Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Mario & Luigi: Brothership plays on the Mac at 60 fps, up from the 30 fps it has on the Switch, and up to 120 fps on a screen that shows 120 Hz. Tested from an empty save through the opening movie, the title, a new game and the beach, then the first battle to its results screen, and loading the autosave. No iPhone or iPad app has been built yet.

How it runs

The Packed app raises the game from 30 to 60 fps. The game moves by the time that really passed, so it runs at the right speed: the same route at 30 and at 60 fps reached the same moments at the same times. The first battle was played at 60 fps, with a timed stomp rated EXCELLENT and the jump counters landing. At 60 fps the game held 58 to 60 fps, dipping briefly when a scene starts.

On the Mac, the Frame rate setting also offers 120 fps, on a screen that shows 120 Hz. It is the first Unreal Engine game to get it, and it does not depend on the game's version. The project developers checked the speed at 120 fps against 60 fps by walking and in the first battle: no double or half speed, though a difference of a few percent is not ruled out. In a window on a 120 Hz screen the game held about 119 fps, with occasional slower stretches. At 120 fps the Mac's processor uses about twice the power it uses at 60. Whether the timed stomps and counters still land at 120 fps has not been checked.

Memory came to about 4.2 GB through the first battle at 60 fps. It has not been measured over a long session or on an iPhone.

Version

Tested with the base game, version 1.0.0. The project developers' copy of update 1.0.1 was damaged, so they packed the base game alone with the packing script's --package v0. An intact 1.0.1 has not been tried.

Controls

The Packed app starts in the 3D touch layout, because the game uses the D-pad and the right stick.

• On an empty save, a notice about autosave comes first: press A. The opening movie, about 2.5 minutes, cannot be skipped with A or Plus.
• With a save, the title goes to Load with A, A.
• The left stick walks relative to the camera.
• In a battle, A opens Jump, chooses the target, and lands the stomp and the jump counter when pressed in time. Tutorial pages turn and close with A.

Good to know

• To keep the game at its original 30 fps, set DM_FPS_TARGET=30.
• A first full Mac build prepares about 45,800 graphics programs, which the project developers report took about 45 minutes on an M6 Mac.