One of the best games in the RPG series in my opinion, and one of my personal favorites right next to Bowsers Inside Story. The soundtrack is amazing, the battles are great, especially the giant battles. Overall an amazing game for the 3DS. 10/10
I Felt the urge to come and replay this one about a month ago, and man was it just as fun, quirky, and challenging as I remembered it being. Take the opening hours of the game, where you're constantly learning new mechanics and meeting new people. And don't even get me started on how creative some attacks can be. But I'd like to dive in on what really makes this game so good at its core. You have your traditional RPG experience, complete with great writing and charming characters, along with a engaging 2d platformer one, creates a perfect gameplay loop that leaves the player not wanting to put the game down. On the topic of the writing, man is it quite good. Every single person in the game acts and talks with just the right amount of wit and sarcasm, to the point where it never becomes overbearing or annoying. This is an important balance to have, as the game does have its fair share of somber moments, though it thankfully never becomes unaware of goofy nature. Compare these sadder moments to say, the ones in 2021's Origami King, and you definitely appreciate how the change in tone isn't nearly as off-putting. The world also feels so rich and lived-in, feeling fresh and exciting, while still feeling like a location in the Mario universe. And while this game would still be a great time with mediocre combat, it thankfully comes out swinging (pun intended). While the game may appear to have a typical turn-based combat system, the sheer depth of the game's "action commands" makes fighting quite invigorating. Simply put, an action command is a button press or timing used to attack, dodge, block, and interact with the battlefield in a way that perfectly weaves itself into the battle system. While enemy variety could certainly be better, the enemies we are presented with are pretty solid. Sure you have your normal goombas and koopas, but there are plenty of newcomers to the series that I wish would've stuck around. Just like any other Mario RPG, there are no random encounters in this adventure, the enemies interact with the overworld, and you're free to engage as you please. This fixes a major complaint with most RPGs , they become repetitive and stale when presented with so many encounters. If the enemies in this game are good, then the bosses are absolutely masterful. Let us take a brief moment to look at the history of the bosses of Mario & Luigi. They've always been great, especially in Bowser's Inside Story, but this game really does step it up a notch, both in the visual and gameplay departments. Visually, the signature "giant" bosses are now in glorious 3d, and looking better than ever. And gameplay wise, bosses not only have a natural and fun difficulty progression throughout the game, but they are just simply more fun to fight, with dynamic attacks that were clearly crafted with care. And man, do some of the late game bosses really crank up the difficulty notch. There's one boss in particular, that myself and many others consider to be the most grueling, difficult, over the top encounter the entire Mario franchise has to offer. Yet, it never at one point feels frustrating. Dream Team is a hard game no doubt, but different from earlier franchise entries, it never makes you want to pull your hair out. The game challenges you, it does not punish you. Combat evolves throughout the game, adding more and more features until they all culminate in the game's closing hours. Speaking of the game's ending, the climax is equal parts satisfying and fun to experience. Without giving too much away, the twists and turns the story takes will have you dying to see what happens next. After playing Dream Team when I was younger, I thought it was an amazing game. Coming back to it now, expecting to be disappointed, I am both blown away and frustrated. The frustration in me comes from how much this game is overlooked, which hey, I get. In a world of Galaxies and Thousand Year Doors, it's not easy to stand out by just being incredible. So when this game came out, and got fairly good reviews, most people just thought, "Eh, I'll catch the next one". I really do think the 7's and 8's Dream Team got across the board are what prevents it from becoming something of a cult classic. Yeah, I didn't think a mario game and cult classic could be used in the same sentence, but alas, here we are. I'd like to conclude this review with a story, one that happened no more than two weeks ago. I'm conversing with a friend of mine, and naturally, he asks if there's any games he should check out. Obviously, I recommend Dream Team. It's a bit of a tough sell, considering it's a fairly random RPG from 10 years ago. But after I offer to lend my copy, he agrees to check it out. Flash forward a few days, I ask him if he maybe wants to grab a bite to eat. "Sorry, I'm a bit busy with that Mario game you recommended to me, I'm on my second playthrough already". Now 20 hour long "Mediocre" games don't tend to get back to back playthroughs, now do they?
It might not quite hit the highs of Bowser’s Inside Story, but it’s still essential; yet another must-have title to the 3DS’ ever-increasing library of incredible first party games.
While we would have preferred a greater challenge, Mario and Luigi Dream Team Bros is a hugely entertaining game with a funny script, a pleasing aesthetic and lots of unique and interesting gameplay twists.
Dream Team‘s bright and friendly world is an easy one to fall in love with, but by the time you reach the end, that love will have been tested repeatedly by uneven design and a lack of narrative follow-through. Many of its flaws could be reduced to its strict following of the series’ formula without expanding on what makes it endearing. Much like Luigi’s dreams, AlphaDream’s latest is a little pre-occupied with expectations of Big Bro.
Fans of the series will find more to love than the rest, but Paper Mario 3D allows players of all levels to get to the point a lot faster. Though Dream Team has one of the better 3D effects, in both 2D and 3D gameplay, you're more likely to shut your eyes than cross them. There are hours of entertainment for patient players willing to read and giggle at silly accents, but I'd rather explore Bowser's dreams instead.
A Mario & Luigi game through and through, which occasionally offers glimpses of the greatness of the first and third entries in the series and maintains tight combat throughout, but suffers horribly from ever-worsening omnipresent tutorialization and multiple overly drawn out parts of the game where the plot comes to an absolute standstill for several hours straight while you ditz around with repetitive dream worlds and battle the same enemies a couple dozen times in a row.
Basically an otherwise solid entry in the series brought down a few notches by abhorrent pacing issues.
Is Dream Team a very good add to the Mario RPG series? Yes. Does it live it up to the previous games? Not really. The graphics are fantastic and presented beautifully on the 3DS, the music is amazing, the classic Mario-game humor and silliness is there and the whole real world/dream world features are well done.
What the game lacks however, is good pacing, as the game's progress is slowed horribly by repetitive and unskippable tutorials and cutscenes, which are even worse when playing the game in Hard Mode (since the game relies purely on game saves on that mode). Another downside is the story, and though it can be interesting and original at times, is not very engaging overall and feels loosely stitched together.
It's a game worth buying, but it's not as clever **** as it's prequel, Bowser's Inside Story.
Game soft locked. Unable to progress.
SOFT LOCKED
- game soft locked in Mount pajamaja. The massif bros triggered an older cutscene when I interacted with them, halting the progress and rendering the game unplayable. Neither do I have a old save to load. This is why they should allow the player to create multiple save slots to avoid game breaking glitches like these from ruining the game. Would've given a higher score if I was able to continue playing.
My review before the soft lock happened:
Good
- not being able to scroll the map with stylus is inconvenient
- 3D battles are fun and different
Bad
- too many tutorials for obvious things. The game holds your hand on the most obvious little puzzles.
Summary(Also known as "Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros") A new installment in the Mario & Luigi role-playing series is coming to Nintendo 3DS this summer. The game takes place inside the mind of a sleeping Luigi, who is a powerful, brave hero in his dreams.