My mother and father were taking me on a road trip as I hadn’t left the state of Florida throughout my life, and seeing as how my 12th birthday was around the corner, they figured there would be no better time. The trip was long and arduous, the seemingly unending road ahead of us nearly made my father swerve off of the road and slam into a nearby tree, or realistically fall into the river of Alligator Alley. I woke up suddenly to the unfamiliar sensation of my ears popping from the rise of elevation. I looked outside of the backseat car window and the first thing I noticed were the trees, towering and winding above the road, each trunk housing centuries of untold stories. A still darkness lies beneath them with beams of the sunset's light shining through the cracks of the leaves, burning my half-asleep eyelids shut once again. As we drove on a bridge that was above the canopy of trees, I noticed the vast ocean of mountains. The beauty of the insurmountable that laid bare upon my unknowing and immature eyes astonished me, cloaked in a mist of distant fog, shielding me from what lies beyond. What interested me more however, was that I had multiple street-passes on my red 3ds XL that I had in sleep mode during my slumber. That was true happiness.
Nearing dusk, we arrived at the destined mountain in which my grandparents resided. The one way gravel road with many twists and turns and minimal lighting was a horror beyond human comprehension, especially when your father was showing symptoms of being high due to having three mango slushes from Sonic. My Father does not remember this part of the story. After nearly driving off of a cliff multiple times, we arrived at the house. Dimly lit, it was slightly illuminated by the local firefly population. Sadly, we still couldn’t see shit and went to sleep because mosquitoes kept biting my ass. Ouch.
The morning came and I woke up to the smell of fresh air and nice smelling food. Just kidding, it was the exact opposite. I smelt rotting eggs and my balls were shivering because it was so fucking cold and I didn’t have a blanket. This fucking sucked. What’s more is I found out I was sleeping on an air mattress, which at the time sucked until I walked around the rest of the house and realized everything in the house and the house itself were rotting away at the seams. Then and only then was it seen as a blessing. Thank you mother. It was tradition for me as a kid to put my 3ds under my pillow as I slept, and before even opening my eyes I would scrummage around my bed trying to ensure my favorite toy was still there. Thankfully, not unlike all of the preceding days, it was and all was good in the world. Except for the stench of rotting eggs, which I was too lazy to follow. Instead, I opted to play Mario & Luigi Dream Team, a game I had purchased on the eshop months before. I was sitting on the edge of my air mattress in the heat of the final battle against whatever the fuck his name was, when suddenly my “grandmother” barged into my safe heaven, undoing the imaginary locks on the rotting wooden door and allowing the aforementioned stench to flow into my olfactory glands in it’s purest form, and only after reaching my olfactory cortex did the odor truly fuck me up. The ogre stood in the doorway, blocking the light from the morning sun from reaching my once pure, not grimacing face. She asked, no, demanded, “DO YOU WANT EGGS?” in a loud and quaking tone in her raspy voice akin to that of an eldritch demon. Startled, I stood up from the side of the air mattress, the precipice of fate, starring the demon in her ugly and moldy eyes. Pleading for my life, I begged “No, thank you”, then walked past the horrific creation of a jaded God, resting my opened red 3ds XL on the corner of my air mattress and ran as fast as possible toward the door. Not before seeing the watery eggs she had crafted. I dodged a fatal bullet.
As I swung open the front door, I heard a roar from the inner tunnels of the dwelling in which I rested, the demon cursing in her native tongue. It was only when I exited that I saw our location in light. Our cabin was atop a small hill with a barn at the foot of it. I was taken back in awe at the beauty that nature provided, staring distantly at the mountains and treeline. I snapped back into reality when I heard my mother yell my name from the bottom of the hill. I ran down the hill and told my father what I had experienced in the previous 10 minutes. After telling him the tale in which I escaped with my life, I instinctively touched the pocket on my red shorts… It was then I realized the grave error in my judgment. My red 3ds XL was not with me. I recollected the events and came to the conclusion that it must have been left on the air mattress. I looked back at the hill and saw the menacing castle before me, fumes of green oozing out of the many crevices of the once inviting home, a haunting laugh emanating from the inner corridors. I had to make a decision. Face the stench and find my love, or hide in my sorrow and fear. I ran as fast as I could up the hill, dodging the many bugs that came to attack me on my hurried pilgrimage. I rammed open the door and saw the beast sleeping on a throne of human skull. Tip toeing toward my goal, every creak in the floor could be my end. I refused to even breathe on my careful descent into the lair of madness. I eventually met the door and stood quietly in front of it, slowly moving my hand toward the doorknob. I opened the door as slowly as humanly possible, and what laid on my bed changed the course of my life forever.
My favorite, red 3ds XL. Shattered in two pieces. The hinges on my love were completely broken. The game would not even turn on. I wept for an eternity as I realized that I would never be able to play my favorite games again. What’s worse is that there is no conclusion. We don’t know how it happened. My mother believes it was the result of it sliding off of the corner of the air mattress and her stepping on it. My friends think she just snapped it in half out of anger due to the lack of watery eggs in my stomach and vomit in the toilet. But deep down, I know she sat on it because her legs were tired after standing up for 5 minutes after making eggs. Furthermore, the extra padding on her behind due her comically large body weight caught the innocent red 3ds XL off-guard, and couldn’t find a way to lift the pressure of 10,000 suns crashing down upon its red, feeble, extra large body. I never got to complete this game. I can’t ever go back. This is my story.
Nearing dusk, we arrived at the destined mountain in which my grandparents resided. The one way gravel road with many twists and turns and minimal lighting was a horror beyond human comprehension, especially when your father was showing symptoms of being high due to having three mango slushes from Sonic. My Father does not remember this part of the story. After nearly driving off of a cliff multiple times, we arrived at the house. Dimly lit, it was slightly illuminated by the local firefly population. Sadly, we still couldn’t see shit and went to sleep because mosquitoes kept biting my ass. Ouch.
The morning came and I woke up to the smell of fresh air and nice smelling food. Just kidding, it was the exact opposite. I smelt rotting eggs and my balls were shivering because it was so fucking cold and I didn’t have a blanket. This fucking sucked. What’s more is I found out I was sleeping on an air mattress, which at the time sucked until I walked around the rest of the house and realized everything in the house and the house itself were rotting away at the seams. Then and only then was it seen as a blessing. Thank you mother. It was tradition for me as a kid to put my 3ds under my pillow as I slept, and before even opening my eyes I would scrummage around my bed trying to ensure my favorite toy was still there. Thankfully, not unlike all of the preceding days, it was and all was good in the world. Except for the stench of rotting eggs, which I was too lazy to follow. Instead, I opted to play Mario & Luigi Dream Team, a game I had purchased on the eshop months before. I was sitting on the edge of my air mattress in the heat of the final battle against whatever the fuck his name was, when suddenly my “grandmother” barged into my safe heaven, undoing the imaginary locks on the rotting wooden door and allowing the aforementioned stench to flow into my olfactory glands in it’s purest form, and only after reaching my olfactory cortex did the odor truly fuck me up. The ogre stood in the doorway, blocking the light from the morning sun from reaching my once pure, not grimacing face. She asked, no, demanded, “DO YOU WANT EGGS?” in a loud and quaking tone in her raspy voice akin to that of an eldritch demon. Startled, I stood up from the side of the air mattress, the precipice of fate, starring the demon in her ugly and moldy eyes. Pleading for my life, I begged “No, thank you”, then walked past the horrific creation of a jaded God, resting my opened red 3ds XL on the corner of my air mattress and ran as fast as possible toward the door. Not before seeing the watery eggs she had crafted. I dodged a fatal bullet.
As I swung open the front door, I heard a roar from the inner tunnels of the dwelling in which I rested, the demon cursing in her native tongue. It was only when I exited that I saw our location in light. Our cabin was atop a small hill with a barn at the foot of it. I was taken back in awe at the beauty that nature provided, staring distantly at the mountains and treeline. I snapped back into reality when I heard my mother yell my name from the bottom of the hill. I ran down the hill and told my father what I had experienced in the previous 10 minutes. After telling him the tale in which I escaped with my life, I instinctively touched the pocket on my red shorts… It was then I realized the grave error in my judgment. My red 3ds XL was not with me. I recollected the events and came to the conclusion that it must have been left on the air mattress. I looked back at the hill and saw the menacing castle before me, fumes of green oozing out of the many crevices of the once inviting home, a haunting laugh emanating from the inner corridors. I had to make a decision. Face the stench and find my love, or hide in my sorrow and fear. I ran as fast as I could up the hill, dodging the many bugs that came to attack me on my hurried pilgrimage. I rammed open the door and saw the beast sleeping on a throne of human skull. Tip toeing toward my goal, every creak in the floor could be my end. I refused to even breathe on my careful descent into the lair of madness. I eventually met the door and stood quietly in front of it, slowly moving my hand toward the doorknob. I opened the door as slowly as humanly possible, and what laid on my bed changed the course of my life forever.
My favorite, red 3ds XL. Shattered in two pieces. The hinges on my love were completely broken. The game would not even turn on. I wept for an eternity as I realized that I would never be able to play my favorite games again. What’s worse is that there is no conclusion. We don’t know how it happened. My mother believes it was the result of it sliding off of the corner of the air mattress and her stepping on it. My friends think she just snapped it in half out of anger due to the lack of watery eggs in my stomach and vomit in the toilet. But deep down, I know she sat on it because her legs were tired after standing up for 5 minutes after making eggs. Furthermore, the extra padding on her behind due her comically large body weight caught the innocent red 3ds XL off-guard, and couldn’t find a way to lift the pressure of 10,000 suns crashing down upon its red, feeble, extra large body. I never got to complete this game. I can’t ever go back. This is my story.
What?! It isn't amazing?!
But... but...
But it has Popple in it!
I remember finally picking this game after so long of wanting it, it took three years, but I finally managed to buy it, and man, what a blast. It was packed full of creativity, it was funny, it was entertaining and it was unique; what a great game... Looking back on it and after several attempts of relpaying it, I can't shake the feeling that I only felt that way 'cause this was my first experience with the series, and as time has passed, its flaws have become more and more apparent.
The combat is by far the best in the series, or at the very least on par with Bowser's Inside Story. It's feels like a natural extension of its older brothers: more snappy, more options, faster and with more interesting enemies; the Dream battles are a treat to play, giving a whole set of options even tho technically you only use one of the brothers, and the bosses in both the real and dream world make you use all of your options, make you think how to defeat them and their attack patterns and one of the most inspired in all the series. It's honestly amazing and... and sadly that's were my compliments with the game mostly end.
The fast pacing that went into the combat clearly didin't to the rest of the game. It's slow, very, very slow, the game's tutorial is infamously long and impossible to skip, but I wouldn't have as much as aproblem with it if it weren't because it just.
Keeps.
Going.
The plot and pace are constantly broken by these little tutorials to every minor thing; there's no moment of ''eureka!'' or a fast tutorial like in past games, everything has to be explained to its last details and it just feels dragged. I'll give it to them, they did implement a lot of mechanichs and little minigames, but it's the way they are implemented that creates conflict with the rest of the experience.
Pi'illo Island had SOOO much potential to be incredibly interesting, and while yeah, the isle itself it has some pretty novel ideas and some interesting areas, it's whith the dream world where they drop the ball. Is not as bad as what Partners in Time does, or rather doesn't do with its time travel mechanic, but it's still disappointing. Dreams are such a wild concept, and the way they could be used is almost limitless; instead, we get remixes of the afromentioned areas, where a character has a whacky costume or some minions that don't do much and only extend the lenght of the game with things to do. The beggining of the game has this incredible moment where it explores Luigi's pshyche, and the story of Dreambert and his people and the war against Antasme is pretty novel, but in the end , the game never explores the condition of a character in the slightiest ever again, and it uses the context of the story to give the player some context for the collectables.
The Giant Boss battles are... meh. More spectacular than the the ones in the previous game for sure, but they all feel VERY slow, and the only one I can call exciting is the last one, which admitedly is pretty good; and the puzzles feel much less inspired, even tho there are some amazing ideas here and there.
Dream Team has clearñy a ton of good ideas but doesn't have the courage to fully explore them, it chooses to prioritize quantity before quality, and it doesn't reach its fool potential because of it. It does a lot of mistakes for the sake of giving a striking experience, but it lacks the substance of its predeccesor.
It may be still VERY fun, but being fun or at least interesting is the bare minimun a game should be.
But... but...
But it has Popple in it!
I remember finally picking this game after so long of wanting it, it took three years, but I finally managed to buy it, and man, what a blast. It was packed full of creativity, it was funny, it was entertaining and it was unique; what a great game... Looking back on it and after several attempts of relpaying it, I can't shake the feeling that I only felt that way 'cause this was my first experience with the series, and as time has passed, its flaws have become more and more apparent.
The combat is by far the best in the series, or at the very least on par with Bowser's Inside Story. It's feels like a natural extension of its older brothers: more snappy, more options, faster and with more interesting enemies; the Dream battles are a treat to play, giving a whole set of options even tho technically you only use one of the brothers, and the bosses in both the real and dream world make you use all of your options, make you think how to defeat them and their attack patterns and one of the most inspired in all the series. It's honestly amazing and... and sadly that's were my compliments with the game mostly end.
The fast pacing that went into the combat clearly didin't to the rest of the game. It's slow, very, very slow, the game's tutorial is infamously long and impossible to skip, but I wouldn't have as much as aproblem with it if it weren't because it just.
Keeps.
Going.
The plot and pace are constantly broken by these little tutorials to every minor thing; there's no moment of ''eureka!'' or a fast tutorial like in past games, everything has to be explained to its last details and it just feels dragged. I'll give it to them, they did implement a lot of mechanichs and little minigames, but it's the way they are implemented that creates conflict with the rest of the experience.
Pi'illo Island had SOOO much potential to be incredibly interesting, and while yeah, the isle itself it has some pretty novel ideas and some interesting areas, it's whith the dream world where they drop the ball. Is not as bad as what Partners in Time does, or rather doesn't do with its time travel mechanic, but it's still disappointing. Dreams are such a wild concept, and the way they could be used is almost limitless; instead, we get remixes of the afromentioned areas, where a character has a whacky costume or some minions that don't do much and only extend the lenght of the game with things to do. The beggining of the game has this incredible moment where it explores Luigi's pshyche, and the story of Dreambert and his people and the war against Antasme is pretty novel, but in the end , the game never explores the condition of a character in the slightiest ever again, and it uses the context of the story to give the player some context for the collectables.
The Giant Boss battles are... meh. More spectacular than the the ones in the previous game for sure, but they all feel VERY slow, and the only one I can call exciting is the last one, which admitedly is pretty good; and the puzzles feel much less inspired, even tho there are some amazing ideas here and there.
Dream Team has clearñy a ton of good ideas but doesn't have the courage to fully explore them, it chooses to prioritize quantity before quality, and it doesn't reach its fool potential because of it. It does a lot of mistakes for the sake of giving a striking experience, but it lacks the substance of its predeccesor.
It may be still VERY fun, but being fun or at least interesting is the bare minimun a game should be.
luigi is funny i like him
I too dream of many copies of myself becoming a ball
Dreambert over-explaining how to press the R trigger feels like waiting for an airplane to start moving on the runway while a baby screams behind where you’re sitting
Wow. Talk about a game that completely blew away my expectations.
For this being a 40 hour game the fact that it managed to make me enjoy my time with it as much as it did, is an accomplishment and should not be understated. Games of that length WISH they could be as engaging as this game was. Like I said, invest everything into the POW + Stache stat and just learn to play good, because if you do that, you wont ever have to focus on gear catered to defense and you'll be killing foes before they get the chance to attack ya. The best rank upgrades to get are Counterer (does 150% more damage when countering enemies) Casual Bros (reduces the amount of bp used for a bros attack), and Quick Level (self explanatory) And then the gear upgrades so that you have 5 gear slots by the end. The game is not hard, the game does not drag, it is purely the matter of if you know what does what. If you fight literally everything you encounter you will be just fine. Not once did I ever have to grind in these games. Unless I wanted to. The common misconception is that battles are slow, but they're not, they're only like that if you allow them to be. Speaking of. I really loved this battle system, it brought back a thing from Superstar where every bro got a new attack/move whereas in Inside Story and Partners in Time they shared the same move pool. The dreamy bros attacks are also very fun to use, and alot of these are just bangers in terms of the variety they put in. The world exploration is probably the best its been since Superstar Saga imo. There's just a lot of beans and goodies to find throughout the world. Exploration never became a chore imo.
That being said, this game wasn't perfect, that final boss is just annoying. They really can't ever top BIS in terms of a game finale. Hell, even Superstar Saga did it better. While this one definitely felt like a finale to a game, the Dreamy Bowser fight really left a sour taste at the end. I'm fine with Final Bosses being able to heal, if its limited, this mother fucker just does it whenever he feels like it and in turn it can make the fight drag on and on. Something that I haven't experienced in this game till now. there were numerous times where framerate would drop and sometimes it did actually hinder how I played. The final boss for example has a move where Mario and Luigi are running towards the camera and have to dodge dreamy bowsers fire, thing is, everytime he does this the whole fucking game lags. I think it might've slipped past game testing cause it makes these already shitty 3D dodging segments even more unbearable. SPEAKING OF. FUCK 3D dodging segments. This has to be this games biggest flaw since I hated every time the camera shifted to a 3D perspective while battling because the depth perception is awful. And these are just everywhere, they're not all bad, but the ones that are end up souring a lot of these great boss fights.
The story is just really predictable... man, I'm sorry but once you figure out how this game works you can tell what'll happen at each area you visit. You know exactly what will happen and what will be awaiting you. The game does like to shake it up at times, but its very far in between as the moment to moment gameplay is easily something that you'll love or hate. I ended up liking it but this is where I can see people get annoyed with how it doesn't do much to shake up the narrative.
Character writing though is still fantastic, only characters that suck is some of the early people you meet and Starlow, but Starlow was already pretty shit anyways so I don't really give a fuck. Dreambert clears in like every way possible, that's my goat. He is easily the best partner in this series. It helps that I also really like his design and personality too.
I didn't expect myself to like Dream Team as much as I did and in some areas it even beats out BIS with the 2D dreamy mechanics and the big luigi battles being improvements to the formula.
For this being a 40 hour game the fact that it managed to make me enjoy my time with it as much as it did, is an accomplishment and should not be understated. Games of that length WISH they could be as engaging as this game was. Like I said, invest everything into the POW + Stache stat and just learn to play good, because if you do that, you wont ever have to focus on gear catered to defense and you'll be killing foes before they get the chance to attack ya. The best rank upgrades to get are Counterer (does 150% more damage when countering enemies) Casual Bros (reduces the amount of bp used for a bros attack), and Quick Level (self explanatory) And then the gear upgrades so that you have 5 gear slots by the end. The game is not hard, the game does not drag, it is purely the matter of if you know what does what. If you fight literally everything you encounter you will be just fine. Not once did I ever have to grind in these games. Unless I wanted to. The common misconception is that battles are slow, but they're not, they're only like that if you allow them to be. Speaking of. I really loved this battle system, it brought back a thing from Superstar where every bro got a new attack/move whereas in Inside Story and Partners in Time they shared the same move pool. The dreamy bros attacks are also very fun to use, and alot of these are just bangers in terms of the variety they put in. The world exploration is probably the best its been since Superstar Saga imo. There's just a lot of beans and goodies to find throughout the world. Exploration never became a chore imo.
That being said, this game wasn't perfect, that final boss is just annoying. They really can't ever top BIS in terms of a game finale. Hell, even Superstar Saga did it better. While this one definitely felt like a finale to a game, the Dreamy Bowser fight really left a sour taste at the end. I'm fine with Final Bosses being able to heal, if its limited, this mother fucker just does it whenever he feels like it and in turn it can make the fight drag on and on. Something that I haven't experienced in this game till now. there were numerous times where framerate would drop and sometimes it did actually hinder how I played. The final boss for example has a move where Mario and Luigi are running towards the camera and have to dodge dreamy bowsers fire, thing is, everytime he does this the whole fucking game lags. I think it might've slipped past game testing cause it makes these already shitty 3D dodging segments even more unbearable. SPEAKING OF. FUCK 3D dodging segments. This has to be this games biggest flaw since I hated every time the camera shifted to a 3D perspective while battling because the depth perception is awful. And these are just everywhere, they're not all bad, but the ones that are end up souring a lot of these great boss fights.
The story is just really predictable... man, I'm sorry but once you figure out how this game works you can tell what'll happen at each area you visit. You know exactly what will happen and what will be awaiting you. The game does like to shake it up at times, but its very far in between as the moment to moment gameplay is easily something that you'll love or hate. I ended up liking it but this is where I can see people get annoyed with how it doesn't do much to shake up the narrative.
Character writing though is still fantastic, only characters that suck is some of the early people you meet and Starlow, but Starlow was already pretty shit anyways so I don't really give a fuck. Dreambert clears in like every way possible, that's my goat. He is easily the best partner in this series. It helps that I also really like his design and personality too.
I didn't expect myself to like Dream Team as much as I did and in some areas it even beats out BIS with the 2D dreamy mechanics and the big luigi battles being improvements to the formula.
This game has been on my backlog for quite a long while and back in 2017-2018 I would've said "oh this is great defs the 2nd best game in the M&L series"
But upon coming back to it and actually beating it my opinion has shifted drastically. There are elements I like about the game still, the music, gameplay, and humor, a staple in AlphaDream's library, but there are so many issues that pile up with Dream Team it makes me not want to touch again anytime soon.
The most significant issue is the padding peppered throughout the whole game. Its something you may not notice playing it in short bursts, but it becomes incredibly noticable if played in long sessions. The most notable examples of this are dragging out the collection of one of the Ultibed parts and towards the end of the game where you fight Kamek three times in a row before facing off the final bosses, but thats held up too because now you need to go to the dreamworld and disable 3 flamethrowers affecting the real world before even touching the final bosses.
Another pace breaking issue is the game's nature of holding your hand. Yes, the previous Mario & Luigi games had tutorials, but not to the caliber of how this game implements them. I find it ridiculous that the game forces in tutorial interruptions with Dreambert even towards the end of the damn game. There are no way to turn off these interruptions or tutorials. Its forced.
As fun as the battles are, the issues I had is the forced gyro controls with no option to swap them to stick and button. I'm not sure if my 3DS gyro is busted, but I had issues with precision especially in one of the giant battles.
As for the giant battles they are such a massive step down from the BiS ones. They're slow for a reason, to illustrate that weight & oomph you have, but it mitigates the fast paced nature of the BiS giant fights, not to mention wonky gyro controls in those fights too. Fun.
Overall, there is a solid game here, but its so bogged down by its issues of padding, pacing, and forced controls it overstays its welcome and is a longer game because of said issues.
I can't recommend this game unless you play it in short bursts. But for that I'd say just play Bowser's Inside Story instead.
But upon coming back to it and actually beating it my opinion has shifted drastically. There are elements I like about the game still, the music, gameplay, and humor, a staple in AlphaDream's library, but there are so many issues that pile up with Dream Team it makes me not want to touch again anytime soon.
The most significant issue is the padding peppered throughout the whole game. Its something you may not notice playing it in short bursts, but it becomes incredibly noticable if played in long sessions. The most notable examples of this are dragging out the collection of one of the Ultibed parts and towards the end of the game where you fight Kamek three times in a row before facing off the final bosses, but thats held up too because now you need to go to the dreamworld and disable 3 flamethrowers affecting the real world before even touching the final bosses.
Another pace breaking issue is the game's nature of holding your hand. Yes, the previous Mario & Luigi games had tutorials, but not to the caliber of how this game implements them. I find it ridiculous that the game forces in tutorial interruptions with Dreambert even towards the end of the damn game. There are no way to turn off these interruptions or tutorials. Its forced.
As fun as the battles are, the issues I had is the forced gyro controls with no option to swap them to stick and button. I'm not sure if my 3DS gyro is busted, but I had issues with precision especially in one of the giant battles.
As for the giant battles they are such a massive step down from the BiS ones. They're slow for a reason, to illustrate that weight & oomph you have, but it mitigates the fast paced nature of the BiS giant fights, not to mention wonky gyro controls in those fights too. Fun.
Overall, there is a solid game here, but its so bogged down by its issues of padding, pacing, and forced controls it overstays its welcome and is a longer game because of said issues.
I can't recommend this game unless you play it in short bursts. But for that I'd say just play Bowser's Inside Story instead.
nO STOP GIVING ME ANOTHER TUTORIAL
First exposure to the series and yeah, safe to say I'll be playing the others! I'd say it gets a teensy bit filler-y near the end and the occasional lag in the dream world is annoying, but really really solid game overall!
yeah they could have not made paper jam and this game would have been a perfect game to end off on
I feel like the series was running dry at this point. The story was lacking, the dream mechanic is not interesting and adds nothing to the gameplay. It still has that Mario and Luigi charm with fun combat. I wish this was the finale for the series, but.....
I am biased and I know it. This game has pacing issues and is probably way to long, but I don't care.
It's just one of my "feel good" games, I am always happy when I am thinking about it.
Its just so charming.
It's just one of my "feel good" games, I am always happy when I am thinking about it.
Its just so charming.
Dream Team, the 4th entry in the M&L series, is sadly a pretty flawed game. It feels like developer AlphaDream wanted to replicate the success of Bowser's Inside Story but changing the setting from Bowser's body to Luigi's inner consciousness. Because of this, Dream Team doesn't feel unique and instead feels more like a retreading of things introduced in past games of the franchise. It's also pretty long and features an annoyingly large amount of tutorials.
Overall, it's a decent game that should've been shorter and more streamlined. Sadly, not particularly recommended.
Overall, it's a decent game that should've been shorter and more streamlined. Sadly, not particularly recommended.
POR QUE COÑO LOS PERSONAJES NO SE CALLAN
Cada rato es un tutorial constante que extiende de forma ridícula el tiempo de juego. La mecánica de viajar a través de mundos es interesante pero como hay secciones en las que debes intercalar entre ambos mundos constantemente y el cambio tarda unos buenos segundos, la aventura se sentirá eterna.
¿Y los combates? los combates del mundo real se sienten fluidos pero mas simplones, ya que no brindan nada que destaque a diferencia de los otros Mario y Luigi. Los combates en el mundo por otro lado, aunque se siente que tienen un bajoncito de frames minúsculo son el verdadero atractivo por como aprovechas las funciones de la 3DS, el problema es que es muy probable que solo estés espameando el mismo ataque una y otra vez dependiendo del boss. No lo recomiendo para nada.
Cada rato es un tutorial constante que extiende de forma ridícula el tiempo de juego. La mecánica de viajar a través de mundos es interesante pero como hay secciones en las que debes intercalar entre ambos mundos constantemente y el cambio tarda unos buenos segundos, la aventura se sentirá eterna.
¿Y los combates? los combates del mundo real se sienten fluidos pero mas simplones, ya que no brindan nada que destaque a diferencia de los otros Mario y Luigi. Los combates en el mundo por otro lado, aunque se siente que tienen un bajoncito de frames minúsculo son el verdadero atractivo por como aprovechas las funciones de la 3DS, el problema es que es muy probable que solo estés espameando el mismo ataque una y otra vez dependiendo del boss. No lo recomiendo para nada.
The fourth game in the Mario & Luigi series is, like every other game in the series, incredible. Once again developed by AlphaDream with some help from NextLevelGames, it arrived on the 3DS in 2013. Sticking to the standard formula, what it adds is great. The game has the same highs as every other game in the series, but it's lows are something completely different.
Taking place on a neighboring Pi'illo Island, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Starlow find themselves on an island resort that has a deep history with dreams. Stumbling upon these stone-like pillows, Mario and Luigi free them from their current state, one of which happens to be Prince Dreambert, who informs them of the history of the island. An evil Pi'illo named Antasma once sought out to collect the Nightmare and Dream Stones, two objects that allow the holder to bend reality in whatever way they please. This is obviously bad, and now that Antasma has returned and teamed up with Bowser, Mario and Luigi are given the task of taking them both down. The big gimmick is obviously the emphasis on dreams. Luigi quickly finds out that he's a better sleeper than Mario, which allows him to sleep on Pi'illo folk to open up a portal to the Dream World. This radically changes both overworld movements and battles, but more on that later.
Another simple story, once again with a great cast of characters and sharp writing. The setting is truly it's own unique island experience. Pi'illo Island feels like it's own interesting place with its own history, habitants, and customs. The music plays a big part in this as well, giving off a more "dreamy" vibe. This goes hand and hand with the visuals, which are obviously great. Lots of backgrounds can seem like just colors thrown together everywhere, but they're honestly some of the best looking backgrounds I've seen in a video game, it's all pure eye candy.
The characters that make up this island are all great. Dreambert is a pretty standard but fun sidekick. I wish I could say I liked Antasma more, but he was also pretty standard. He had an interesting backstory, but was given as much screen time as Bowser who stole the show in almost every scene he was in. He fell pretty flat when he only felt like a tool for Bowser to use, much like the Dark Star for Fawful in the previous title. The main difference there is that the Dark Star is just an evil, sentient star, and is literally a tool for Fawful to use. Antasma probably could've been a strong main antagonist, but I guess he's fine as a secondary antagonist. Other side characters are also a delight to talk to. Brickle and Britta the construction workers get easily worked up, which causes some funny interactions. Bedsmith constantly remarks how he wants to "nap on you" which I can only assume is the Pi'illo version of sex. Kamek and the Elite Trio from the previous title get much more screen time, and Popple even makes a brief reappearance. The crown jewel in this game for me has to be the Massif Bros., two incredibly buff Hoohooligans that constantly talk about beef. They're two of the funniest characters in the series, and make an otherwise boring and lengthy mountain climb pretty enjoyable.
The base founded by Superstar Saga in terms of gameplay is here, where it's arguably the most well refined. Starting with the overworld movement, you have the standard fare here. Mini Mario, spin jump, underground drill, and the high jump are all here. One new addition with the sideways drill, it's basically a spin jump with less distance but you can break through rocks. These are all very standard, but they get really shaken up in the Dream World. None of your basic actions are available except your jump and hammer. What's new is the ability for Luigi to transform into part of the background and change the environment as a Luiginary Work. You can't do these whenever you want, there's an indicator for when you can, which does limit it's utility to the puzzles specifically designed for them, however, I feel like that's fine. There's almost always a Luiginary Work available when you enter the Dream World, either to save a single Pi'illo, or to go to an entirely new area.
There are two different kinds of Luiginary Works. The first kind has no specific name, it's just a Luiginary Work. Luigi transforms into a part of the background. You can interact with a sleeping Luigi on the bottom screen to get them to work. These are used in some puzzles unique to how the Luiginary Work changes the environment. Some of these include, changing the temperature to freeze water or melt ice, a huge fan to create a giant gust of wind and push you against walls and allow you to climb up them, changing gravity so you can walk on walls and ceilings, completely removing gravity and letting you swim in midair, and so on and so forth. The second kind, and much more common one, is the Luiginoid Formation. This creates a bunch of Luigi's, which you can command to turn into a stack, cone, or ball. Each of these has a few different moves you can utilize, making it more similar to normal overworld functions. These are all pretty great, they help the Dream World stand out from the normal world and give it a greater sense of purpose. These new overworld transformations aren't the only way the Dream World and normal world differ, they also have their own battle mechanics.
The rules of battle in the normal world are pretty similar to past games. You can attack by jumping, using your hammer, or using a Bros. Attack. This time around, instead of sharing Bros. Attacks, Mario and Luigi each have their own set of five unique attacks. This doesn't change much if you never upgrade your speed stats like most players. Mario's attacks are more specialized in area damage while Luigi's are focussed on bigger damage to a single target, you'll be entering every battle with Mario acting first, so if that's a normal battle, you can get it over with easily with an area attack, and if it's a boss, it doesn't matter since Luigi will be attacking right after. There is an extra Bros. Attack you can obtain with a sidequest, but we'll get to that. Nothing much new on offense except the new and fun Bros. Attacks, but there's a lot more to say about defense.
In past games, you would simply stay stationary while the enemy attacked you, jumping or using your hammer to defend yourself. The enemy attack variety is expanded greatly, with new ways you need to defend yourself. In the normal world, you'll mainly only be seeing the chase sequence attacks, where Mario and Luigi run towards the screen from an onslaught of attacks. There are many other ones unique to specific bosses and enemies. Some bosses like Mammoshka and Pi'illodium with attack from the background by shooting projectiles at you, the Wiggler battle has Popple changing how fast you can dodge, Dreamy Bowser will summon an airship to chase Luigi meaning you have to dodge the airship's fireballs as Luigi while simultaneously taking out the Shy Guy's on top as Mario, etc. To put it simply, the defense is much more engaging due to a wider variety of enemy attacks.
The Dream World takes all of this and adds so much more. You only play as one of the bros, Mario, as Luigi is now a dream-powered being who powers up Mario in all of his attacks. His jump has many Luigi's following suit after, and his hammer attack does area damage thanks to Luigi joining in. Bros. Attacks are replaced with Luiginary Attacks, where a group of Luigi's form something to attack, similar to a Luiginoid Formation. Although the variety of the attacks is appreciated, and it's interesting to see the different ways in which all the Luigis can attack together, you'll usually only be using 2-3 attacks the entire game. The Luiginary Ball is great and is one of your best tools for area damage. Other than that, you'll just be using whatever your strongest attack is at the moment. My personal favorite is the Luiginary Wall, where a bunch of Luigi's form a ring with one in the center wielding a hammer. Mario then hits Luigi across the way and has to bounce Luigi back at the enemies until they all form one giant wall and fall on the current enemy.
GIANT BATTLES ARE BACK! Giant Battles are the coolest thing in almost any video game ever and you can't convince me otherwise. In the face of an unstoppable enemy, Luigi will grow in size and confront them head on. Once the battle starts, you rotate your 3DS sideways and pull out your stylus. These battles use 3D models which look great. The music track during these fights is my favorite track in the whole game. The great use of drums immerses you in the game and really makes it feel like a giant battle.
Like the giant battles in Bowser's Inside Story, your arsenal is far more limited than normal battles. You have a jump, a sideways and upwards hammer swing, and two Bros. Attacks: one where Mario heals Luigi by throwing mushrooms in his mouth, and one where both of the bros spin and jump on the enemy. They make great use of what little you have to work with. The upwards and sideways hammer swings hit different parts of the enemy and likewise send them in different directions. You can use this to your advantage if there's a hazard behind or next to the enemy that you can knock them into for more damage. In fact, one of these battles is all about using the upwards hammer swing to knock the opponent back far enough to where they fall into water and then you barrage them with a flurry of hammer swings. The final of these fights, Bowser, puts everything you know to the test and then some. You have to knock him into lava beside him. Then when he blocks that off, you knock him backwards onto a grate. Once he's on the grate, you can jump on his head and cause the grate to break, putting him back in the lava. These battles all use Luigi's moveset really well, and they all build off of each other. I'm hesitant to say that they're better than the ones in Bowser's Inside Story just because I love that game with all my heart, but it's definitely close.
A neat little detail I appreciate with these fights is Luigi's confidence over time. Before the first two battles, Luigi only grows because he's scared and it's a last resort option. However, moving onto the Zeekeeper battle, Luigi willingly grows to save Mario. Before the last Bowser battle, he has the most badass and confident look on his face. It gets a big grin out of me every time.
While all of the gameplay elements are fine and dandy, there is one aspect that really drags the rest of the game down due to it's significantly lower quality: the story. Actually, I'm hesitant to say the story itself is bad, because it does what it needs to do. However, what comes with the story is the locations you have to go to, the enemies you have to fight, etc. And this story drags and drags and drags until it's all worn out and offers literally nothing but the final boss. Before it gets bad, it's rather pleasant and nice. It's a Mario game, why wouldn't it be?
Although I touched on the story briefly earlier, I'll talk more specifics here. Mario, Luigi, and a few others are invited to Pi'illo Island. Upon arrival, Mario and Luigi are thrust into the underground caverns of Pi'illo Castle, just looking to explore. They stumble upon a pillow, which when slept upon, turns them into a living being. As it turns out, the pillow they discovered is the long forgotten Prince Dreambert. He explains that long ago, an evil Pi'illo named Antasma sought out ancient artifacts called the Dream Stone and the Nightmare Stone. These two stones grant whoever holds them the power to conjure whatever they wish, even if they only have one.
Now that Prince Dreambert has awoken, Antasma awakens similarly. So, while Mario and Luigi team up with Dreambert, Antasma teams up with Bowser to obtain the stones and finally make the world a living nightmare. From here on out, it's mainly just a constant mcguffin story. "Go to x location to get y," and so on. Usually this revolves around going to a desired location, then entering the Dream World at said location, and spending even more time getting to whatever you were trying to get to. This sounds bad, but the characters and gameplay elements you meet and learn along the way make it very tolerable. The overworld puzzles are, for the most part, basic but interesting. Nothing will make you think too hard but also won't be as simple as looking at it for a second.
Further down the line is when things get bad. Bowser and Antasma have the Dream Stone and make a castle in the air with a barrier around it, and the only way to break through it is by summoning the mighty Zeekeeper, this world's god basically. However, to do that, you first need to go around to various parts of the world and get 5 pieces of a special bed that possesses more dream power than other beds. Alright, cool, that's fine. It doesn't take too long on it's own. After that, you have to find Bedsmith, the only guy who can actually forge the magical bed. This is still fine, nothing too bad so far.
Then the pacing comes to a snail's pace almost instantly. Once you rescue Bedsmith, he has you follow him to the woods where he crafts it. THEN you have to go to a very specific location on the island that has more dream power than other locations. This is accomplished by going through the woods, finding a temple, and solving the temple puzzle. The puzzle goes as such: you need to find pieces to make a path forward, get the pieces. These pieces are scattered across 6 ENTIRELY DIFFERENT paths, each with their own loads of enemies and gimmicks to boot. This is easily the WORST part of the game. I said in my Superstar Saga review that I would just run into every enemy I saw because the game was very generous with level ups. However, in this area (and other endgame areas too) there are WAY too many enemies. These enemies in particular have really long and drawn out attacks. It probably took me 2, maybe even closer to 3 hours just to get through this whole area.
You've finally made it to the end of the temple. Now you get to meet the Zeekper, right? NOPE! Now, you have to climb a very tall and confusing tree to get to the Zeekeeper instead of just being able to meet him outright. This area also has plenty of enemies with long attack patterns. After that, you FINALLY meet the Zeekeeper and engage in a giant battle. Once that's done, he agrees to break down the barrier, but does nothing else to help. It's now up to Mario and Luigi to trudge through the castle, rescue Peach, and retrieve the stones from Bowser and Antasma.
Now we move onto the second worst part of the game: Neo Bowser Castle. This area has more going on than the temple, for better or for worse. Kamek appears near the front and changes the room layout. Going to a room on the right will actually send you somewhere other than the room to the right, etc. The goal here is to find a Kamek block, lower a gate in the main room, and chase after Kamek in the Dream World. The Dream World also decides to introduce a new swimming gimmick. Fun!!! You finally catch Kamek and start a boss battle, only for him to run away. Then guess what? You have to do that entire room swap thing AGAIN. In fact, you do it AGAIN after that. You end up doing it THREE TIMES. THREE. WHOLE. ASS. TIMES. This might be the worst pain I've ever experienced from this series.
To top it all off, once the Kamek puzzles are done with, you have to go through three entire dream segments, acting as a final gauntlet of sorts. It brings back almost all of the previous Luiginary Works. The worst thing about it is doing it three times. This kind of gauntlet would've gone GREAT with the Kamek segments. There is absolutely no reason why they needed to separate the Kamek dream segments and the gauntlet segments. To top it all off, every single room is filled with enemies that will stop you in your tracks every single time. It's hard to think how earlier games in the series didn't have an enemy problem quite like this.
After all that is done, you get a giant battle with Bowser, a dreamy battle with Antasma, and a normal battle with Dreamy Bowser; three great boss fights that almost make up for how much pain you just went through. This isn't the end of it though, not if you're going for 100%. There are various Pi'illo folk scattered throughout the island that you need to wake up in a similar fashion to how you originally awoke Prince Dreambert. If you retrieve them all, you can take to the elder Pi'illo, Eldream, and he'll give you a secret Bros. Attack. Here's my problem with this: not once does the game hint at something special happening if you were to complete this task. If anything, this seems somewhat mandatory for someone like me. It's obvious that Mario is missing a Bros. Attack from the start because Luigi has more, so this is less of an extra thing and more of a basic, normal thing locked behind collectibles. I had already beaten the final boss when I had gotten this, so I only used it during the battle ring.
Speaking of the battle ring, it's absolutely brutal. You go through stronger versions of several bosses, including all the giant ones, and then a boss rush at the end of it, which includes a secret boss at the end. I probably spent more time in the battle ring than I did doing anything else in game from the temple onwards. These kinds of boss rushes always push players to keep going. It can be incredibly challenging, especially if you're not levelled up enough, but that's what makes it fun. You get to replay giant battles, too, which is cool and epic.
Throughout the whole story, including the parts that drag, you're treated to some of the best dialogue in any video game. This goes for any game in the series, honestly, the writing is top notch. I would never have expected to be laughing hysterically at some things said in a Mario game, but it comes as no surprise in this series. The dialogue not only adds more to each character, but is also straight up entertaining. That's all I can really say about it, it's good and funny.
There are some other collectibles, too. Kylie Koopa asks Mario and Luigi to collect some photo blocks for her. When you find one, you can take it to her, and put it together like a puzzle, revealing a cool piece of art. These are all pretty well hidden, though. The beans are also back; a series staple. They once again enhance your stats based on their name. The game is kind enough to tell you how many are in each area. I don't remember exactly, but I don't think any previous games did this. The "Mad-Skill-A-Thon" is a fun, yet challenging test of how you can handle each Bros. Attack. You perform a Bros. Attack for an indefinite amount of time on training dummies to try and beat the high score. This is definitely a nice little distraction, but I couldn't be bothered to go for the high score on every challenge.
Finally, there's the achievements. These suck, plain and simple. Before you start this game you HAVE to decide if you want to go for 100% or not, because some of these achievements are a pain in the ass. Lots of them involve doing a specific thing to an enemy in a specific area, and if you're levelled up a lot and try to go back to fight these enemies, good luck completing the achievements before you kill all of the enemies in the area. These achievements are not necessarily bad, but they essentially lock you out of full completion if you hadn't completed them when it was most convenient.
The music is amazing. It's a Mario game, big whoop. Both the normal world and dream world have their own distinct instrumentation to give them their own unique vibe and feel. Never Let Up! is a great boss battle theme, and the two normal battle themes are just as good. Antasma Battle is easily a highlight, the violin is crazy and fits the character perfectly. Adventure's End is a bit disappointing as a final boss theme, but still good. My favorite track has to be Size Up Your Enemy that plays during the giant battles. The instrumentation gives you the perfect feel for a fight of that magnitude. There are many tracks I haven't mentioned that are very chill and easy to vibe to. Look up any song from this game that plays in the dream world, I guarantee you that you'll enjoy it. There's not a single bad track here, it's peak Mario OST.
This game is so incredibly frustrating. It's ALMOST perfect, but because of the pacing, especially near the end, it far overstays its welcome and unfortunately is a bad enough problem that's impossible to ignore. Everything else, though, is perfect. The characters are fun, the story is nice, it looks great, sounds great, feels great, and is the most innovative title in the series up to this point. While the adventure is long, it's still absolutely worth your time to go through all of it.
Taking place on a neighboring Pi'illo Island, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Starlow find themselves on an island resort that has a deep history with dreams. Stumbling upon these stone-like pillows, Mario and Luigi free them from their current state, one of which happens to be Prince Dreambert, who informs them of the history of the island. An evil Pi'illo named Antasma once sought out to collect the Nightmare and Dream Stones, two objects that allow the holder to bend reality in whatever way they please. This is obviously bad, and now that Antasma has returned and teamed up with Bowser, Mario and Luigi are given the task of taking them both down. The big gimmick is obviously the emphasis on dreams. Luigi quickly finds out that he's a better sleeper than Mario, which allows him to sleep on Pi'illo folk to open up a portal to the Dream World. This radically changes both overworld movements and battles, but more on that later.
Another simple story, once again with a great cast of characters and sharp writing. The setting is truly it's own unique island experience. Pi'illo Island feels like it's own interesting place with its own history, habitants, and customs. The music plays a big part in this as well, giving off a more "dreamy" vibe. This goes hand and hand with the visuals, which are obviously great. Lots of backgrounds can seem like just colors thrown together everywhere, but they're honestly some of the best looking backgrounds I've seen in a video game, it's all pure eye candy.
The characters that make up this island are all great. Dreambert is a pretty standard but fun sidekick. I wish I could say I liked Antasma more, but he was also pretty standard. He had an interesting backstory, but was given as much screen time as Bowser who stole the show in almost every scene he was in. He fell pretty flat when he only felt like a tool for Bowser to use, much like the Dark Star for Fawful in the previous title. The main difference there is that the Dark Star is just an evil, sentient star, and is literally a tool for Fawful to use. Antasma probably could've been a strong main antagonist, but I guess he's fine as a secondary antagonist. Other side characters are also a delight to talk to. Brickle and Britta the construction workers get easily worked up, which causes some funny interactions. Bedsmith constantly remarks how he wants to "nap on you" which I can only assume is the Pi'illo version of sex. Kamek and the Elite Trio from the previous title get much more screen time, and Popple even makes a brief reappearance. The crown jewel in this game for me has to be the Massif Bros., two incredibly buff Hoohooligans that constantly talk about beef. They're two of the funniest characters in the series, and make an otherwise boring and lengthy mountain climb pretty enjoyable.
The base founded by Superstar Saga in terms of gameplay is here, where it's arguably the most well refined. Starting with the overworld movement, you have the standard fare here. Mini Mario, spin jump, underground drill, and the high jump are all here. One new addition with the sideways drill, it's basically a spin jump with less distance but you can break through rocks. These are all very standard, but they get really shaken up in the Dream World. None of your basic actions are available except your jump and hammer. What's new is the ability for Luigi to transform into part of the background and change the environment as a Luiginary Work. You can't do these whenever you want, there's an indicator for when you can, which does limit it's utility to the puzzles specifically designed for them, however, I feel like that's fine. There's almost always a Luiginary Work available when you enter the Dream World, either to save a single Pi'illo, or to go to an entirely new area.
There are two different kinds of Luiginary Works. The first kind has no specific name, it's just a Luiginary Work. Luigi transforms into a part of the background. You can interact with a sleeping Luigi on the bottom screen to get them to work. These are used in some puzzles unique to how the Luiginary Work changes the environment. Some of these include, changing the temperature to freeze water or melt ice, a huge fan to create a giant gust of wind and push you against walls and allow you to climb up them, changing gravity so you can walk on walls and ceilings, completely removing gravity and letting you swim in midair, and so on and so forth. The second kind, and much more common one, is the Luiginoid Formation. This creates a bunch of Luigi's, which you can command to turn into a stack, cone, or ball. Each of these has a few different moves you can utilize, making it more similar to normal overworld functions. These are all pretty great, they help the Dream World stand out from the normal world and give it a greater sense of purpose. These new overworld transformations aren't the only way the Dream World and normal world differ, they also have their own battle mechanics.
The rules of battle in the normal world are pretty similar to past games. You can attack by jumping, using your hammer, or using a Bros. Attack. This time around, instead of sharing Bros. Attacks, Mario and Luigi each have their own set of five unique attacks. This doesn't change much if you never upgrade your speed stats like most players. Mario's attacks are more specialized in area damage while Luigi's are focussed on bigger damage to a single target, you'll be entering every battle with Mario acting first, so if that's a normal battle, you can get it over with easily with an area attack, and if it's a boss, it doesn't matter since Luigi will be attacking right after. There is an extra Bros. Attack you can obtain with a sidequest, but we'll get to that. Nothing much new on offense except the new and fun Bros. Attacks, but there's a lot more to say about defense.
In past games, you would simply stay stationary while the enemy attacked you, jumping or using your hammer to defend yourself. The enemy attack variety is expanded greatly, with new ways you need to defend yourself. In the normal world, you'll mainly only be seeing the chase sequence attacks, where Mario and Luigi run towards the screen from an onslaught of attacks. There are many other ones unique to specific bosses and enemies. Some bosses like Mammoshka and Pi'illodium with attack from the background by shooting projectiles at you, the Wiggler battle has Popple changing how fast you can dodge, Dreamy Bowser will summon an airship to chase Luigi meaning you have to dodge the airship's fireballs as Luigi while simultaneously taking out the Shy Guy's on top as Mario, etc. To put it simply, the defense is much more engaging due to a wider variety of enemy attacks.
The Dream World takes all of this and adds so much more. You only play as one of the bros, Mario, as Luigi is now a dream-powered being who powers up Mario in all of his attacks. His jump has many Luigi's following suit after, and his hammer attack does area damage thanks to Luigi joining in. Bros. Attacks are replaced with Luiginary Attacks, where a group of Luigi's form something to attack, similar to a Luiginoid Formation. Although the variety of the attacks is appreciated, and it's interesting to see the different ways in which all the Luigis can attack together, you'll usually only be using 2-3 attacks the entire game. The Luiginary Ball is great and is one of your best tools for area damage. Other than that, you'll just be using whatever your strongest attack is at the moment. My personal favorite is the Luiginary Wall, where a bunch of Luigi's form a ring with one in the center wielding a hammer. Mario then hits Luigi across the way and has to bounce Luigi back at the enemies until they all form one giant wall and fall on the current enemy.
GIANT BATTLES ARE BACK! Giant Battles are the coolest thing in almost any video game ever and you can't convince me otherwise. In the face of an unstoppable enemy, Luigi will grow in size and confront them head on. Once the battle starts, you rotate your 3DS sideways and pull out your stylus. These battles use 3D models which look great. The music track during these fights is my favorite track in the whole game. The great use of drums immerses you in the game and really makes it feel like a giant battle.
Like the giant battles in Bowser's Inside Story, your arsenal is far more limited than normal battles. You have a jump, a sideways and upwards hammer swing, and two Bros. Attacks: one where Mario heals Luigi by throwing mushrooms in his mouth, and one where both of the bros spin and jump on the enemy. They make great use of what little you have to work with. The upwards and sideways hammer swings hit different parts of the enemy and likewise send them in different directions. You can use this to your advantage if there's a hazard behind or next to the enemy that you can knock them into for more damage. In fact, one of these battles is all about using the upwards hammer swing to knock the opponent back far enough to where they fall into water and then you barrage them with a flurry of hammer swings. The final of these fights, Bowser, puts everything you know to the test and then some. You have to knock him into lava beside him. Then when he blocks that off, you knock him backwards onto a grate. Once he's on the grate, you can jump on his head and cause the grate to break, putting him back in the lava. These battles all use Luigi's moveset really well, and they all build off of each other. I'm hesitant to say that they're better than the ones in Bowser's Inside Story just because I love that game with all my heart, but it's definitely close.
A neat little detail I appreciate with these fights is Luigi's confidence over time. Before the first two battles, Luigi only grows because he's scared and it's a last resort option. However, moving onto the Zeekeeper battle, Luigi willingly grows to save Mario. Before the last Bowser battle, he has the most badass and confident look on his face. It gets a big grin out of me every time.
While all of the gameplay elements are fine and dandy, there is one aspect that really drags the rest of the game down due to it's significantly lower quality: the story. Actually, I'm hesitant to say the story itself is bad, because it does what it needs to do. However, what comes with the story is the locations you have to go to, the enemies you have to fight, etc. And this story drags and drags and drags until it's all worn out and offers literally nothing but the final boss. Before it gets bad, it's rather pleasant and nice. It's a Mario game, why wouldn't it be?
Although I touched on the story briefly earlier, I'll talk more specifics here. Mario, Luigi, and a few others are invited to Pi'illo Island. Upon arrival, Mario and Luigi are thrust into the underground caverns of Pi'illo Castle, just looking to explore. They stumble upon a pillow, which when slept upon, turns them into a living being. As it turns out, the pillow they discovered is the long forgotten Prince Dreambert. He explains that long ago, an evil Pi'illo named Antasma sought out ancient artifacts called the Dream Stone and the Nightmare Stone. These two stones grant whoever holds them the power to conjure whatever they wish, even if they only have one.
Now that Prince Dreambert has awoken, Antasma awakens similarly. So, while Mario and Luigi team up with Dreambert, Antasma teams up with Bowser to obtain the stones and finally make the world a living nightmare. From here on out, it's mainly just a constant mcguffin story. "Go to x location to get y," and so on. Usually this revolves around going to a desired location, then entering the Dream World at said location, and spending even more time getting to whatever you were trying to get to. This sounds bad, but the characters and gameplay elements you meet and learn along the way make it very tolerable. The overworld puzzles are, for the most part, basic but interesting. Nothing will make you think too hard but also won't be as simple as looking at it for a second.
Further down the line is when things get bad. Bowser and Antasma have the Dream Stone and make a castle in the air with a barrier around it, and the only way to break through it is by summoning the mighty Zeekeeper, this world's god basically. However, to do that, you first need to go around to various parts of the world and get 5 pieces of a special bed that possesses more dream power than other beds. Alright, cool, that's fine. It doesn't take too long on it's own. After that, you have to find Bedsmith, the only guy who can actually forge the magical bed. This is still fine, nothing too bad so far.
Then the pacing comes to a snail's pace almost instantly. Once you rescue Bedsmith, he has you follow him to the woods where he crafts it. THEN you have to go to a very specific location on the island that has more dream power than other locations. This is accomplished by going through the woods, finding a temple, and solving the temple puzzle. The puzzle goes as such: you need to find pieces to make a path forward, get the pieces. These pieces are scattered across 6 ENTIRELY DIFFERENT paths, each with their own loads of enemies and gimmicks to boot. This is easily the WORST part of the game. I said in my Superstar Saga review that I would just run into every enemy I saw because the game was very generous with level ups. However, in this area (and other endgame areas too) there are WAY too many enemies. These enemies in particular have really long and drawn out attacks. It probably took me 2, maybe even closer to 3 hours just to get through this whole area.
You've finally made it to the end of the temple. Now you get to meet the Zeekper, right? NOPE! Now, you have to climb a very tall and confusing tree to get to the Zeekeeper instead of just being able to meet him outright. This area also has plenty of enemies with long attack patterns. After that, you FINALLY meet the Zeekeeper and engage in a giant battle. Once that's done, he agrees to break down the barrier, but does nothing else to help. It's now up to Mario and Luigi to trudge through the castle, rescue Peach, and retrieve the stones from Bowser and Antasma.
Now we move onto the second worst part of the game: Neo Bowser Castle. This area has more going on than the temple, for better or for worse. Kamek appears near the front and changes the room layout. Going to a room on the right will actually send you somewhere other than the room to the right, etc. The goal here is to find a Kamek block, lower a gate in the main room, and chase after Kamek in the Dream World. The Dream World also decides to introduce a new swimming gimmick. Fun!!! You finally catch Kamek and start a boss battle, only for him to run away. Then guess what? You have to do that entire room swap thing AGAIN. In fact, you do it AGAIN after that. You end up doing it THREE TIMES. THREE. WHOLE. ASS. TIMES. This might be the worst pain I've ever experienced from this series.
To top it all off, once the Kamek puzzles are done with, you have to go through three entire dream segments, acting as a final gauntlet of sorts. It brings back almost all of the previous Luiginary Works. The worst thing about it is doing it three times. This kind of gauntlet would've gone GREAT with the Kamek segments. There is absolutely no reason why they needed to separate the Kamek dream segments and the gauntlet segments. To top it all off, every single room is filled with enemies that will stop you in your tracks every single time. It's hard to think how earlier games in the series didn't have an enemy problem quite like this.
After all that is done, you get a giant battle with Bowser, a dreamy battle with Antasma, and a normal battle with Dreamy Bowser; three great boss fights that almost make up for how much pain you just went through. This isn't the end of it though, not if you're going for 100%. There are various Pi'illo folk scattered throughout the island that you need to wake up in a similar fashion to how you originally awoke Prince Dreambert. If you retrieve them all, you can take to the elder Pi'illo, Eldream, and he'll give you a secret Bros. Attack. Here's my problem with this: not once does the game hint at something special happening if you were to complete this task. If anything, this seems somewhat mandatory for someone like me. It's obvious that Mario is missing a Bros. Attack from the start because Luigi has more, so this is less of an extra thing and more of a basic, normal thing locked behind collectibles. I had already beaten the final boss when I had gotten this, so I only used it during the battle ring.
Speaking of the battle ring, it's absolutely brutal. You go through stronger versions of several bosses, including all the giant ones, and then a boss rush at the end of it, which includes a secret boss at the end. I probably spent more time in the battle ring than I did doing anything else in game from the temple onwards. These kinds of boss rushes always push players to keep going. It can be incredibly challenging, especially if you're not levelled up enough, but that's what makes it fun. You get to replay giant battles, too, which is cool and epic.
Throughout the whole story, including the parts that drag, you're treated to some of the best dialogue in any video game. This goes for any game in the series, honestly, the writing is top notch. I would never have expected to be laughing hysterically at some things said in a Mario game, but it comes as no surprise in this series. The dialogue not only adds more to each character, but is also straight up entertaining. That's all I can really say about it, it's good and funny.
There are some other collectibles, too. Kylie Koopa asks Mario and Luigi to collect some photo blocks for her. When you find one, you can take it to her, and put it together like a puzzle, revealing a cool piece of art. These are all pretty well hidden, though. The beans are also back; a series staple. They once again enhance your stats based on their name. The game is kind enough to tell you how many are in each area. I don't remember exactly, but I don't think any previous games did this. The "Mad-Skill-A-Thon" is a fun, yet challenging test of how you can handle each Bros. Attack. You perform a Bros. Attack for an indefinite amount of time on training dummies to try and beat the high score. This is definitely a nice little distraction, but I couldn't be bothered to go for the high score on every challenge.
Finally, there's the achievements. These suck, plain and simple. Before you start this game you HAVE to decide if you want to go for 100% or not, because some of these achievements are a pain in the ass. Lots of them involve doing a specific thing to an enemy in a specific area, and if you're levelled up a lot and try to go back to fight these enemies, good luck completing the achievements before you kill all of the enemies in the area. These achievements are not necessarily bad, but they essentially lock you out of full completion if you hadn't completed them when it was most convenient.
The music is amazing. It's a Mario game, big whoop. Both the normal world and dream world have their own distinct instrumentation to give them their own unique vibe and feel. Never Let Up! is a great boss battle theme, and the two normal battle themes are just as good. Antasma Battle is easily a highlight, the violin is crazy and fits the character perfectly. Adventure's End is a bit disappointing as a final boss theme, but still good. My favorite track has to be Size Up Your Enemy that plays during the giant battles. The instrumentation gives you the perfect feel for a fight of that magnitude. There are many tracks I haven't mentioned that are very chill and easy to vibe to. Look up any song from this game that plays in the dream world, I guarantee you that you'll enjoy it. There's not a single bad track here, it's peak Mario OST.
This game is so incredibly frustrating. It's ALMOST perfect, but because of the pacing, especially near the end, it far overstays its welcome and unfortunately is a bad enough problem that's impossible to ignore. Everything else, though, is perfect. The characters are fun, the story is nice, it looks great, sounds great, feels great, and is the most innovative title in the series up to this point. While the adventure is long, it's still absolutely worth your time to go through all of it.
The Mario Mandate is basically a thing of modern game legend at this point: The story goes that around 2007, Miyamoto was unhappy with the more bizarre routes the Mario franchise had been taking around that time (Rosalina's storybook in Mario Galaxy, the edgier animations of Mario Strikers, everything about Super Paper Mario) and implimented a course correction towards genericizing the series. While I'm not here to speculate on whether or not this really happened (It probably did), it certainly lines up with the decline of Nintendo doing much interesting: The same cookie cutter platformers, bland sports games and uninteresting RPGs were all Mario's had for us since, with little exception. However, these Mandaters, as I will now call them, claim there was a last bastion of creative freedom in this franchise, the last sign of soul in a growing ocean of soulless: Dream Team. Dream Team was the last of the Mario RPGs anyone seemed to have much praise for, seemingly continuing the trend of the Mario and Luigi games being quirky adventures among a weird and unique cast of characters, and I am unfortunately here to say that by all accounts, this seems like bull.
It's almost shocking how immediately uninteresting of a world Dream Team makes. Basically every NPC you find in the early stretch of the game is either recycled from one of the previous games, a toad, or a bird. The enemies are mostly composed of geometric shapes with eyes. Outside of the Pi'illo people (Who are fine, I guess), there's absolutely nothing interesting. It's barely one step removed from what would become of the later RPGs, almost exclusively using recycled Mario designs with, like, maybe a hat on or something. Game's ugly, too. Very ugly.
The overabundance of tutorials is something basically everyone complains about with this game and it's for good reason. They literally never stop. Every thirty minutes or so you're given a new tutorial on some new mechanic they introduce, some skippable, some not. Why they spread the mechanics out so far is beyond me: It takes around three hours to get the hammer, and over ten before you get access to any of the combination field moves. Why not just dump them all at the beginning like the other games, and then leave a couple to be added throughout? It makes the game's flow way better.
Why is this game so long? It's basically twice as long as the prior games for no discernable reason. Despite playing it for almost as long as, say, Superstar Saga, significantly less happens in it! You go to maybe 5 different areas in the time it takes that game to near completion! They filled the game with endless long, unskippable cutscenes that add almost nothing to anything. The main villain barely has any kind of presence, he shows up once every 5 hours to faff about in a bad Dracula impression and then just leaves.
The gameplay's...fine? I think the battles are pretty fun but there's way too little enemy variety for how big a lot of these areas are. These games can already feel repetitive with how little you have to think outside of doing the same couple button presses over and over, but this game really shows how uninteresting a lot of the core gameplay is. The bosses are usually fun and have higher pressure to them but outside of that it's mostly a slog.
The dreamworld transformation stuff is slow and bad. I don't like it.
Anyway, the giant battles are what made me basically drop the game. Sure, they rarely happen, but they're some of the least fun I've ever had with a game in general. They're like puzzle battles that are both way too easy to solve and go on for way too long, the swiping often feels incredibly unsatisfying with little indication of if you're doing it quite right or not, and they make my arm hurt after swiping for too long. 17 hours I tried giving this game a fair chance but these really made me tap out.
I'll probably finish this game like a year for now after I get curious again but for now this is how I'm feeling. I'd give it like a 1.5/5 if I was rating it but because I got less than halfway through I'm just gonna leave it blank for now. Fuck you Mario, you ruined my childhood forever.
It's almost shocking how immediately uninteresting of a world Dream Team makes. Basically every NPC you find in the early stretch of the game is either recycled from one of the previous games, a toad, or a bird. The enemies are mostly composed of geometric shapes with eyes. Outside of the Pi'illo people (Who are fine, I guess), there's absolutely nothing interesting. It's barely one step removed from what would become of the later RPGs, almost exclusively using recycled Mario designs with, like, maybe a hat on or something. Game's ugly, too. Very ugly.
The overabundance of tutorials is something basically everyone complains about with this game and it's for good reason. They literally never stop. Every thirty minutes or so you're given a new tutorial on some new mechanic they introduce, some skippable, some not. Why they spread the mechanics out so far is beyond me: It takes around three hours to get the hammer, and over ten before you get access to any of the combination field moves. Why not just dump them all at the beginning like the other games, and then leave a couple to be added throughout? It makes the game's flow way better.
Why is this game so long? It's basically twice as long as the prior games for no discernable reason. Despite playing it for almost as long as, say, Superstar Saga, significantly less happens in it! You go to maybe 5 different areas in the time it takes that game to near completion! They filled the game with endless long, unskippable cutscenes that add almost nothing to anything. The main villain barely has any kind of presence, he shows up once every 5 hours to faff about in a bad Dracula impression and then just leaves.
The gameplay's...fine? I think the battles are pretty fun but there's way too little enemy variety for how big a lot of these areas are. These games can already feel repetitive with how little you have to think outside of doing the same couple button presses over and over, but this game really shows how uninteresting a lot of the core gameplay is. The bosses are usually fun and have higher pressure to them but outside of that it's mostly a slog.
The dreamworld transformation stuff is slow and bad. I don't like it.
Anyway, the giant battles are what made me basically drop the game. Sure, they rarely happen, but they're some of the least fun I've ever had with a game in general. They're like puzzle battles that are both way too easy to solve and go on for way too long, the swiping often feels incredibly unsatisfying with little indication of if you're doing it quite right or not, and they make my arm hurt after swiping for too long. 17 hours I tried giving this game a fair chance but these really made me tap out.
I'll probably finish this game like a year for now after I get curious again but for now this is how I'm feeling. I'd give it like a 1.5/5 if I was rating it but because I got less than halfway through I'm just gonna leave it blank for now. Fuck you Mario, you ruined my childhood forever.
"This game sucks, it's too long!" wait till you see my penis.
Mario & Luigi is a Shakespearean tragedy of a game series, where the sequels to a fantastic take on the RPG formula slowly get worse (except for Bowser's Inside Story, which miraculously dodges the curse) until the tail end of the franchise feels worn out and tired. I both miss AlphaDream but also acknowledge the diminishing returns. Dream Team believes itself to be a solid game because it's getting up in your face and shouting "Here's Bowser's Inside Story again, but we changed Bowser's guts into Luigi's brain! Look, we even brought back the Giant Battles because that was also a feature in that game! We brought back those block guys from Bowser's Inside Story! Don't you just love Bowser's Inside Story?!" like a desperate ex-lover but instead it's just. Boring.
I wanted to like this game! I really did! For a while, Antasma and the stuff with Dreambert and the Pi'illo Kingdom fooled me into thinking I was in for an engrossing tale of rebuilding a lost civilization. It's when I realized - either by helping yet another uninteresting block person or that section of the game where I had to keep expanding a dream world by talking to some seahorse only to find out that haha, it was all a time-wasting ploy by the bad guy heehoo - that the game was just here to waste my time rather than tell a story that the colorful candy coating started to rub off. Dream Team thinks it's funnier than it is, and feels like a series of disconnected quirky scenes designed to be screencapped and shared on Miiverse as a "haha funny quote" moment rather than actually being funny and moving any sort of plot forward. Dream Team wants to be the source of a meme so bad. You can just feel it in its DNA.
This game's biggest crime (besides it just being uninteresting and for being a 40 hour RPG with no plot) is that it feels all over the place in terms of difficulty. The tutorials are relentlessly everywhere and the game refuses to let go of your hand but, inexplicably, the battles in this game are some of the hardest in the entire franchise. Why am I receiving a tutorial that tells me that circle pad moves Mario 30 hours into a playthrough in the same game that also gives me a final boss gauntlet where multiple bosses have the ability to heal 200 HP a turn. Is this meant to be baby's first video game or am I expected to be a veteran to Mario & Luigi because, despite what the game believes, I can't be both!
I will give the game some credit where it's due - this game is probably one of the more impressive uses of the 3DS's 3D on the entire system. The combination of character sprites juxtaposed on 3D environments works way better than you'd think and makes for an impressive art style and a very fleshed out battle system. Yoko Shimomura is also putting her heart and soul into this soundtrack and making the speakers burst into flame during every boss battle. I just...wish these graphics were in a better game. One that respected my time better.
P.S. Fuck the gyro controls. I get it, Nintendo. You just love your waggle. But also I shouldn't have to be left to the cruel, unfeeling whims of the motion control gods in a game where the battle system will punish me for poor timing.
I wanted to like this game! I really did! For a while, Antasma and the stuff with Dreambert and the Pi'illo Kingdom fooled me into thinking I was in for an engrossing tale of rebuilding a lost civilization. It's when I realized - either by helping yet another uninteresting block person or that section of the game where I had to keep expanding a dream world by talking to some seahorse only to find out that haha, it was all a time-wasting ploy by the bad guy heehoo - that the game was just here to waste my time rather than tell a story that the colorful candy coating started to rub off. Dream Team thinks it's funnier than it is, and feels like a series of disconnected quirky scenes designed to be screencapped and shared on Miiverse as a "haha funny quote" moment rather than actually being funny and moving any sort of plot forward. Dream Team wants to be the source of a meme so bad. You can just feel it in its DNA.
This game's biggest crime (besides it just being uninteresting and for being a 40 hour RPG with no plot) is that it feels all over the place in terms of difficulty. The tutorials are relentlessly everywhere and the game refuses to let go of your hand but, inexplicably, the battles in this game are some of the hardest in the entire franchise. Why am I receiving a tutorial that tells me that circle pad moves Mario 30 hours into a playthrough in the same game that also gives me a final boss gauntlet where multiple bosses have the ability to heal 200 HP a turn. Is this meant to be baby's first video game or am I expected to be a veteran to Mario & Luigi because, despite what the game believes, I can't be both!
I will give the game some credit where it's due - this game is probably one of the more impressive uses of the 3DS's 3D on the entire system. The combination of character sprites juxtaposed on 3D environments works way better than you'd think and makes for an impressive art style and a very fleshed out battle system. Yoko Shimomura is also putting her heart and soul into this soundtrack and making the speakers burst into flame during every boss battle. I just...wish these graphics were in a better game. One that respected my time better.
P.S. Fuck the gyro controls. I get it, Nintendo. You just love your waggle. But also I shouldn't have to be left to the cruel, unfeeling whims of the motion control gods in a game where the battle system will punish me for poor timing.
I get that the hand-holding tutorials are pretty annoying and it's baffling that you can't skip them but aside from that, Dream Team is a fantastic game. It follows in the footsteps of Bowser's Inside Story with its 2D sections except now it's in Luigi's dream rather than inside Bowser's body. While they could have maybe gone a bit more wild in the design of these worlds as dreams have such an unpredictable nature, I still like a lot of the platforming puzzles used and how you can affect Luigi's environment in the real world to change the dream world.
The battle system is currently my favorite in all of the Mario RPGs with additional ways to dodge attacks and the focus on Mario alone in the dream world, which can allow for enemy patterns in the dream world to require movement from the player. It sounds very convoluted but it feels just as natural as pressing a or b to jump in Superstar Saga.
The bosses and music are among some of my favorites in any Mario game ever. The last three bosses in particular are incredible fights that pushes each of this game's styles of fighting to their full potential. The music that accompanies these bosses, along with every other track in the game, really fits the energy of the game and gets me pumped up like nothing else.
IMO this is the most underrated game in the Mario series. It definitely has some padding and could have been cut down on playtime but I enjoyed the combat and music so much it hardly bothered me.
The battle system is currently my favorite in all of the Mario RPGs with additional ways to dodge attacks and the focus on Mario alone in the dream world, which can allow for enemy patterns in the dream world to require movement from the player. It sounds very convoluted but it feels just as natural as pressing a or b to jump in Superstar Saga.
The bosses and music are among some of my favorites in any Mario game ever. The last three bosses in particular are incredible fights that pushes each of this game's styles of fighting to their full potential. The music that accompanies these bosses, along with every other track in the game, really fits the energy of the game and gets me pumped up like nothing else.
IMO this is the most underrated game in the Mario series. It definitely has some padding and could have been cut down on playtime but I enjoyed the combat and music so much it hardly bothered me.
A fun game to play but one of the weaker entries in the series. The problem with me is that the game was too long and the final boss difficulty shot up way too much.
Dream Team was a fantastic game and probably my favorite in the Mario & Luigi series. The story was good, the gameplay was fun, and the 3D was among the best I've seen on the 3DS. The game went on a bit longer than I would have liked (it was close to 15 hours longer than the other M&L games!), but it was still a ton of fun from start to finish. Glad I gave this a shot.
I've made it a personal rule of mine to not trust anyone who dislikes this game
Nintendo 3DS era design philosophy of holding your hand for so long that you simply can't care anymore.
Great time in either the overworld or Luigi dream world. The same timing based battles you know from the series, but with a standard 'Mario and Luigi save Peach from Bowser' plot instead of the more interesting plots from previous entries. Giant Luigi battles are also a slog to get through, the final one in particular. Would still recommend as a great game with some fun ideas for the series
Every year is year of Luigi
This review contains spoilers
An underrated masterpiece! Basically my favorite one of all the Mario & Luigi saga! I felt hype when I battled Giant Bowser and Dreamy Bowser, not mentioning that Dreamy is IMO the best Bowser's form ever existing! The story overall was perfect for me, the OST was litteraly LIT!
Maybe I'll play the difficult version one day XD
Maybe I'll play the difficult version one day XD
luigi
Stop telling me how to play the game and just let me play the game.
Nintendo did a great job keeping the humor that the Mario & Luigi games are known for, the attacks, gameplay, and music are done very well. The story is probably the best with a lot of deep focus on Luigi and his inner thoughts/struggles/aspirations. The game is overall enjoyable, the only real flaw it has is near the end of the game they drag out the way to the final fight and area, but it pays off for probably the most epic fights to have in the series. Must play for RPG and Mario fans.
I really liked dream team. Yoko did the best music in the series with this one. Kinda was a bit too long with padding, but everything else from the humor to the new battle mechanics was really fun.