The Mario & Luigi series began in 2003 on the Game Boy Advance and became a handheld classic by offering a fun role-playing twist on traditional Mario games. Turn-based battle systems, upgrades, and puzzles were all core tenets of the series, which spawned five games, the last of which was 2015’s Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. Though the series returned in the form of two remakes, the main series remained dormant until this year, when Nintendo announced that a new console Mario & Luigi game was in development for the Nintendo Switch. Last week, Nintendo held a brief preview session for the upcoming game, titled Mario & Luigi: Brothership, where I was able to spend some time with the latest entry.

While I only had a brief playtime with the game, it's clear that the game's developers (exactly which studio is producing it is unknown, but Nintendo has said that members of the series' original developers, AlphaDream, are involved) have an affinity for the series, as Brothership looks, feels, and plays like the classic handheld series.

The first thing players may notice about Mario & Luigi: Brothership is that it takes players away from the world of the Mushroom Kingdom. Like other recent Mario games, Brothership takes place in its own land, this time on the sea world known as Concordia. In typical Mario fashion, the world of Concordia is a fragmented one, with many larger islands that stand apart from one another, each with their own problems to solve and people to meet.

To travel through the world of Concordia, Mario and Luigi travel to Shipshape Island, a boat that doubles as its own island and is technically the main hub of the entire game. Throughout the game, players can add characters to the island depending on what they do on other islands. Things like item shops, upgrade stations, and characters just walking around waiting to chat will make their way to the island as you explore the game further.