(RPG-ween) [Review] Mario & Luigi: Dream Team · 8:21pm Oct 7th, 2015
Well... I did promise a review of this eventually, right? I upheld my Halo: Combat Evolved review, but I never really got around to this. Could be any reason, really. Maybe I was bored, or just didn't have the energy to do so, but whatever the case may be, here I am now reviewing the game. So, let's delve right into Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, the final game of the "Year of Luigi"!
Let me start off by saying "Damn, this game is good!". Then again, this is a Mario & Luigi game, so you know it's going to be good either gameplay-wise, story-wise, or both. Thankfully, this game has both, what with the refined and perfected battle system, and the surprisingly good story. For a Mario game, anyway. I cannot tell you how much fun I had with Dream Team, and I really cannot tell you how many times I laughed at the extremely clever and funny writing. Everything about this game is perfect...
...mostly. There are still some issues with the game that prevented me from fully enjoying it, but I'll walk through them as we do the review. Alright, with that being said, let's begin!
The story is your standard stuff, what with Princess Peach receiving a strange letter from an unknown locale known as Pi'illo Island, a resort for anyone needing to take a vacation. Right off the bat, we have some returning characters, like Broggy, the block dog, Toadsworth, the constantly worried chancellor of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the bros, who would have to be in this game or the game wouldn't be a Mario & Luigi game.
However, as the balloon ride to the island goes seemingly swimmingly, the blimp is attacked by a mysterious monster that looks like Dracula crossed with Deadpool and the shadow monster from Limbo. You defeat him in the very first tutorial boss that isn't Bowser (with some badass music to boot), and you all fall down onto Pi'illo Island to begin your adventure. Long story short, there's a guy called Antasma who's a dick because he trapped all the Pi'illos in the dream world and now you have to go save them. Starlow is back, Broque Monsieur is back, Fawful isn't back, but Popple from Superstar Saga is. Point of story: Defeat Antasma, save the Pi'illos and have a vacation, I guess.
Personally, I love the villain of this game, Antasma. He knows that he's lost some serious power after, what? A million years? He actually goes up to Bowser and ASKS him to work together. Now that he's the brains with the brawn by his side, he can use a relic known as the Dream Stone to grant his every wish and make him ruler of the world! Or something, I'm not really sure.
I need an adult! He's a scary villain!
The gameplay is largely unchanged from the other Mario & Luigi games, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. On the overworld, you walk around solving quests and stuff to advance the story, or do other things, but I'll get to that later. However, if you see a monster on the map and walk up next to it, get ready for a turn-based battle with EXP and stuff! Only complaint on the overworld? Luigi isn't playable. Sure you can control him, but it's not like the first game where you could switch between the bros. Year of Luigi, everyone!
The combat is absolutely perfect, taking the action commands that allow you to deal more damage or dodge attacks if timed right to its fullest potential with the new side platform. This can allow for the bros to use powerful attacks from the side rather than in front of the enemy. This can actually help you, especially since the game is in 3D and it's in your best interest to attack the enemies on different plains of reality at the same time. You won't really know what I'm talking about until you play the game for yourself, but trust me when I say that the attacks feel very fluid and easy to understand. The best example of this is the final boss which is, without giving any spoilers, probably one of the greatest final battles I've ever faced.
The Dream World is something new in this game as well, but I think you'll find it's not unlike the 2D levels inside Bowser. Only difference? It's Mario with an army of Luigis. I kid you not. Every special attack in the Dream World makes use of multiple Dreamy Luiginoids in order to absolutely decimate your foes. And you NEED them, because all the enemies in the Dream World come in packs of twenty, thirty even! This combined with the overworld puzzles involving messing with Luigi's face make the Dream World probably even better than the real world and Bowser's guts combined!
Unfortunately, the gyro controls are back. Woo. No one like gyro controls, but I can at the very least safely say Mario & Luigi: Dream Team handles its gyro controls decently well. But even still I had a hard time really controlling the gyro attacks, and this isn't more evident than with the battle with the Pi'illodium. F**K. THIS. BOSS. This comes to a second nitpick of mine: the difficulty spike in the Somnom Woods. The enemies are fine, the puzzle is slightly confusing, but the boss is hell! I could go on and on about why I hate this boss, but I'll save that for another day...
Pi'illodium doesn't deserve a big picture, but the combat is good!
Finally, does the writing hold up well? Did I enjoy myself with the jokes? Were they top-notch? They most certainly were, my good RPG fanatic comrade... though, maybe the game could have done with a few more jokes here and there.
Don't get me wrong, the directing is very funny! Most of the time, the very existence of certain characters just made me LOL all over the carpet, like the Dream Stone Spirit who acts like a kid and just wants to take a goddamn nap, but you need to save the world and he causes your characters to get angry. Or the Zeekeeper, who acts like he's some sort of deity, but is really just a lazy, ignorant asshole who does everything for the money. The directing and sprite work in this game shows the full extent of the character's emotions through body language, and I love it!
However, I could have done with a few more funny lines. They are there, obviously, but it's not quite up to the absolute masterpiece of writing that was Bowser's Inside Story. This was mainly to do with Fawful, who unfortunately makes no appearance in this game. Now, before everyone lashes out and says the writing is funny, yes, you're right, it is. Without the writing, the Massif Bros probably won't be as funny and stereotypical as they are. But I felt as if the writing was mainly just there to expand upon the characters' body gestures and movements. But hey, a different kind of humor is okay in my books.
BEEF STEW!!! WTF?!
So how well does Mario & Luigi: Dream Team hold up? Well, pretty good actually! While certainly not the best Mario & Luigi game, it has its charm, humor, and combat from the other games, so we're pretty much good on that road. The combat is probably the best from any M&L game, even if the gyro controls irked me sometimes, and the story is great, if a little simple. Everything is made up for when Antasma appears though, because his design, personality and final battle outshines his lackluster backstory. This isn't even mentioning the music, which is probably Yoko Shimomura's best work yet.
Without a doubt, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team earns a solid:
9/10
Until then, this is SuperKamek saying thank you, have a great night, and dream well. Like, seriously, if you put your mind to it, you can created the most amazing things in your dreams! Impossible things! Like a good Sonic game sometime soon!
Oh I love that game so much.
3450524
I could tell.
Never played it.
It looks nifty enough, though, makes me want to play it...
3450626
If you have a 3DS, definitely worth your time.
3450641
... Last portable system I bought was a gameboy... Original. Someone gifted me a psp, but that's about it.
3450661
Well... You could always emulate it.
3450674
Sounds doable...
Do you know how you can tell it's a dream? If Scooterloo is flying!
But I do have one question, which one is better? Inside story or dream team?
3450741
I find both amusing and either have their own playstyles, what with Bowser in BIS, and Dreamy attacks in DT. It's hard deciding which is better, but if I HAD to choose, I'd go for Dream Team.
Haha this brings back memories
3450786 I'm on the opposite side of the Spectrum, mainly because I LOVE being Bowser.
Wait a minute... Dream Team, Dark Thunder, Diamond Tiara, they're all DTs...
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ca/22/91/ca22914e0592c06c334ee1f22c25de46.jpg
3450904
Three DTs...
DARK THUNDER IS ILLUMINATI, CONFIRMED!!
3450886
As with me as well!
3450917 Oh Super Kamek...
umich.edu/~chemh215/W14HTML/SSG5/SSG5.3/illuminati.jpg
3450924
Shit, shit, shit! Crono, quick, use you Cyclone technique!
What did you think of the giant battles?
3451569
Surprisingly, they must not have left that huge of an impact on me if I couldn't remember them. I even remembered the Zeekeeper and Dream Stone Spirit, yet forgot about their battles. That's not to say they weren't bad, but I suppose I just remembered the normal combat far more.
For a quick recount, the giant battles were good, sometimes epic! But I never really remembered them because they broke away from the combat I was familiar with.