It’s a little odd to think it, but since the turn of the century, Mario’s been as much of a role playing powerhouse as a platforming icon. Between Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi and Mario + Rabbids, there’s actually been more new RPGs than jump man adventures, and that lead’s only going to be extended next month with the release of Mario & Luigi: Brothership.

it’s actually been nine years since the last new Mario & Luigi game, with a couple of remakes during the Nintendo 3DS’s twilight years. Original developer AlphaDream closed down after the last of these remakes failed to perform, leaving the series future in doubt, but it’s lovely to see it get another chance. We don’t know the name of the studio yet – Nintendo being as mysterious as ever – but some of the original developers were noted as being involved.

This new game sees the most iconic Italian brothers since Romulus and Remus thrown into another adventure in strange lands. Concordia has been shattered into islands, and this dynamic duo are the only ones that can help the local partner characters Connie and Snoutlet – not a pig – drag the realm back together again.

With an island adventure before them, they’re going to need a boat. What they end up with is Shipshape Island, a ship that’s also an island, able to traverse the seas and search for new islands to launch Mario and Luigi at from a cannon. Each island then needs to be linked back to Shipshape by finding a magical lighthouse and connecting their beacons together.

We got to fire ourselves at two islands from the game, showing that early evolution of introductory gameplay, as well as some of the pair’s new tricks. Landing on Twister Island, and needing to reach one of the locals who’s now stranded up on a clifftop, the famous twisting vines having withdrawn because nobody’s dancing anymore… and nobody’s dancing because there’s a serious hair gel shortage. It’s a real struggle, but thankfully it’s not that tricky to find Spiralia, the one person who knows how to make hair gel, and get them back to their shop, even if they work in the middle of a forest that’s full of bugs they are absolutely petrified of.

it’s an absolutely barmy series of situations in isolation, and I hope there’s a bit more heft to the overarching narrative of the game. Still, this allows the familiar Mario & Luigi tandem gameplay shines through. Just getting around the world is a quirky little challenge, as pressing ‘A’ makes Mario jump and ‘B’ makes Luigi jump, who is invariably right on his heels, and you can get the pleasing one-two jump as you lead the pair around (though it’s far more forgiving than I remember the GBA original being). There’s some environmental puzzling here, as helping Spiralia requires you to carry her past meandering bugs, hopping over ledges and passing her back and forth between the two brothers.

Later, on Merrygo Island, a new Luigi Logic system shows up, with the taller brother able to take more of an independent role in certain scenarios. It could be helping you chase after collectibles that float around, and Luigi splitting off to go man a gong trigger, while Mario heads up to get a view of the surroundings – Merrygo Island is home to a huge circular maze, which needs to be shifted and moved around to let the pair pass through.

Then there’s the brotherly baddie bashing in combat. Similar to Paper Mario, every encounter is triggered by running into enemies in the world, sending you into battle with the possibility that you can get a free attack (or that the enemy does). From there you’re in a fairly standard turn-based system, picking from a jump attack, hammer attack or a special shell attack. The twist is that every single attack has Mario and Luigi teaming up, with active button presses for the two characters boosting your damage. From an acrobatic launch into the air, to winding up and hitting hammers together for a whirling dervish of damage, or the back and forth passing of a shell to build up to a shell attack, it’s a quick little QTE that’s nice and straightforward. That said, it is visually and mechanically quite repetitive with the limited abilities available this early in the game, and I’m definitely looking forward to more shell attacks later on.

More difficult to grasp is the timing of button presses when defending and possible countering enemy attacks. They all have multiple attack types to learn, and you have to read not only what attack is coming, but which brother it’s going to target. This is where the real learning curve comes in the game’s combat, and I was often getting caught out, especially with return attacks as enemies swoop back onto screen.

There’s plenty more that we didn’t get to really explore. Shipshape island will naturally be a hub for the game, and there’s some little back and forth minigame challenges to find around the different islands that we only really dipped a toe into. There’s also some fun team up abilities for the world exploration, with Mario and Luigi able to effective start tangoing, and then turn into a flying saucer when they jump. It’s a hell of a trick that would have the Strictly judges lose their minds, but more practically it will let you hover across wider gaps in the world.

It’s lovely to see Mario & Luigi return, a role playing counterpart to Paper Mario, just like the back and forth of 3D and 2D Mario platformers. I’m curious to see how safe or adventurous the wider game will be, but it’s already clear that there’s plenty of unusual character to meet amongst the Concordians. Also… did I mention that Snoutlet, the sassy pig that’s definitely not a pig, actually lives in Luigi’s hat? I’m here for that. More games should have hat pigs (that aren’t pigs).