Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Nintendo 3DS

My son, who is only 4, loves this game. Even though he cant read yet he still does well navigating through it. He will occasionally come to me or my husband to see if we could read it to him but he does pretty good on his own. Hes obsessed with all things Mario.

I was VERY surprised how good this game was because I was SLIGHTLY let down by the previous game, Bowsers Inside Story which was a good gameTbut just SHORT of making the game AMAZING! But DREAM TEAM DELIVERS! This game has been developed and worked on for over 3-4 YEARS! No wonder this game packs quite a punch and TONS of stuff to do. Great and FUNNY story line and who knows, this game may even be your most favorite of the series! I always said to myself that Superstar Saga the first Mario and Luigi game was my absolute favorite but Dream Team is quickly becoming the favorite and may replace the SuperStar Saga position if this keeps up! Clocked in about 25 hours so far and I am STILL playing because there is still SO much more to do! Anyways, BUY THIS GAME and if you dont, you might as well just sell your Nintendo 3DS. NO WAIT! DONT SELL IT! buy this and play it!

Good game

After the success of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, for the GBA, the silly dialog and impressive game mechanics won over millions of children, and rightfully so. After that, the developers, Alpha Dream produced three more games: Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, for the Nintendo DS, Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story, for the Nintendo DS as well, and this game. To clarify, I had already had my expectations high up after playing Partners in Time and Bowsers Inside Story. Would this game meet the expectations? Well... they actually surpassed my expectations. The game has wonderful graphics, a great storyline, and a plot twist that genuinely shocked me. They also seemed to up the goofiness and comedy, what with the newcomer, Dreambert, and Dreamy Luigi. Well, okay, lets get started. Gameplay: A typical Mario and Luigi game; its an RPG, where you battle enemies, and gain stats and levels when you defeat them. However, now theres a new gimmick - everytime you reach a new rank, you get the chance to add on a trait for the respective brother; for example, you can save on BP. With the Dream World, you control both Mario and Dreamy Luigi; and there are new mechanics, called Luiginary works. Basically, as Luigi is sleeping, you can manipulate what he does in his sleep (I.E. pull on his moustache - ouch - rub on his nose to make him sneeze, ectera.) and have Mario reach the new goals. When you get into battles, Mario can use Dreamy Luigi attacks, which basically summon many Luigis to do various things. (I had a theory that they made this game so that every Luigi fan and fangirl can get a Luigi, but whatever) The one problem that many people had with the Dreamy Luigi battles were the gyro scope controls; basically, you have to move your 3DS around to make the attacks work - but I personally had no problem, and I believe that Nintendo released a patch for the game anyway. With the boss battles, instead of continues, you can use Easy Mode when you die. Its quite nice, actually, and its also optional. Story: The story is centered around this: a villain named Antasma, a sort of literal nightmare, has just been rereleased into the world, and you must free the natives of the old kingdom, the Pillo, in order to defeat him. ... Thats only the synopsis, and does it not sound awesome? Its also been found out that due to the fact that Luigi is such a deep sleeper (The beginning to Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story, anyone?) he is the only one who can open the portal to the Dream World, in which Mario can jump in and set things right. It is the Year of the Luigi, everyone, 2013, and its great that they actually tied in one of his traits into the game instead of a retcon. And finally... the characters themselves. Now, I would like to focus on the villain, the new exposition fairy, Dreambert and the aforementioned green man himself, Luigi. I was pumped when I found out that Antasma was going to be a composition of the old Mario and Luigi villains. And it shows. His design is based off of Cackella, he has a scary, shrunken in look like the Princess Shroob, and his attacks remind me much of the Dark Star. Besides the fact that he has crazy dialog like Fawful. Hes Transylvanian. Because he can transform into a bat. I dont really know why they have to go with that route, but its funny, so I can let it slide. Dreambert, at first, I had mixed feelings about. I couldnt really understand this strange, new character, and why it was he knew Antasma. But after playing through the game, hes probably my most favorite exposition fairy in any game Ive ever played. Hes funny, responsible, hes got a pleasing dialog voice, and thank Lord almighty, hes actually polite to the brothers that are helping him. Starlow, I didnt really like that much. She had an annoying dialog voice, was very rude at bad times, and while she had a cute design, it was overshadowed by how she could possibly be Navis great granddaughter. Im sorry if you like her, but I could barely stand her. Dreambert, I would take him over that little lightbulb any day. I only wish that he could have been the only exposition fairy, and that Starlow just got a cameo. Cmon, we couldve easily just messed around with Luigi without her. More breaking of the fourth wall, that would have been nice. And now, Luigi. Ive already stated that this is my favorite Mario character (See Luigis Mansion and Luigis Mansion: Dark Moon reviews) so I apologize if this seems biased. It seems as though, every day, Nintendo and Alpha Dream think of new ways to make this character goofier and more adorable. You can mess around with him in his sleep, but when something good happens, he lets out a happy laugh. If you trigger a certain Luiginary, he does a little fist-pump, and its adorable. Dont worry, bad things still happen to him, and they are hilarious - but unfortunately, there are no epic gusher tears. I was disappointed. But I think the pinnacle of the interactions are when you go into Dreams Deep. Dreams Deep is the deepest subconscious of Luigi; while youre in there, Dreamy Luigi isnt following you, and there are words that follow you as you travel deeper and deeper into this place. What are the words? Are they rage against the world for putting him down, a deep-seated need for revenge against his older, more popular twin? No. They consist of nothing but praise and worry for his big bro. It actually did make me tear up a little, not just at the implications, but some of the words that flew across the screen. Please dont leave me behind, I can help. As someone who was not physically fast, and was often at the end of the line when running with friends, and they wouldnt stop to wait for me to catch up - as you are doing with Mario right now - it did strike a chord with me. Its this kind of subtlety that really makes these games great. Theyre not outright telling you that Luigi is worried about Mario through exposition; theyre showing you, in a very moving way. This game? Come for the bright, vibrant story, stay for the beauty within the words.

This is the kind of game Mario needs to be. it stays true to the jumping theme of Mario while adding RPG elements. Those who grew up with Mario RPG and want another one, the Mario and luigi games are what you are looking for.

This game is a must buy if you own a nintendo 3 ds. I never played any in the genre but it is really fun. I even went to older titles and beat one of them because how fun it was. It is kinda like turned based but with more skill. You do a move and can press certain buttons at certain times to do more damage. You can also dodge peoples moves. Def recommended

A lot of fun, but easy to get stuck.

great game, my little cousins went crazy over it for christmas!! game works perfectly fine. good purchase. quick shipping

My son likes it. Good for all ages. I like seeing that they still have games that are from the good old days.

This 3DS entry of the Mario & Luigi RPG series brings plenty of new stuff to the table, while enhancing stuff that was present before. If youve played Bowsers Inside Story, this plays pretty much like that game, but on steroids. Whereas the previous one focused on Bowser, this one focuses on Luigi, though not to the same degree as Bowser in the previous game. The Mario Bros. travel between the Real World and the Dream World to battle foes both familiar and new, and each one features their own battle systems and boss battles. Dream World requires Luigi to sleep, so when you go inside them, you get Dreamy Luigi instead, who offers much more ambitious moves and concepts than standard Luigi, at the cost of him not being present in battle... at least as a separate character. Instead, Dreamy Luigi will fuse with Mario and enhance Marios natural stats, and this also gives Mario a new host of Luiginary attacks that can be learnt throughout the story. Bros Attacks also make a comeback, but in a reduced and slightly different format than before. This time, each bro has five unique Bro Attacks(Though one is shared between the two, the attack features different properties), which makes for deeper strategy. Enemy and Boss patterns are also stepped up, becoming more difficult than ever. Speaking of difficulty, theyve finally added a Hard Mode to the game! The catch is, you need to beat the game at least once before unlocking it, much like the Master Quest mode for Ocarina of Time 3D. Its been ten years since SuperStar Saga, and were on the fourth installment with Dream Team. Having played all four games at least three times each, I can safely say that this one is the most ambitious, and in some regards can be considered the strongest entry. What may turn some people off from it compared to other installments however is the excessive amount of tutorials, even in some instances where the game may ask you to recall a tutorial youve already viewed a few minutes prior. This was done to help new players, of course, but it makes you wonder why they arent at least skippable. For some of them its understandable since theyre usually introducing new concepts and game mechanics(Which happens frequently throughout the game), but for material thats known from previous games, it can be a bit grating. There is also the matter of length. As I mentioned in the title of the review, this game is the longest entry thus far. It took me 33 hours to reach and defeat the final boss, as well as rescue every Pillo(Which is needed to get Marios last bro attack). There was about an hour or two where I mindlessly explored or got lost, so if we were to factor that, you can expect the game to last you at least 30-40 hours depending on your play-style. Thats all well and good, but it might be jarring for folks who are used to the 20 hour lengths of SuperStar Saga and Bowsers Inside Story, or the 12-15 hour length of Partners In Time. This, however, could be seen as a blessing for newcomers, and at the very least, you know youll be getting your moneys worth with this title even at the full $39.99 MSRP.