Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is a role-playing game developed by AlpahDream and GoodFeel, and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the sequel to Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and was followed up by Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.
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 Zzzzzz...Luigi!
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The game was released in "The Year of Luigi," alongside Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, New Super Luigi U and Dr. Luigi.
Why It's Dreamy
- The concept of an RPG that takes place in both the real world and a dream world is an interesting one, and this game executes it in a creative and fun way, unlike Sonic Shuffle.
- Beautiful, colorful graphics and animation that give this game the feel of a Disney animated movie or cartoon, utilizing 2D sprites and 3D environments. Given how this style is used in future Mario & Luigi games on the 3DS, AlphaDream must have realized it as well.
- The locations of Pi'illo Island are all well-designed and fun to explore, thanks to AlphaDream's creativity. Some of these locations include Mushrise Park, Wakeport, Mount Pajamaja, Somnom Woods, and Neo Bowser Castle.
- The Dream World is also well-designed and made to resemble a side-scrolling platform game that the Mario series is known for. Each Dreamy area has a different gimmick to keep things intreresting.
- Amazing soundtrack composed by Yoko Shimamura, as per usual with Mario & Luigi games, with some standouts including "Try, Try Again" (the battle track), "Joyous Occasion" (the victory theme), "Lofty Mount Pajamaja", and "Never Let Up!" (the boss song).
- Luiginary Works, found in the Dream World, are very intuitive: they utilize the Touch Screen to show a sleeping Luigi, and whatever Starlow does to him (such as pulling his mustache, tickling his nose, etc.) is reflected in the Dream World according to the corresponding action.
- The new characters are great additions to the cast, as per usual:
- Dreamy Luigi, Luigi's Dream World counterpart, functions just like his real-world self and gives Mario extra HP and BP in each battle (50% HP and 20% BP, respectively).
- Prince Dreambert, the ruler of Pi'illo Island, is similar to Prince Peasley from Superstar Saga in that he assists you in recovering the Pi'illo people inside each Dream World location while being less self-centered like Peasley was.
- The Zeekeeper is the guardian of Pi'illo Island who may at first seem intimidating (especially in his boss battle), but ultimately turns out to be a friendly, laid-back deity who helps the Bros. and Dreambert get to Neo Bowser Castle. He is also part of Mario's Zee Egg Bros. Attack.
- Antasma, the secondary antagonist of the game, is a tragic villain who, despite kidnapping Peach and teaming up with Bowser, ultimately just wanted to see the real world rather than being trapped in the Dream World forever. His death is very heartfelt as well.
- While there aren't as many bosses as previous games, they are still creative and fun to fight, especially Antasma, Wiggly Wiggler, the Hooraws (who each use a different gimmick in their fights), and Dreamy Mario.
- Giant Battles also return from the previous game, but this time utilize Giant Dreamy Luigi, who can jump on enemies or use his Hammer to attack.
- This can be seen as the Luigi's Mansion of the Mario & Luigi series, due to Luigi having a major role in it, since he is the primary means of himself and his friends entering the Dream World. It was, after all, released in "The Year of Luigi."
- The Bros. Attacks in this game are great to use as usual, and these ones in particular are so well-created that some of them carried over into Paper Jam, such as the 3D Green and Red Shells, Dropchopper, Bomb Derby, etc.
- Also introduced in this game for the first and only time are Luiginary Attacks, which can only be used in the Dream World and involve clones of Dreamy Luigi being used to attack enemies in various ways, such as a Luiginary Ball, Luiginary Stack, Luiginary Flame, and Luiginary Wall.
- The game keeps a good deal of continuity with the previous games in the series by showing Beanish people walking around Pi'illo Island and bringing back Kylie Koopa from Partners in Time, as well as Popple from Superstar Saga.
- This is the first Mario & Luigi game in which Bowser gets the proper main antagonist's role, and he is quite effective at that as ever. In fact, rather than being hijacked as the main antagonist by Antasma, it works the other way around in this game!
- Tons of replay value, thanks to revisiting the Dream World to recover the lost Pi'illo people and the Battle Ring to refight bosses.
Nightmare Qualities
- You cannot skip any of the in-game tutorials, no matter how many times you play the game.
- Dreamy Bowser's appearance may scare players due to his trippy colors and Dream Stone on his chest.
- The Fire Flower is hard to use in this game: rather than repeatedly mashing the A or B buttons, you have to press it at the right time as the fireballs charge up. Paper Jam thankfully fixes this by returning it to its original use.
- Similarly, Luiginary Hammer is very hard to get an Excellent on due to the picky controls and constant tipping of the Luiginoids until it breaks.
- While the bosses are fun as usual, some of them take a long time to beat even with Bros. Attacks.
- On a related note, while it is nice to have Giant Battles return in this game, they have a few problems compared to Bowser's version: the actions have VERY strict timing that can make the fights even longer than they should be and are over-reliant on gyro controls.
- Bowser Jr. X stealing your Bros. Attacks if you perform them is just as annoying, if not more so than Popple stealing your Command Blocks in Superstar Saga.
- The game is a little too long, spanning about 40-50 hours. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it can get boring very quickly, especially if you have already found all the Pi'illo people.
Reception
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team received positive reviews from critics and players alike. On Metacritic, it received an aggregated score of 81/100 based on 75 critic reviews, while is has an 8.2/10 from users, based on 341 ratings. Eurogamer gave the game a 7/10, while Nintendo Life gave it a 9/10.
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