Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood hit the Nintendo Switch yesterday and, on the whole, people seem to be pretty impressed with this new nautical adventure. That’s not to say there aren’t a few minor annoyances, mind you, as we quickly found out after glancing at our social media this morning.
Looking beyond the new visuals, adorable quirks, and cute characters, more than a few people don’t seem to mind the game’s Bro-specific button battles. Namely, as Luigi’s ‘Press B to attack’ is not as simple as it used to be.
Series normally see Mario controlled with ‘A’ and Luigi with ‘B’. Mario’s battle menu is navigated with one button, Luigi’s with another — simple, right? The same system is still present and correct in Brotherhood except for one significant change, you now select Luigi’s attacks with ‘A’, before performing them with ‘B’.
No, it’s not the most dramatic change, but after years of going through green Bro’s menus by tapping the ‘B’ key before performing an attack the same way, it can take some getting used to (and we’ve messed up more than our fair share of Luigi’s attacks because of it).
And, apparently, we’re not alone with our disruptive muscle memory:
After nine years without an original entry in the series (yes, we’ve had a few remakes in that time), we suppose it makes sense to change the formula for a new audience — most people will associate the ‘A’ with acceptance, sure — but it’s an understandable gripe for longtime devotees franchise.
Fortunately, we were able to address this minor complaint in our Brotherhood review, where we called the latest entry “the best Mario & Luigi RPG yet.” You can read our full thoughts below.
