MARIO & LUIGI: BROTHERSHIP
Mario & Luigi: Brothership is the sixth game in the Mario & Luigi series, and the first game to be made after AlphaDream went under. It stars Mario and Luigi who find themselves in a world of plug-face people (I believe the official term is Concordian) that had been broken apart into multiple floating islands, with the duo having to help travel to all the different island, and link them back together with lighthouses.
A lot of their moves are pretty standard for the Mario & Luigi series, Mario being set to one button, Luigi being set to another, with the two working together for a number of bros. moves in the overworld, including spinning together in order to fly, rolling up into a ball, and shooting fire and ice respectively. In battle, they have jump and hammer moves, as well as a number of powerful finishers, including: red and green shell attacks, Yoshi hatching from an egg, creating a thundercloud, a bomb derby, a jump helmet, slowing down time, firing themselves from cannons, summoning the Great Conductor, and creating a giant tornado. They also have Battle Plugs that give them boosts for their various attacks.
Their most important supporting characters are the Wattanist Connie and the flying not-pig creature Snoutlet. Connie carries a watering can to tend to all the lighthouses in the area, which helps to connect them back to the tree on Shipshape Island. If there was ever a recipient for all gimmick rep-type stuff, it would be these two together.
There are a number of other supporting cast, including the returning Princess Peach and Starlow, as well as Bowser, Bowser Jr., Kamek, the Toads, and Bowser's minions, who all ended up in this world too. Notable Concordians include: the members of IDLE, a band of rambunctious kids who like to go on adventures; Arc, a young sailor who helps you navigate; Willma, Maykit, and Billdit, a mother and her two kids who run the shops for you to upgrade things; the scientist Technikki and her rival Adaphne; the world-renowned groovemaster Dyode and his apprentice Emmit; Romeo and Juliet-style couple Burnadette and Chilliam; Bowser Jr.'s new friend Buddy; and Connie's old mentor Cozette (more on her later). There are also Grampy Turnips who give you hints when you pull them up, and the Great Conductor, a powerful being who summoned Mario and Luigi in the first place.
For most of the game, the main villain is Zokket, who turns out to be Cozette under brainwashing. In this form, he? (I guess he's referred to as he in this form) works to bring about the hatching of Reclusa, the true villain, a powerful dark creature who hates forming bonds with others and wants everyone in the world to be alone like him. In battle, Zokket can throw his pliers like a boomerang, cast lightning, call down thunderbolts, summon whirlwinds, dual-wield swords, and infect others with Glohm, a dark substance that makes people misanthropic. Reclusa, on the other hand, can fly, uses flowers to trap people inside a dream world (Madara Uchiha, much?), hides as a block, shoot ice and fire, transform into a giant tree called Weeping Reclusa, sweep his arms, throw fruit, rain ice on them, fire dark energy orbs, encase himself in a shell, roll, shoot spikes, and clone himself.
Working directly under Zokket is the Extension Corps (Ecks, Ten, and Shun, haha) who act as more of a silly Team Rocket-type trio. Prior to their big final fight, they mostly hide behind other bosses to fight you, but during that last fight: Ecks zips around at high speed to attack you, Ten can fire energy balls and ride a giant one at you, and Shun throws dumbbells at you. They also use their own plugs that drop cannonballs on you, punish you for eating mushrooms, dance and power up, let them perform a big triple attack, and makes them invincible briefly before exploding.
Other bosses include Gorumbla, a big lumbering bully cared for by Willma and led astray by Zokket. He uses his arms as shields, pounds the ground, slide on his belly, swipe with his arms, headbutt, and toss blocks from the sky. Another is Gobblick, a large pitcher plant, who can spit up things and grab with its tentacles, vents playing a role in its battle. Then we have Sharpcask, a giant living barrel who rolls, tosses other barrels, and trips while carrying a crate. Then there's Pipegunk, a living blob of toxic sludge who can fire sludge balls, switch between fire and ice forms, which then let it shoot fireballs and icicles at its enemies.
Our enemies include: Seedles (who can heal themselves), Guardarms (who plow forward), Invisilizards, Parashoots, Soreboars (who charge), Spikelies, Capnaps, Snaptors (who can fly, extend their necks, bite), Drilbies (who dig), Krodes (who toss junk), Zok Troopers (who wear helmets, wield spikes, zap with Zokkarangs, toss rings, fly with jetpacks, combine into Weeping Troopers), Shower Fish, Sharkbones, Foopflies, Iceads, Magmads, Curlups, Bob-Ombs, Palookas (who punch), Piranha Plants, Hammer Bros, Fire Bros, Ice Bros, Spikes, Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Milltons, Spinies, Dry Bones, Magikoopas, Shy Guys, Boos, Reclusiffs, Seedlusas, and Doom Blooms.
As for stages, Shipshape Island is your main hub, an island shaped like a boat that you connect all the other islands back to. Notable islands include: Rumbla Island, Raynforst Island, Twistee Island, Florall Island, Desolatt Island, Lottacoins Island, Merrygo Island, Allsand Island, Bulbfish Island, Heatfreeze Island, Slippenglide Island, Skorcheen Island, Offandon Island, Wayaway Island, Fortress Zokket, Conductor Island, Jellyfish Island, the Soli-Tree, and the four Great Lighthouse Islands in each of the four main seas.
I would do the gather-up bit, but I've been going for an hour already writing this, and I know which characters I'm doing. Let's just move on, shall we?
Thanks for reading! Next up, Connie and Snoutlet strengthen their bonds!
