[Feature] Everything we know about Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

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Great writing and excellent gameplay return to 3DS with the latest entry in the Mario & Luigi series, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team.

System: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: July 12th (EUR), July 13th (AUS), July 18th (JPN) August 11th (NA)
Developer: AlphaDream
Publisher: Nintendo

Author: Spencer

Nintendo’s hit RPG series Mario & Luigi lands its first entry on the 3DS on August 11th. As the famous brothers make the leap to 3D, they’re bringing new adventures, puzzles, battles, and unique gameplay along with them. Plus, the spotlight this time around is not on who you might think. Hit the jump to learn more about this exciting new first-party title.

Nintendo is marking 2013 as the Year of Luigi, celebrating the 30th anniversary of our other favorite Italian plumber’s debut. So far this year we’ve seen Luigi-centric titles celebrating the occasion, such as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and the recently released New Super Luigi U DLC for New Super Mario Bros. U. Next on the list is the upcoming Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. The new title in the Mario & Luigi series will see more focus on Luigi than any of the previous games, as he has the key role!

In Dream Team, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and the Toads travel to a land called Pi’illo Island for some much-needed vacationing (sound familiar?). On this island there exist magical pillows, which allow access to people’s dreams through a portal that leads to the “Dream World.” Hoping to grab a quick nap, Luigi sleeps on one of these pillows. However, with Luigi’s luck, this allows an evil force named Antasma, who had been imprisoned in the Dream World, to be set free. Antasma captures Princess Peach and retreats back into the Dream World, and it’s up to Mario and Luigi to get her back.

The gameplay in Dream Team continues that of the previous Mario & Luigi titles, but with plenty of new twists. The overworld is split between the real world and the Dream World. The real world has a top-down perspective, while the Dream World switches to a 2D perspective, similar to Bowser’s Inside Story. Mario and Luigi work together in similar fashion to previous titles when they are in the real world – when the brothers aren’t engaging in battles with enemies, they are using various “Bros. Moves” to progress through areas and solve puzzles. Real world battles have mostly remained the same, but it seems that boss battles will be more engaging with the addition of some quicktime events, such as the Bros. being chased by an enemy while the player presses A or B to make each Bro jump over projectiles being fired at them.

At certain points, Luigi will fall asleep, opening a portal to the Dream World, which Mario then enters. In the Dream World, Mario is joined by “Dreamy Luigi”, Luigi’s dream manifestation of himself, and they travel through the world in a 2D platforming perspective. While in the Dream World, Mario and Dreamy Luigi are controlled on the top screen, while Luigi’s asleep face appears on the bottom touch screen. Luigi’s face is used for puzzle elements in the Dream World called Luiginary Works. Certain objects will react with Dreamy Luigi, allowing him to possess them, and they are controlled by manipulating Luigi’s face on the touch screen. For example, Dreamy Luigi can possess a tree, whose branches will take shape of his mustache. On the bottom screen, the player grabs Luigi’s real world mustache to stretch it out, which will in turn stretch out the Dream World branch, allowing Mario to grab hold of it. When Luigi’s mustache is released, the branch will launch Mario onto the above platform to progress.

Dream Team also sees the return of other gameplay aspects from the previous titles. Giant Battles from Inside Story are back, during which the player turns the 3DS on its side to control their character (this time you control Dreamy Luigi instead of Bowser) on one screen, fighting a giant enemy on the other. This time around, however, Nintendo has added support for right and left-handed players.

Also returning from Inside Story is the Rank system. As Mario and Luigi each reach certain levels, new benefits are bestowed upon them. An example of this is the Flower Rank from Inside Story, reached at Level 12, which allowed a Bro to equip three accessories at once. The Badge system from all of the previous titles is present in Dream Team, but works the way it did in Inside Story, where badges were split into two halves – Mario’s half deciding the effect of the badge, and Luigi’s side deciding how effective it will be.

Overall, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team looks to be a great new title by bringing an exciting new adventure starring the underdog hero and plenty of new unique elements on top of the already-excellent gameplay of the series.