Brothership gets the key elements of a Mario & Luigi game right, infusing satisfying quick-time events into turn-based combat in battles and allowing the player to pilot Mario and Luigi simultaneously everywhere else.

W ay back when I used to play Mario & Luigi RPGs on the Nintendo DS, I always got a kick out of how they cleverly blended controls for both Mario and Luigi with button-mapping. As

Brothership adds more RPG depth to the series, but its flat writing and overabundance of gimmicks drag it down.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership, the first new Mario & Luigi game in nearly a decade, seems content to iterate on past ideas from the franchise. Brothership brings a handful of new ideas to the Mario & Luigi formula, but only a few of them make the 20-year-old franchise feel fresh.

The Mario & Luigi series came as a shock to players when it first debuted way back in 2003 with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga on the Game Boy Advance, bringing the famous plumber and his brother, Luigi,

Boss fights in Mario & Luigi Brothership are unique and challenging with twists to keep you on your toes. Gorombula, Pipegunk, and Extension Corps are standout bosses that offer engaging gameplay mechanics.

Beating Bowser is always a challenge for the Mario brothers and this is no less true than in his newest appearance in Mario & Luigi: Brothership.

One of the earliest in the game is Twistee Island, which players must complete in order to obtain hammers for Mario & Luigi. Since starting the game without hammers limits your ab