THIS is Mario & Luigi's Return to Form 

I just need mario and luigi to say "Nintendo!" when the game starts up.

I need this new Mario and Luigi in my veins like yesterday. I didn’t think we would get another one after the original studio went bankrupt. I love this series to death.

When I hear the phrase “return to form” in the context of the Mario & Luigi series, I automatically thought of the fact that Brothership will be the first Mario & Luigi game since the original version of Super Star Saga that uses only one screen, since every other game was on DS and 3DS, and used two screens.

To think that between Late 2022 and Late 2024, we would get 2 Brand New Mario RPG games and 2 Highly Acclaimed Mario RPG Remakes is so crazy! This is indeed a dream come true!

Whoever did the editing - kudos! Your little gags were very silly and I appreciate them!

It still shocks me that Wario and Waluigi haven’t showed up in a Mario RPG. Like come on!

While not in an official capacity, this game could support multiplayer via custom controller mappings + split Joy-Con? If you could somehow map all the important single player stuff (i.e. menus, options, movement), then you could hand the other Joy-Con to someone to simply press B for Luigi in combat. Who knows just how viable this method will be, but it could be worth trying.

This doesn't really mean anything concrete but Yoko not saying anything is, if anything, more smoke to being involved than otherwise. You can't be under NDA for something you have nothing to do with. If Yoko Shimomura isn't involved she could just say so if she wanted to. If she wanted to being the key point. She's also under no obligation to respond to randoms on the internet.

I'm so unbelievably excited for this game. The fact that Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D comes out a week after this one is criminal.

I'm such a sucker when games involve you going on a seafaring adventure. It's why Wind Waker is my favorite Zelda game in the series. It's even more of a treat for me when 2 of my favorite RPG series being Mario & Luigi and Ys both have the latest installments that involve island-hopping.

Funnily enough, "leaks" for the game are already happening. There was a recent Corocoro leak that was so obviously fake that I couldn't help but laugh at it. It implied Wario and Starlow would be in the game doing something, which itself was enough to make me question its legitimacy even if the artwork shown in the leak wasn't obviously traced over Wario's Mario Tennis render. Also Luigi's artwork in the leak depicts him with a neck, which is really weird once I noticed that. But either way, I'm really looking forward to an actually new Mario & Luigi game. It kind of sucks how AlphaDream kind of ran of out steam as the series went on, resorting to doing remakes and reusing a lot of assets before finally biting the dust. At the very least, people from AlphaDream are confirmed to be working on this new game, and it feels incredibly lively, too; really like the stylized look of Mario & Luigi but in full 3D. I'm also very curious to know who exactly the main antagonist is and what their goals are, as well as how Princess Peach and Bowser will factor into the game's story, particularly Bowser; will he be a reluctant ally, or another antagonistic force Mario & Luigi need to deal with. Bowser's always been a wild card in the Mario & Luigi games (as well as rivaling Luigi as being the butt of many jokes), so it'll be exciting to see how things play out!

I am so happy that Dream Team is not the butt end of the joke.

This video has some nice timing, because just yesterday I started revisiting the original GBA Superstar Saga in the follow-up to this new game. I'd like to play all the Mario & Luigi games (not including remakes) again before Brothership comes out; 5 RPGs in like 4 months (and then Brothership soon afterwards) may be a mistake, but I haven't played these in a good while, so I felt strongly about revisiting as many of them as possible. It's like getting the chance to talk to an old friend that I wasn't sure I would see again.

Daniel hitting the “Claude” at the end of the video was an unexpected, but lovely surprise. Hope his voice gets better soon, but pantomime Daniel has been a hoot.

As someone who grew up with and adored the M&L series, it definitely crushed me to see AlphaDream go under after the Bowser’s Inside Story remake. And so I wrote off the series coming back entirely during the Switch era, even with the recent Mario RPG renaissance we’ve had with the Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario TTYD remakes. However, seeing the series make its grand returns in 3D was by far a stupendous surprise, and I’m more than looking forward to eventually playing it later this year. No lie, it’s probably my most anticipated game for the remainder of the year, even more so than Zelda Echoes of Wisdom and DBZ Sparking Zero.

I really do think the gimmick is couch co op. This could be a great adventure with a friend and it would be the perfect advancement with how the series has been evolving with each of the consoles its been on. The best advancement you can get out of the switch imo is the joycons and how they split

Thank you for the focused discussion! This is what I want from you guys

I am really excited for this game, it feels surreal! On another note, I just wanna say I did enjoy Paper Jam despite its generic nature. I thought it was fun, but I understand why many didn’t like it. Honestly I like all of the games, but I know some have higher highs than the others. That being said, I’m super hyped for this!!

The 3D artstyle isn't a new interpretation of Superstar Saga. It's an improved, enhanced and more animated version of the exact art style seen in Mario and Luigi Dream Team's Giant Luigi Battles. I absolutely love it.

Yippee! Mario and Luigi are back!

A wild Daniel appeared!

While I don’t know how this will turn out. I think that peach is now part of a rescue squad that needs to be rescued just like in color splash. Also I am not happy that Starlow is absent in the game. Hopefully the new company will feature her in future Mario and Luigi series spinoffs.

Discussion videos are my favorite. Please do More!

more discussion plz

Going to have to disagree on the take on giant battles. They were fantastic mini games that combined spectacle and fun mini challenges. This is especially true with giant Luigi fights in dream team. The creativity in the attacks you can do and countering were amazing. The ways the make it harder in the rematch fights are also cool. My only real problem with giant Luigi is two specific gyroscope mini games. But aside from that, tons of creativity and they don’t need to be complex. The other problem though is definitely papercraft battles. Paper craft battles definitely deserve their scorn. They aren’t really anything visually interesting and the gameplay essentially amounts to waiting to press a button. The concern could be taking more from paper craft than giant battles. Especially considering it would most likely involve the ship. Of course they could come up with an entirely new system that keeps the spectacle and is fun to the degree of giant battles. Perhaps it could have this mechanical complexity they desire. (Though I don’t think it is needed again but it could still be cool.)

I love the little skit(? - the editiing joke thing...) at the very end 😂👍🏻

This game looks so good!

Instead of giant battles like BIS OR DT we should get pirate ship battles while out exploring for islands

As an addition to another geno cameo, it would be cool to see some thousand year door cameos like goombella or doo_liss. Also, having some secret paper jam fights similar to shrobs in bowser inside story

You could probably do some input remapping shenanigans to emulate the Superstar Saga multiplayer experience somewhat.

You mentioned Geno or Mallow appearing as a cameo, but I propose both show up as a secret boss fight. Geno and Mallow can even have their own team attacks!

Giving us a discussion on this game makes for quite a bright day!

I cannot wait to see the next trailer for more content 🙂

I just want them to include the Battle Dances. I've seen some screenshots of Mario staring up at a command block standing perfectly still and it makes me nervous that there won't be any dances at all. Let the boys dance!

Brothership give me a LOT of Dream Team vibe. I have even a small conspiracy theory that some theme of Brothership (outlet, electricity, etc) was suppose to be the next game after Dream Team, but Nintendo said "no now it's only generic character, area, etc). So instead they decided to do a collab with Paper Mario. Knowing that the director and writer of this game series is now working at Monolith Soft, I'm wondering if he is involved. However, there is far more chance that ILCA is handling this project, because there is a lot of AlphaDream employees (12 if I'm not wrong) who was recruited at ILCA. It's just a conspiracy theory, nothing veridict ahah.

You mention a secret re-fight off all the previous final bosses. I pitch you this: A secret room in the final area of the game, which contains 'The Nightmare Pillow'. If you choose to, Luigi will fall asleep on this pillow and Mario will enter the dream world for the first time since Dream Team, but inside is a horrific combination of all of Luigi's worst memories: You first have to fight DREAMY-Shiny-Robo-Bowser using only Mario and Dreamy Luigi's Luiginary powers. Once you defeat him he loses the Shiny-Robo armour (i.e. Paper Bowser) and coughs up the shattered dream stone returning to regular Bowser. But your victory is short lived as Bowser stops choking and re-inhales the shattered dream stone, but also inhales Mario and Dreamy Luigi in the process: Inside of Dreamy Bowser, he uses his powers from the Dream stone to extract Dreamy Luigi from Mario and limit his powers to that of regular Luigi (my excuse for going back to regular 2-bros battle format) and inside you also find Cackletta's soul, once again teamed up with her loyal minion Fawful in his Dark Star bug form. The Bros have to defeat both at the same time. The bros eventually succeed at defeating Cackletta and Fawful and take the shards of the dream stone for themselves from inside Bowser, once again returning him to normal form. Unfortunately, they did this right as Elder Princess Shroob manifests in Luigi's Nightmare, and now controlling regular form Bowser, you must defeat her. Once Bowser defeats her, she releases Shroob spores that cause him to cough up everyone inside him, releasing Cackletta, Fawful and the Bros. All the defeated villains wake up and try to kill the bros, but using the Dreamstone to return to Dreamy Luigi, he grows to his Giant form and has a Giant Battle against all 4 of Bowser, Cackletta, Fawful and Elder Princess Shroob at the same time. (This is probably the easiest section and is mainly a cinematic spectacle, as most giant battles go, but I think it would be nice to celebrate all the villains of the series' history) (I know i left Antasma out, but Dreamy Bowser is the final boss of Dream Team and with the idea of this happening in the Dream World, I didn't wanna overdo the DT stuff).

Brothership will rival TTYD for my personal GOTY I still can’t believe this is happening.

Thought the gimmick was an additional combat mode, large scale battleship battles.. maybe as boss fights

I can’t wait Mario and Luigi: Brothership looks awesome!

It’s so strange to see Ash not only say he likes Starlow but also to act shocked when he hears Brandon say he wanted her gone. Like, I wish I could see what Ash found so appealing about Starlow, she just came off as really annoying and unlikeable, being “sassy” (read: rude and jerkish and pretending that’s an endearing quality) to almost everyone she meets, ESPECIALLY Luigi. I feel like she’s only there to give some context for the Dark Star, and she’s present in Dream Team in order to interact with Luigi while he’s sleep in order to affect stuff in the Dream World. She very much outstayed her welcome by Paper Jam, though, and it was SUCH a relief to see she’s nowhere in sight in this game. “Hate” might be a strong word and maybe I wouldn’t go that far when describing her, but if she never shows up again, I certainly would not miss her.

It would help to have a direct link to your Arcade channel in your description and on the channel page. I can't find a link anywhere. Yeah, I can search it, but you'd have way more hits with a promoted link.

Not just a new game, a game made on a big screen home console of switch!

hearing Ash bring it up, i only want consistent ship battles so that the naval combat and exploration can be compared to Skull and Bones.

When you mentioned Ship battles, I immediately thought of Color Splash, where. you had some ship combat in it.

Nintendo didn't shutter AlphaDream. They sunk under debt.

This is actually my most hyped announcement from the direct: the art style alone has me interested in playing this game: I just want to work through my growing backlog before I get to it😅

Two things. When you said ocean combat my immediately thought "oh crap, Mario and Luigi, Black Flag" Second, if we're talking any sort of place you'd like Mario & Luigi to go, I'd love to see a crossover with Sonic. Have Mario and Luigi on A and B and Sonic and Tails on X and Y. Call the game Mario & Luigi: Fast Friends.

5:52 arguably the gameplay part of paper jam was the least of problems with that game

Right now, we don't know if Starlow is or isn't in Brothership.

05:35 I thought I was the only person in the world that maintained Mario & Luigi is a superior RPG series to Paper Mario. The combat in M&L is not only fun, but creative and intuitive. In Paper Mario the combat is so painfully elementary that leveling up feels more like a chore. I understand the aesthetic, story and partner characters are a big draw for the Paper series. I think the stories in M&L are just as good if not better than Papers. Most of the partner characters in Paper are just generic Mario baddies that they threw an accessory on and gave a name to. M&L has fully realized and original characters who not only have great personality and design, they feel like they perfectly fit in the Mario universe. Characters like Midbus and Fawful come to mind. Heck, outside of Bowser, I think Fawful might be the next best big bad the Mario series has! These are characters that would be great fits for Mario Kart too. I love the original Paper Mario and TTYD, but to me it's always been criminal how underappreciated Mario & Luigi has been. Hopefully with Switch, Brothership gets more eyes on this series for those that never played it on handheld. If you made it this far I applaud you 😅. I'm done now.

Big Massif Bros should return

Now all we need is for Wario Land to make a comeback

Possibly controversial opinion: I actually enjoyed Paper Jam mechanically. It has some features that just weren't fun, but the battles were as fantastic as always.

It seems very likely this new game is being made by ILCA considering almost half of Alpha Dream's staff left for there before the studio closed down. If that's the case I'm really crossing my fingers for this game. I love this series to death

I know it gets a ton of love, but I still think SuperStar Saga is incredibly under appreciated It’s the besT Mario and Luigi game imo It just burst onto the scene out of nowhere with an absolute TON of charm, polish, fun, adventure Deserves more praise than it gets imo

I hope that all the previous games are canon to this one. except paper jam.

so glad to see the excitement for this game i love this series i actually like it better then paper mario . I always loved the characters in this series more and the combat in both is great but i give the nod to mario and luigi series i can't wait !

I think if there is a gimmick it will probably be some sort of co-op mechanic.

The gerrrrrrrect

Not everyone will agree with this, I'm sure, but I'm hoping that Brothership doesn't lean into the Gimmick Battles that started with BIS, if only because I don't want motion controls anywhere near this game. Dream Team in particular was really bad about that. On the topic of potential superbosses, previous games had other Mario characters fill the role, as we saw with Bowser Jr and Dry Bowser. Considering the renewed focus on brotherhood, why not have a boss fight against Wario and Waluigi?

Yeah, we know, it's gonna be good It's gonna be hard to complete it though probably 😯😯😯😊😊😊

I’m early for once, what?? But I’m so excited for the new game.

I just want the Italian gibberish

I disagree on the music. I think it really does sound like Yoko's work. The song that plays in the 2nd half of the trailer feels perfectly like a standard battle theme for the game when comparing to the standard battle themes of the last 3 entries in the series.

WHERES JON

I just wish first party Nintendo games and pokemon games would incorporate more voice acting. Not just for immersion but especially games aimed at younger kids (and old dudes like me) could really benefit from it I think. They charge enough to pay some VAs it seems.

I'm very much expecting some kind of ship gimmick.

If Paper Jam was the way fans wanted, it would've been bloated with villains who wouldn't have that big of a role. Many of whom would've only be there to hype up the trailers.

There is so much in here, if only there was some type of machine to analyze everything here... Hmmmm...

14:30 I DISAGREE Brandon. For me, Starlow was much better than Stuffwell and here is why I think that: - Starlow had personality. Say whatever you want about her, there were many times where she reacted to different things while Stuffwell had ZERO personality. He had the exact same expression for the entirety of Partners in Time and never had any reaction to anything. - You criticize that Starlow had no backstory? Neither did Stuffwell aside from the fact he was created by Professor E. Gadd and that is all you know about him. When Starlow first appeared, she was a representative of the Star Sprites to assist the Mushroom Kingdom with the Blorb Disease. At least, she was more involved with the plot than Stuffwell who was just essentially the pause menu. - Stuffwell is a suitcase. A SUITCASE. He didn’t feel like a weird funny character. He was the blandest version of what a living talking suitcase could have been. You say Starlow didn’t feel like a character? Nope, Starlow was a actual living being and Stuffwell was just a soulless robot. - Yes Starlow was the voice of the Mario Brothers but there were funny interactions between her and the Mario Brothers. In Partners in Time, Stuffwell had none of that because that was the babies’ role. As a result, Stuffwell was unnecessary compared to Starlow.

Um, I really didn't think Paper Jam was THAT bad. It was just kind of a shame that there were no original characters sans Starlow.

I love the animation but kind of weary of the art style. Still looks fun and that's what really matters.

Starlow's whole shtick was "be mean to Luigi," and that got old REALLY fast.

I think from a gameplay standpoint M&L blows Paper Mario, even the original two, out of the water. I'm playing through TTYD and as much as I love it, battling still isn't as fun as it is in M&L.

THe Paper Jam bashing, sheesh. Like yeah, the story, character choice and locations were really bland. But I'll die on this hill: The gameplay, besides the Toad missions and chasing sequences maybe, was quite amazing. And the writing wasn't deep, but some moments did make me chuckle.

To be fair, did anyone actually play Mario & Luigi in co-op?

I am really curious if they will use the badge system from the first two games or Bowser's Inside Story. Also I am so glad Starlow is gone. She was always a pretty fun character, but in Paper Jam, she was so vile towards Luigi that it became sickening, so it makes sense why she is gone now. They butchered her character too much. I feel like both her and the Peaches were just mouthpieces for Alphadream to express how stale the games were cause a lot of things they said were just so whiny like, "Ugh I guess it's that time in the story"

I know im in the minority but I really liked Paper Jam

Mario and Luigi having a pseudo mirror-match against Wario and Waluigi would be great! Would be kinda like the Partner in Time fight where the Bros fought Bowser and Baby Bowser. And darn it, now I am hoping for a Mario and Luigi Supreme Team/ Double Date. I love multiple party members and customizable parties in RPGs. Would be a blast to play. Mario & Luigi Peach & Daisy Wario & Waluigi Bowser & Bowser Jr Probably some more fun duos that could show up as well, but Probably wouldn't want to over do it.

Mario & Luigi is the PEAK mario series... I've never felt more happiness of a game franchise returning

I love Brothership's art style. I wasn't a fan of the visuals of the 3DS games, and this feels like a return to form. The cell shading and outlines, plus the expressive animation, makes it feel like an interactive cartoon.

I don't think multiplayer is a big deal.

after switch 2 tendo should just toss in the flag like sega did sonic and liscence off mario, @ my age im done buying a nintendo console for 2 characters i like out of the franchise...starting to get a lil WHACC

Supreme team DOES NOT sell it self. Sounds like a knick off. #callmocrooooosoft. Lol. Fifjdbshdncm

11:58 LOVE that you pointed this out! To me the Bros moves actually lost a lot of their appeal when it just because M&L pulling out giant toy props and using them as weapons.

I love you guy and your podcast but the hair of the green guy makes me uncomfortable. That chaos and oiliness.

Although Paper Jam is the worst one, it still isn’t BAD. It’s still funny and the gameplay is still excellent. I just wish they went with the most ambitious plot the originally had. But hey, it being generic oddly helps it stick out amongst the others.

You dont know anything about multiplayer. Nintendo always goes out of there way to show very basic things in their first trailers. It the reason thought 3D World was going to be boring

i really don't get why everyone wants every game to have co-op these games are single player all the way i feel like it's a waste of resources .

Okay, on the Switch: 2017: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Super Mario Odyssey 2018: Mario Tennis Aces, Super Mario Party 2019: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Super Mario Maker 2, Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games 2020 2020: Paper Mario: The Origami King, Super Mario Bros. 35, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit 2021: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, Mario Golf: Super Rush, Mario Party Superstars 2022: Mario Strikers: Battle League, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope 2023: Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Super Mario RPG 2024: Mario vs. Donkey Kong Remake, Princess Peach: Showtime!, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Remake, Super Mario Party Jamboree, Mario & Luigi: Brothership.

I only liked Superstar Saga. I played all of them leading up to Dream Team and I was done with the series. I think one thing I haven't seen many people talk about was that Superstar Saga was very open whereas in the following entries the worlds were very segmented and felt closed off.

first

Don't underestimate the amount of people who love and enjoy the origami king, don't let the vocal minority of hardcore old school fans fool you

Two player Mario and Luigi couldn't work, unless it's an arena mode where a second player controls the enemy and bosses

I'm hesitant on this. Most likely it will be a way better experience than Mario Strikers Battle League, but Battle League left me with a sour taste.

I actually disliked Bowser's Inside Story for multiple reasons, so I disagree with it being widely seen as the best. Its fans are loud, but that's about it: 1. I am left-handed. There are potions of this game that are nigh unplayable with your left hand. That's partially because the game requires touch controls, some being flick motions which cannot be done from left to right with a left hand. It made both normal Bowser battles and giant battles painful to play. 2.. I really thought the aesthetis of "inside of Bowser" were offputting, but that's more of a personal gripe. If button controls were implemented instead, I would likely have liked this game more.

Dream Team was too long. I didn't like that game.

It’s been 7 months and I’m still upset with Derrick for talking trash about Yoshi on NES. He needs to apologize for that bad take, it’s a good game.

I canceled my preorder when I found out ILCA is developing the game

Get a haircut. All of you. Plaese. You'll be cute finly