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.

The Plug system is something new for the series in Mario & Luigi: Brothership. It takes a few hours to unlock Plugs despite players gathering tons of Sprite Bulbs in the meantime. Sprite Bulbs can be used to craft new Plugs to slot into two separate slots.

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.

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.

Players don't want to be affected by status ailments for too long in Mario and Luigi: Brothership - here's how to get rid of them.

After linking Rumbla Island to Shipshape Island, Mario and Luigi will be tasked with getting a hammer that could break open the purple capsule that dropped on the beach. Your destination of choice is between Raynforst and Twistee Island,

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,

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.

One tiny detail was changed for the latest Mario & Luigi game, and only veteran players of the series will notice it. New players miss it altogether.

Brothership includes many side quests which develop the world and often lead to comedic cutscenes. However, some of these sidequests have time limits which require the player to drop everything and complete a specific task.

These early side quests are ideal for getting nice rewards as soon as possible in Mario & Luigi: Brothership, and shouldn't be skipped by players.