obligatory “this crossover would’ve been peak 15 years ago” comment

ok now thats out of the way i think this game gets alooooot more hate than it should get, some of it justified and some of it isnt. yes the story could’ve been this 50 hour long epic where the bowsers becomes a super ultra god and talks about the idea of death or whatever but i think the one we had isnt that bad either. it basically does the “bowser kidnaps peach” thing but also gives up near the end and just becomes a story about getting a book back.

the gameplay is actually very fun, probably the best in the series, i think battle cards are far more interesting than badges because they’re instant and you dont have to spend 20 turns getting one you can waste in one attack. the bros attacks are either really broken or kinda pointless.


papercraft battles while not as cool as the giant battles from BiS or Dream Team are still fun on their own. none of the fights are actively frustrating as far as i remember.


overall i think this game was a great finale to the original mario and luigis and was a great sendoff to a great series.

i’m a very new m&l fan so i have no nostalgic bias towards these games. a couple years ago i decided to finally play through them all. LOVED the original trilogy to bits but something about dream team felt… off? it felt too slow, messed with my muscle memory i’d gained over the last 3 games and it didnt feel right. I shelfed it for a year or so and grew a bitter resentment towards it, saying it ruined the series and never got what made people love it…

until people got on my ass about it i decided to give it a second chance, see it through to the end to see if it was truly worth the hype. my answer? its GOOD. but i wouldnt consider it on par with the original trilogy. its a game with stellar world building with the pillos, zeekeeper and antasma. its amazingly fleshed out and i got really interested to its story. but the pillo kingdom itself feels very… bland? it uses the grass, desert, beach, jungle etc locations mario fans are used to but shakes it up in a way that doesnt really change it all THAT much. the gameplay however is where the game faulters hardest. it’s the same m&l you know but with weird motion and confusingly inconsistent input commands?? why would i use bye bye cannon when jet board is right there and does more damage? (granted this could be a nonissue because its been a while since i played the other games but idk)

the dream world itself is interesting in concept but doesnt really do much for me in terms of gameplay, its just very uninteresting puzzle solving mixed with fun luiginary effects, i like pulling on his mustache and making him sneeze, plus luigi’s character arc towards him being more confident… while done before was super nice to see :)

the main area where this game shines for me is the giant battles!!! oh my god these are soooo good, the spectacle of it all is magnificent! the bowser fight ESPECIALLY was great for someone like me who loves BiS to bits. plus the zeekeeper fight and the giant town robot were probably luigi at his coolest. while basic in gameplay the pure spectacle of it alone easily made going through the game worth it, just to see how cool it could get.

me personally, i wouldnt blame you if you skip it but if you decide to see it all the way through, you’re in for a pretty fun time with cool characters and a cool setting.