Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. (Nintendo 3DS) Review

The hapless duo returns! Well, 'hapless' seems harsh, since, after all, Mario and Luigi are the saviours in pretty much every game they star in. However, the comical spin in the Mario and Luigi series of RPGs makes them extremely amusing in their bumbling, over-the-top Italian muttering way, with all manner of weird and wacky antics to help the action flow nicely. This fourth in the turned-based role-playing series sees Princess Peach being kidnapped by an evil bat king called King Antasma, with the damsel in distress being whisked off from the resort of Pi'illo Island to a place called Dream World.

It is then up to the Mario Brothers to scour the land, looking for special pillows that Luigi can rest his head on in order to open up portals for Mario to leap into, at which point he is joined by a 'Dreamy Luigi' and eventually delve deeper and deeper into Luigi's unconscious mind - Inception style - before freeing her, and triggering Bowser-related events that take the adventure in a different slant. Sounds absolutely mad, right? Well, that is simply because it is a Mario and Luigi RPG! Honestly, after the antics of controlling both grown up and baby Mario and Luigis in Partners in Time and being actually within Bowser's body for Bowser's Inside Story, merely going into Luigi's head and meeting his inner self is relatively normal, all things considered!

Whatever the case, any excuse to resume the fantastical fun of this series is acceptable, since the core gameplay mechanics of old are back and as enjoyable as ever, as is the hilarity of past titles (that sadly is now absent from the Paper Mario games), and the stunning soundtrack. The fact that the visuals almost hark back to the pseudo-3D modelling of Super Mario RPG is just the icing on what is already a delicious cake that never becomes sickly. Some may forget that AlphaDream consists of former Squaresoft members that worked on the SNES Mario role-playing title - Tetsuo Mizuno and Chihiro Fujioka - as well as many other Square classics from the 16-bit era. This is potentially why older fans enjoy this series more than the Paper Mario titles from Intelligent Systems.

Wander around the playing field and strike enemies to gain a head start advantage, and then proceed to time jumps and hammer hits perfectly to inflict extra damage each turn, or fend off damage sustained when opponents get their turn. Build up extra bonuses each round when Badges are equipped that can help turn the tide of longer boss fights, and make best use of the powerful Bros. attacks that again rely on good timing to smash home with the strongest of hits. The added beauty here is that the 3D actually plays a useful part. Okay, it is not mandatory, and even is encouraged to be turned off when using moves that require smart gyroscope movement, but when on, attacks that take place going into or coming out of the screen are wondrous. Equally, the 3D helps when checking if an enemy is about to attack Mario or Luigi, with their little telltale signs being moderately more apparent thanks to the added depth.

Dream Team Bros. is everything that Bowser's Inside Story was, with all manner of creative new features, most in the form of 'Luiginary' features, such as throwing the lean, green brother into constellations in the sky of the dreamy land and then interacting with his sleeping face on the touch screen to make Mario latch on to parts of his moustache in order to launch him - slingshot style - to new, unreachable areas, or even tickling Luigi's schnozzle to make him sneeze, thus blowing objects from the background to the foreground, as well as spin platforms around. It does not stop there, either, since piles and piles of Luigis can be built up in a ladder form to carry Mario around where it necessitates, or even use a tornado of green folk to traverse gaps in platforms. Mario can even jump aboard a ball of his brothers and roll around to collect more before slamming an enemy with a barrage of green or use a giant Luigi-made hammer, all in an attempt to free all the Pi'illo folk from the confines of Dark Stone fragments that Antasma trapped them in before scattering them all over.

Ultimately, Mario and Luigi must travel far and wide to prevent the Dream Stone artefact from falling into the wrong hands, since it will grant Bowser and Antasma the power to rule the world. Along the way there are the usual antics expected from the series, with quirky characters, hilarious situations throughout, amazing reactions from characters and the brothers Mario themselves that always raise a smile, plus the standard gorgeous soundtrack full of melodious tunes that stay lodged in the mind long after switching the 3DS off.

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros. is the sort of adventure that just keeps on giving, with the transition from world to world being smoother than in Bowser's Inside Story, and although it does not come with that fresh feeling of the second DS game, that is simply because rather than coming off the back of a slightly disappointing game, it is the successor to a marvellous title that was amongst the best on the Nintendo DS, full stop.

With humour, stacks of extras, wonderful presentation values, and a refined version of the gameplay of old (some features of the game become readily available earlier on to prevent 'collect-a-thon' boredom kicking in towards the final stages), this fourth entry lifts itself right up to the top of the tree of 3DS smash hits already out on the market right now. This, without a doubt, deserves to follow in the footsteps of the strong selling Bowser's Inside Story.