re getting somewhere. The first number is a three, an?d from this, we can deduce that there is no 1 or 2 in the combination. Moving on.

The last hint is that “There are ??four numbers in the code. And two of them are less than 5.�Okay, so get ready to do a little deductive math here. We know the first digit is three, two numbers are less than five, and the numbers get larger as you proceed. That means the first two numbers have to be 3 and 4.

That gives us 7 in total, and we need 23. The difference is 16, but if the numbers get larger as they go right, that means they can’t b?e equal, ruling out 8+8. It can’t be 6+10 because it needs to be one digit. That leaves 7+9 as the only possible two digits.

Putting everything you found together, you’ll get the final code of 3479. Punch tho??se? in, and you’ll get some fantastic prizes.

The post Mario & Luigi: Brothership: What are the combination codes o??n Lottacoins Island appeared first on Destructoid.

The Mario & Luigi series wasn’t in the best state following AlphaDream’s closure. The last actually new title was Paper Jam in 2?015, followed by tw??o remakes. It was a rough final chapter in the studio’s life.

Paper Jam was the worst reviewed in the series (to be fair, Laura Kate Dale, writing for Destructoid, gave it an 8 out of 10). The second remake, Mario & Luigi: Bo???wser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, was the worst-selling to the point where it was a possible contributing factor to Alphadream's bankruptcy.

Thankfully, the series lives on with Mario & Luigi: Brothership. Being one of the successor series to Super Mario RPG with a unique focus on the two title characters, I feel it has a lot of merit. Brothership demonstrates that but falls way sh?ort of its potential.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch)
Developer: Acquire
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: November 7, 2024
MSRP: $59.99

Brothership is one of the more mundane premises in the series. Following?? digestion, dreams, and a crossover, this one simply has the two brothers transported to another world in need of saving. The central hook is that they find themselves in command of a ship-like floating island and need to travel the expansive ocean to visit other islands and link them together. It’s a mix of unique and trite.

The hapless world is Concordia. It was once a continent held together by the Uni-Tree, but someone came along and destroyed their unifying flora. The continent broke apart, with the pieces cast in all directions. The once united populace now struggles in isolation, and it’s up to Mario and Luigi to bring everyone back together. In a way, it’s the most obnoxiously overt allegory, but it still manages to hit nar?rative paydirt occasionally.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Mario & Luigi series, they’re RPGs that focus on the eponymous duo. Alongside Paper Mario, it’s a follow-up to Super Mario RPG on the SNES, which is to say it’s something of a JRPG-lite. It’s turn-based, like what you’d expect, but it ties in reflex-based actions wherein you can press a button at the right time during an animation to defend yourself or make your attacks stronger. This was first featured in Mario RPG, and Mario & Luigi extrapolates on this to the extreme.

Battles generally involve the two brothers assisting each other in combat, with even basic attacks having them help each other. Hammer and jump attacks are pretty straightforward, but then you get to Bros. Attacks, which ha??ve much more variety. In order to get the most out of a Bros. Attack, you have to master their associated mini-games which often challenge reflex, perception, and your ability to remember which brother is assigned to which button.

As for new features, a big one is “Luigi Logic.�This has Luigi thinking really hard about ??a situation and coming up with a solution. This is really funny because sometimes the solutions are just impulsive and rely on nothing more than brute force and determination, which suggests that Mario is just not capable of thought. But mostly, it’s just the pride on Luigi's face when he figures something out that really drills in the charm. Dude’s just so damned pleased with himself, it’s infectious.

The Luigi Logic moments often show up in boss battles, giving you a chance to do a lot of damage and sometimes stun ??the boss. They allow for some setpiece moments to crop up that really affect the battle, and some of them are pretty cool, even if they are usually cropped up at the worst times for me.

The dynamic battle system makes the Mario & Luigi games feel distinct next to their more typical genre kin, but it does have the downside of forcing you through the same mini-games repeatedly as you proceed through battle after battle. The repetition could be mitigated by keeping gameplay brief and offering palate-cleansing sections between more battle-heavy dungeons; it’s just too bad Brothership doesn’t do that.

No, not at all. When I finally wrapped up Brothership, it was around the 42-hour mark??, and at that point, I was just done with it, which isn’t totally uncommon for me with longer RPGs, to be fair. But Brothership not only suffers from the repetition of its battles but also from an inconsistent and bloated pace.

There are five sections to the game, and it starts off well enough. You hop from island to island, and they stay rather small affairs, giving you a taste of variety without getting bogged down. Then, Brothership sags through the second and third areas. It’s a protracted stretch that could have been significantly abbreviated. Nothing much happens narratively. Nothing that couldn’t have just been wrapped in as a sub-plot to another section. Honestly, I probably would have puttered out and lost interest in this part of Brothership if I wasn’t playing it for review.

Things pick up in the fourth p?art of the game and continue into the fifth, with some of the best moments happening during this time, but then it doesn’t know when to stop. You can’t maintain a climax for, like, 10 hours. Excitement doesn’t last that long. A narrative shouldn’t peak and then plateau, because then it becomes dull. The punch loses impact. If I had managed to survive the previous lull, I most likely wouldn’t have made it through the denouement, but I had to power through it.

Brothership is such an inconsistent game.? It can be extremely witty one moment, then clueless the next. At some points, it skirts with something profound in its? narrative, then refuses to deliver. There are so many places in this game that could have been cut down or abbreviated, but a lot of it feels there just as a way of extending the game. It doesn’t feel rushed or unpolished; there’s just too much of it, and it gets in its own way.

And it’s a shame, because there’s a lot of charm that does a lot to keep the experience. It’s focus on connections and bonds works well with Luigi and his brother. T??here is so much fraternal devotion on display in every moment, it’s almost enviable. They are presented in such a way that their coordinated outfits begin to make sense. 

It’s expressed so well with its art style and lavish animations. Brothership is a great-lo?oking game, even without a lot of graphical horsepower and trickery. It bursts with perso??nality and gives so much depth to a pair of mute palette swaps. It’s just too bad that so much of the rest of the cast feels trite. The villains are villainous, the henchmen hench well, and, as usual, the support character evokes my visceral rage. On the bright side, it means the brothers shine brighter.

When all is said and done, Mario & Luigi: Brothership isn’t a bad ?game; it’s just too much of a decent thing. If it had restraint and its pacing was planned better, it could have been the best in the series. Its transition from a strictly handheld platform to consoles is a great one, putting the additional horsepower to good use.

But because it was allowed to grow so long, what woul?d have been easily overlooked inconsistencies become major annoyances. Eventually, all of its problems start to overshadow its successes and they begin to fester. What would be a joyful experience gets washed away in a sea of grey leaving nothing to connect with.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Mario & Luigi: Brothership appeared first on Destructoid.

The holiday season is now in full gear as Christmas is just around the corner, and the November 2024 games lineup is heating up. Many family-friendly games are about to hit the market with Lego Horizon Adventures as one of them.

Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake (Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix and ARTDINK
Price: $59.99
Release Date: November 14
Trailer

Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake is the first of the Erdrick trilogy to be remade with 2D sprites and wonderful 3D backgrounds. As the 16-year-old son of a mighty fallen hero, you take on the antagonist, Baramos, who threatens the world. To take him down, you'll find allies from around the world, change vocations, and triumph over evil through classic turn-based RPG battles. The remake has a new vocation as well, called a monster wrangler. You'll also be exploring castles, caves, and all manner of fantasy environments in this retelling of the game when the game launches on November 14.

LEGO Horizon Adventures (PS5, Switch, PC)

Publisher: PlayStation
Developer: Guerrilla and Studio Gobo
Price: $59.99
Release Date: November 14
Trailer

Another grand adventure launches on November 14, and that's LEGO Horizon Adventures. This is a retelling of Aloy's storyline in a more family-friendly LEGO-like version. The series' famous landmarks, like the Tallnecks and the Cauldrons, have been recreated into Lego and look absolutely stunning in a brighter art style. Unlike the original Horizon games, however, you can play this title in co-op with a friend online or offline. Together you can customize the village of Mother's Heart with all manner of Lego objects. You can also use outfits inspired by other PlayStation series like Ratchet & Clank and LittleBigPlanet.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch)

Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Acquire and Nintendo
Price: $59.99
Release Date: November 7
Trailer

The Mario & Luigi RPG series is back, thanks to the developer of the critically acclaimed Octopath Traveler franchise, Acquire. Both of these Italian plumbers are visiting the world of Concordia, exploring multiple islands and battling enemies in action-packed turn-based ?combat that has button timing at the forefront. You'll come across many different? biomes, including a jungle with endless rain and a hot desert, each with its own characters to meet along the way. Seeing how Acquire takes on the series after the original developer, AlphaDream, went out of business will be interesting. It's certainly one of the most anticipated November 2024 games.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (PC, Xbox Series X|S)

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Developer: Asobo Studio
Price: $69.99
Release Date: November 19
Trailer

Xbox and Asobo Studio are letting you explore the world again in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, which soars onto store shelves on November 19. The game has the biggest selection of vehicles in series history as it lets you get certifications to perform aviation activities like Medevac, Remote Cargo Ops, Aerial Firefighting, and Search & Rescue. You'll also be able to compete in the Red Bull Air Races and Reno Air Races. If you're more of an explorer, you can take pictures of legendary sights around the world with photo challenges ready and waiting for you. The game will launch on Xbox Game Pass soon �make sure you have the right PC specs, however, before jumping in.

Planet Coaster 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S)

Publisher: Frontier Developments
Developer: Frontier Developments
Price: $49.99
Release Date: November 6
Trailer

The popular Rollercoaster Tycoon spiritual successor, Planet Coaster, is getting a sequel on November 6. In addition to building your own theme park in this simulation game, you'll be able to build water parks, too. You'll be able to place flumes, water slides, and more in the water park of your dreams while creating mesmerizing rollercoasters in a?? theme park nearby.

Planet Coaster 2 will have a new event sequencer tool that lets you add effects to your attractions, such as animatronics and water fountains. The developer Frontier says this will let you "bring the dramatic fanfare of real-world theme parks to [your] guests." There are a bunch of pre-order bonuses and editions?? to consid?er if you decide to purchase the game.

Honorable mentions

November 2024 is packed with all manner of exciting video games, from smal??l indies to impressive ??triple-A titles. Here's what to expect from the rest of the month:

• Farmagia (PS5, Switch, PC) - November 1
• Death Note: Killer Within (PS4, PS5, PC) - November 5
• Metal Slug Tactics (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PC) - November 5
• Empire of the Ants (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 7
• Goat Simulator: Remastered (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 7
• Magical Bakery (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PC) - November 7
• Metro Awakening VR (Quest, PSVR2) - November 7
• Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 7
• Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown (PC) - November 7
• Slitterhead (PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 8
• Everholm (PC) - November 11
• Farming Simulator 25 (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 12
• Tetris Forever (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch) - November 12
• TemTem Swarm (PC) - November 13
• Towers of Aghasba (PC, PS5) - November 19
• Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl (Xbox Series X|S, PC) - November 20
• Dokimon (PC) - November 22

The post Here are the most anticipated November 2024 games appeared first on Destructoid.

Ever since Nintendo revealed Mario & Luigi: Brothership in June of this year, fans have been wondering which studio was actually working on this colorful new RPG adventure, especially since the company is infa??mous for keeping this information under wraps. After months of speculation, it seems we finally have a concrete answer.

After many months of theories and speculation, it seems we have a concrete answer. Twitter/X user Nintendeal recently discovered copyright text for Mario & Luigi: Brothership that seems to confirm that Acquire is de??veloping the game. This is the studio behind the Tenchu series and the Octopath Traveler series (which it developed alongside Square Enix). Although, it is important to point out that Nintendo hasn't officially confirmed this information yet.

Nintendo fans previously thought that ILCA (The studio behind Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, One Piece Odyssey, and Sand Land) was developing Mario & Luigi: Brothership, but this new revelation apparent?ly confirms that they were wrong, and that it was Acquire all alo?ng.

Fans reacted to this news with both excitement and relief, since the studio has previous experience with solid turn-based RPGs. Acquire has big shoes to fill, because AlphaDream, the studio that created the Mario & Luigi series and developed all the p??revious entries, sadly went bankrupt in 2019.

Based on Acquire's previous experience, Mario & Luigi: Brothership is in good hands

Acquire is not a random small team that Nintendo hired but is actually a remarkable and important development studio within the industry, with tons of previous experience developing iconic and successful video games. Acquire has recorded its entire histo??ry on its official website, and it's quite interesting.

The studio rose to fame with the release of the first two Tenchu games on PlayStation 1, which revolutionized the stealth genre. After that, it went on to develop the Way of the Samurai series on PlayStation 2 and subsequent consoles, but its biggest and most recognizable IP is undoubtedly Octopath Traveler, which it developed in collaboration with Square Enix. These are a pair of critically acclaimed turn-based RPGs that brought back the essence of the classic 2D Final Fantasy games. So, when taking Acquire's entire history into consideration, it's evident that Mario & Luigi: Brothership is in great hands, but w???e won't be 100% sure until the game launches on Nintendo Switch on November 7.

The post Mystery Solved: Mario & Luigi: Brothership was developed by the studio that made Octo???path Traveler appeared first on Destructoid.

Nintendo recently released a brand-new Mario & Luigi: Brothership trailer, which reveals the main new location of this anticipated game, ahead of it's November 2024 release. And that's not all, because they disclosed even more fascinating information on the game's official Japanese website.

Mario & Luigi will explore Concordia in their newest adventure!

This new trailer, which Nintendo recently posted all?? over? their social media, reveals the name of the main location that the famous plumber brothers will visit and explore in their upcoming RPG adventure: Concordia. Judging by the footage, it??'s evident that this is a beautiful place with its own unique flora & fauna. The official description of the video describes this adventure as an "island getaway", so it's evident that they're aiming for a setting with a tropical atmosphere.

Luckily for Mario fans, Nintendo revealed further information in the official Japanese website for Mario & Luigi: Brothership. The main takeaway is that Concordia is a mysterious land that the plumbers are visiting for the first time, and it's entirely made up of different drifting islands that they will be able to explore throughout their adventur?e.

Mario and Luigi will get to Concordia by setting sail on a drifting island that also works as a ship, fittingly named Ship Island. From that point onwards, they will have to explore the multiple other drifting islands of the region, like Gran Gran Island, a place filled with rock-like residents and environments, Tuis Island, a tourist destination where a species of twisted tree can grow, Xenialver Island, an urban island with a big city that contributes to the economy of the region, Kandang Island, a??n island that is ??half magma and half ice, and much more.

On each island, Mario and Luigi will meet curious characters and fight threatening monsters, so each one of them will surely contain many surprises for the player (Keep in mind that? Nintendo hasn't revealed the official English names fo?r these islands, but it's most likely that the English localization will either keep the same names or use new ones that sound very similar).

Meet new, funky-looking characters!

The website also revealed a bunch of interesting new information about the antagonistic group of characters that was seen in previous Mario & Luigi: Brothership trailers. They are the Boldrud Squad, and the site explains that they are "suspicious characters giving orders behind the scenes". It did not reveal much more information about them, so it's most likely Nintendo is keeping them under wraps, so players will be able g??et to know more?? about the Boldrud Squad in the game.

On the other hand, however, the website also showed off the new Combination Attacks that the pair of brothers will be able to pull off in Mario & Luigi Brothership. This is a staple of this RPG series, and the animation in this new entry is absolutely beautiful and extremely detailed. Based on all the trailers and screenshots, it is evident that the presentation of this upcoming title will not disappoin?t.

Fans will be able to get their hands on an alluring pre-order bonus

And if all that wasn't enough, the community discovered that Micromania, a video game retail store from France, revealed the bonus that those who pre-order Mario & Luigi: Brothership will receive a ?shiny exclusive steel book that displays the beautiful promotional art of the two brothers on the cover. Nintendo of America has yet to confirm if this pre-order bonus will also be available in the United States, or in other parts of the world, but most fans are confident that it will be.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership is launching on November 7, 2024, and fans are ecstatic for the anticipated return of the beloved Mario & Luigi RPG series, especially after the shutdown of AlphaDream in 2019. Although, Nintendo still hasn't officially revealed which studio is developing Mario & Luigi: Brothership, which left fans heavily spec??ulating on the topic.

The post Nintendo reveals exciting new information about Mario & L??uigi:? Brothership appeared first on Destructoid.

Exactly one week before the June 18 Nintendo Direct, I wrote a short piece on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's reactive turn-based combat and how it not only reminded me of the Mario & Luigi games, but it also made it a perfect substitute due to Nintendo's series going dormant. I also expressed hope Mario & Luigi would return someday, but I never thought my? prayers would be answered a mere seven days later during Nintendo's latest showcase.

Titled Mario & Luigi: Brothership and scheduled for a November launch, the first new Mario & Luigi game in nine years looks exactly how I envisioned the series would look on a home console after exclusively being on Nintendo's handhelds. The classic turn-based combat, dodging and countering attacks, an entirely new locale to explore and characters to meet, vibrant visuals and physical comedy. Like a shining phoenix, Mario & Luigi is back and looking better than ever. But this doesn't just mark a return of this specific series. This could very well mark a real return to Mario themed RPGs in ?genera?l, especially when you look at the last 12 months Nintendo has had.

Last June, Nintendo announced a remake of 1996's Super Mario RPG, and then just a few months later confirmed it would remake 2004's Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door as well. Both games were lionized by die-hard fans for years, revered as the holy grails of their childhood (the latter was one of my personal all-time favorites), yet were barely ever acknowledged by Nintendo, almost to the point where a more conspi??ratorial mind could accuse the co?mpany of trying to pretend they never existed. They'd be referenced occasionally, but calls for re-releases on modern hardware seemed to fall on deaf ears, or so we all thought.

Fans probably would've been satisfied had the two games been added to the Switch's online service, but instead we got full-fledged remakes that managed to retain what made them so beloved in the first place while updating them for a modern audience. In the case of The Thousand-Year Door, I'd argue that—despite some extremely minor grievances—the remake is even better than the original, having been crafted with so much care and attention to detail. It's clear that the people involving in remaking it held the original in high regard and loved it as much as fans did?.

What made these remakes an even bigger deal was the then state of Mario RPGs. Originally, during the 2000's, you had the Paper Mario games on home consoles by Intelligent Systems while the handhelds got Mario & Luigi by AlphaDream. Despite sharing some similarities, they were two distinct series, and fans like myself were more than happy to partake in both, like the guy in the two cakes meme. But, in the 2010's, something changed. Paper Mario soon morphed into more of an action-adventure series, with many of the traditional role-playing mechanics ironed out. And while the comedic writing never went away, the stories became less interesting and the character designs less varied due to a supposed mandate that meant the games couldn't "modify" or "create original Mario characters" anymore (via VGC).

It was also suggested that the reason for the sudden shift was because of the Mario & Luigi games, with Paper Mario producer Kensuke Tanabe telling Eurogamer Germany (as translated by NintendoEverything) in 2020: "Nintendo has another RPG series starring Mario and we wanted to distance ourselves from it by making an adventure game with a focus on solving puzzles." Honestly, this is a baffling explanation since the two series were co-existing for years just fine. The timing of that statement also wasn't great, since Mario & Luigi developer AlphaDream had declared bankruptcy the year before, thanks to declining revenue, suggesting its last two games (remakes of the first and third Mario & Luigi titles) underperformed sales-wise (via NintendoLife). In fact, by the time Tanabe made that aforementioned statement, AlphaDream had closed down, seemingly rendering the Mario & Luigi series homeless.

So, with Paper Mario shifting genres and uncertainty surrounding the future of Mario & Luigi series, the last several years were pretty dire for anyone wanting a Mario-themed RPG. Then, we got hit with the one-two combo of the aforementioned remakes. While this was still cause for celebration, I wasn't yet ready to call this a new beginning for Mario RPGs. It was evident at the time that Nintendo was prepping for its next console, which would presumably have the real heavy hitters. So, to keep current Switch fans occupied, the company has fallen back on remakes, remasters, and re-releases. Don't forget, this year we've also had remakes of Another Code and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, plus there's a port of Luigi's Mansion 2 round the corner and a port of Donkey Kong Country Returns in early 2025.

In the case of the RPG remakes, I suspected Nintendo was also testing the waters, trying to see if there really was as much demand for these games as fans claimed or if it was just a very vocal minority unwilling to let go of their nostalgia. In its last fiscal report, Nintendo revealed the Super Mario RPG remake had sold at least 3.31 million units worldwide, and while we lack exact figures for the Paper Mario remake, it was reportedly at the top of the physical sales charts in Japan for its first two weeks (via Gematsu). According to Chris Dring of GamesIndustry.biz, it also topped the UK physical sales charts, with an even stronger launch than the Super Mario RPG remake.

All in all, it sounds like these have been successful, which gave me hope that Nintendo would return to the well of Mario RPGs. Or at least try more remakes, like with the original Paper Mario. The announcement of Mario & Luigi: Brothership, however, makes me think these remakes weren't an experiment at all, but a new beginning. Brothership will be launching in just five months, so it obviously wasn't pitched in response to the sales of the recent remakes. All three games had to be in development within close windows, which hopefully means Nintendo is already committed to bringing back its Mario RPGs.

Ideally, this could mark a return to form for Paper Mario, although the strong sales for 2020's The Origami King (the last wholly original entry) means I wouldn't be surprised if it sticks to its modern formula. (For the record, The Origami King pushed 2.82 million copies in three months, the fastest of any Paper Mario game.) Even if that's the case, Nintendo's already giving us a new Mario & Luigi and will hopefully keep the series going, as long as Brothership doesn't bomb in the sales charts, but what if we end up getting a direct sequel to Super Mario RPG? Or something entirely original that has its ow?n fresh ideas but retains the RPG elements people loved from those remakes?

The fact these three games exist at all is a sign that Nintendo recognizes the Mario RPG audience as one worth selling to, and makes me excited for the possibility of what future Mario RPGs could look like on the Switc??h 2. Such projects probably won't happen for sever??al more years, but I have more optimism now than I did this time last year.

At the beginning of 2023, if you had told me Nintendo would be releasing three Mario RPGs, two of them being remakes of beloved retro titles, in the space of a year, I'd have called you delusional. Yet Nintendo is doing exactly that. I could be getting ahead of myself and this all becomes horribly dated at some point in the distant future, but for now, I have faith that the Mario RPG fan-base will continue to eat well.

The post With Mario & Luigi: Brothership, we could be on the cusp of a new Mario RPG golden age appeared first on Destructoid.

I’d recognize that Luigi design anywhere. As part of today’s Nintendo Direct, Mario & Luigi Brothership was announced. It has a November 7, 2024 release ?date.

They point out that this is the first new Mario & Luigi in almost 9 years. It’s also the first one since AlphaDream file??d for bankruptcy. So, that’s k?ind of sad. Here’s the trailer:

It shows off a lot of staples of the series. Both Mario and Luigi, for ex?ample. There are action commands in its battles that take the form of little mini-games. There’s also some great looking platforming. The environments look nice.

I’m going to be real: I have never completed a Mario & Luigi gam?e. This isn’t really important to say because I don’t think they’re bad, they just don’t jive with me. I’ve played a few, and nope, none of them have clicked. In any case, I’m mostly just wondering if any of AlphaDream’s staff are working on it.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership launches on Switch on November 7, 2024.

The post Mario & Luigi: Brothership is carrying on AlphaDream’s legacy appeared first on Destructoid.