Mario & Luigi Dream Team

Mario & Luigi Dream Team | Mario & Luigi: Dream Team,^[a] known in Europe and Australia as Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros.,^[1] is a 2013 role-playing video game developed by AlphaDream and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the fourth installment in the Mario & Luigi series, a part of the larger Mario franchise. The game’s story follows Mario and his brother Luigi who, after being invited to Pi’illo Island for a vacation, become embroiled in a journey to retrieve a powerful artifact before Bowser and Antasma use it for evil intentions. The gameplay takes place from a top-down perspective and has the player controlling Mario and Luigi simultaneously, solving puzzles and platformer sessions, and overcoming turn-based battles across Pi’illo Island, the game’s overworld. The player also makes use of Luigi’s dreams, called the “Dream World”, where gameplay shifts to a two-dimensional side-scrolling perspective and emphasizes using Luigi-based gimmicks to their advantage. Combat in both worlds is turn-based.

Dream Team was made to emphasize Luigi due to the developer’s decision to focus solely on Mario and Luigi as characters and the feeling that Luigi was often underrepresented in the series. The original notion was to make a scenario involving multiple Luigi’s on-screen at one time, and as more Luigi-themed ideas were conceptualized, a dream setting was set to justify their inclusion. The worldbuilding was redesigned to be three-dimensional, a first for the series, but characters retained their two-dimensional qualities with newly added stereoscopic depth. Characters were made to not only push the limits of comical expression but to test the restrictions of Nintendo’s intellectual property team. The game was announced at E3 2013 and released in July internationally and early August in North America.

The game’s release was also made to coincide with the Year of Luigi, the 30th anniversary celebration of the character that saw many Luigi-oriented titles and merchandise. Critical reception of Dream Team was generally positive, being praised for its writing, characters, combat, and Dream World portions, and mixed opinions on graphics and worldbuilding. Sales debuted well in early months but failed to meet Nintendo’s expectations; as of 2020, the game has sold 2.62 million copies and is one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo 3DS. The series’ final original installment, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, released in 2015 for the Nintendo 3DS.

Gameplay – Mario & Luigi Dream Team

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team features top-down role-playing gameplay similar to previous Mario & Luigi titles; the player simultaneously controls Mario and Luigi, who are mapped to separate buttons on the Nintendo 3DS.^[2] Mario and Luigi explore the game’s setting, Pi’illo Island, in a overworld fashion, with the island’s locales acting as individual levels. The overworld contains puzzles and minigames for the player to complete, and some platforming elements that hinder progression. As the game progresses, the duo will learn new “Bros. Attacks”, which are incorporated into solving puzzles or reaching previously inaccessible areas.^[3]

To save the inhabitants of Pi’illo Island, Mario is required to enter the “Dream World”, which takes place within Luigi’s dreams, and Mario is aided by the Luigi of the Dream World, “Dreamy Luigi”. Dream World aspects are two-dimensional and are centered around platforming, and are visible on the top screen of the Nintendo 3DS.^[2] On the bottom screen is a sleeping Luigi, and when the player interacts with him using the touchscreen, aspects of the Dream World are affected. For example, making Luigi sneeze will cause a gust of wind to blow. Mario can take command of an increasingly populated group of Luigis known as “Luiginoids”, which takes on new abilities and forms as the game progresses, such as smashing through blocks and rolling downhill in a ball formation.^[3]

Combat in Dream Team is turn-based; when the duo encounters an enemy in both worlds a battle sequence will commence. The player can obtain various weaponry and utilities on Pi’illo Island that aid in battle and help give an advantage over the enemy.^[3] When an attack is selected, the player must use timed button presses to successfully execute the attack and maximize damage to the enemy.^[2] Bros. Attacks learned in the overworld can also be used in battle, which require more complex inputs but deal more damage.^[3] The player can also use varying inputs to defend them from enemy attacks or to avoid taking damage entirely. In the Dream World, Mario is aided by the Luiginoids; in place of the Bros. Attacks are “Luiginary Attacks”, which also incorporate the Luiginoids, such as tilting the console to steer a rolling ball of Luiginoids to run over an enemy.^[2] Boss battles involve turning the 3DS sideways in a portrait-style manner, and Dreamy Luigi assumes a giant formation to defeat another enemy of the same size. Dream Team offers an easy and hard mode, which determines the difficulty of combat and boss battles.^[3]