Hey guys, VIIIAxel, or soon to be known as Black Star, here. I've decided to make a thread for any game reviews I make, because I really enjoy making these, and I don't want to get stuck making 50 topics for each, or having them merged with the main topic for a game, since I'd really like for them to be on their own. So, here's my game review thread! I'll post the most recent game in parenthesis next to the thread name, so people can look at that for a new review. I'll also post a status to let people know. Now then, let's get started! I'm going to be starting out with a first look at the Mario and Luigi: Dream Team demo!
There are about four major games coming to the Nintendo 3DS in the near future, as many fans of the company may know. Pokemon X and Y, Mario and Luigi: Dream Team, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and Yoshi’s New Island all have us Nintendo followers hyped for the next few months. I’m preordering Pokemon Y when the release date comes closer, so I’ve recently had my sights set on the last three, and I’ve been trying to decide which to get first. During Comic Con 2013, demos for Dream Team, Zelda, and Yoshi were all available for fans. Yesterday, on August 11th 2013, the first of the three games, Dream Team, was released in the US, and its demo was put on the Nintendo eShop for the public to enjoy. I was able to play the demo before school today, and I’ve decided to write a review on my thoughts of the game so far.
I think I should give my history with the Mario and Luigi games a quick overview before I get to the actual review. I’ve sadly never had the chance to own a game in the series. However, I was able to rent Bowser’s Inside Story a year or so ago, and loved the gameplay design. Mario and Luigi both followed each other, but outside of movement, could function entirely separately. The game was fun, the story had a lot of humor, and I enjoyed the short lived experience. I’ve been anticipating Dream Team for a few months now, probably even more so than ALBW and Yoshi’s New Island. I was sure to grab the demo as soon as possible.
Now then, time to cut to the chase. The Dream Team demo only has about 12 uses, which is kind of upsetting, but it’s not a major problem. Upon launch, the player is greeted by three options: Real World, Dream World and Boss Fight. I decided to go down the list and choose Real World first, which is what I’ll cover first.
The Real World segment of the demo portrayed a typical level of Mario and Luigi navigating Pi’illo Island, the overworld for the game. It played like the standard Mario and Luigi game: The Mario Bros. followed each other around the areas, but could jump and swing their hammers independently. The chosen segment revolved around the twins navigating the island park, trying to find the owner and track down an item. Mario could use his hammer to smash rocks and hit enemies to get a pre-emptive strike in combat. While Luigi’s isn’t quite as helpful, he can use it to smash Mario down to a smaller size, allowing for entrance to newer areas. They also have the ability to jump, allowing them to reach higher areas, and get another type of pre-emptive strike. There were a few other things laying around the landscape of the park, such as blocks with bounce back up upon being hit down, allowing the player to reach high areas, and see-saw type blocks. While navigating around was fun and rewarding, the combat system was just as fun as I remembered it.
The combat of the Mario and Luigi series allows for diverse control between the two brothers. Mario’s commands are chosen and used with use of the A button, while Luigi’s use B. Both have a jump attack, which simply makes them jump on an enemy, and a hammer attack, making them smash an opponent with their hammer. If the A or B button is hit at a certain point during these attacks, then bonus damage will be dealt by the brothers. When opponents attack the player, you’re given the option to either dodge an attack, allowing you to elude damage, or counterattack, allowing you to deal extra damage on top of not taking a hit. Finally, there’s the Bro Attack: A special combination attack which uses specific button combinations to make the brothers pull off a flashy and powerful attack. In order to balance these off, there’s a BP system involved, which is similar to MP in other RPGs. The Bro Attacks were one of my favorite parts of this demo. They were fun to watch, fun to execute, and felt rewarding when they dealt a large amount of damage. The Real World portion of the demo also included a quest which the park owner gave the bros, giving the player an idea of potential problems they’d face with. This portion of the demo was very entertaining, and I enjoyed it very much.
After the Real World portion came the Dream World portion, which chronicled Mario and Luigi’s journey into Luigi’s dreams. In the Dream World, Mario is accompanied by a dream version of Luigi. The Dream World changes from the 3D realm of the Real World, to a more 2D sidescroller type of area. Enemies are still fought in RPG format here, however, there are now large mobs of enemies in a battle. To remedy this, a group of Luiginites, or dream versions of Luigi, assist the bros. Using a jump attack causes a few Luiginites to jump with Mario, causing extra damage to the group. Also, the Bro Attacks now change, involving amassing an army of Luiginites to attack. These are called Luiginary attacks. My favorite would be the Luigi Ball, in which Mario collects the Luigis into a large ball, throwing the ball at the enemies at the end. This is controlled using the 3DS’ gyroscope features, tilting the 3DS left or right to collect the Luiginites.
The combat isn’t the only thing about the Dream World that changes. In the Dream World, you will come across all types of obstacles. One would be a pair of branches attached to a platform, which are near areas that the bros can’t reach. Luigi’s action icon will no longer be the hammer in these situations. Instead, he will be able to fuse with the branched platform, and moving his mustache in the real world (Through use of the touch screen, where you can see Luigi snore and laugh during gameplay and cutscenes) will move the branches in the Dream World. You can also stack a group of Luiginites to crush blocks beneath you, and to do a spring jump. It’s a very innovative and fun idea to play around with. The Dream World was by far my favorite section.
Finally, we get to the Boss Battles. There are two bosses. The first is a Real World boss battle, and the second is a Dream World boss battle. The first boss battle was fun, and at a decent level of challenge. The second I found to be quite the challenge. In fact, it took me about 2 or 3 attempts to defeat it. The bosses were both fun however, and I definitely enjoyed the demo. If you’re a fan of Mario, specifically the RPGs such as Paper Mario or Super Mario RPG, or an RPG fan in general, I highly recommend this game. I’m definitely going to get it when I’m able to!
Hey guys, VIIIAxel, or soon to be known as Black Star, here. I've decided to make a thread for any game reviews I make, because I really enjoy making these, and I don't want to get stuck making 50 topics for each, or having them merged with the main topic for a game, since I'd really like for them to be on their own. So, here's my game review thread! I'll post the most recent game in parenthesis next to the thread name, so people can look at that for a new review. I'll also post a status to let people know. Now then, let's get started! I'm going to be starting out with a first look at the Mario and Luigi: Dream Team demo!
There are about four major games coming to the Nintendo 3DS in the near future, as many fans of the company may know. Pokemon X and Y, Mario and Luigi: Dream Team, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and Yoshi’s New Island all have us Nintendo followers hyped for the next few months. I’m preordering Pokemon Y when the release date comes closer, so I’ve recently had my sights set on the last three, and I’ve been trying to decide which to get first. During Comic Con 2013, demos for Dream Team, Zelda, and Yoshi were all available for fans. Yesterday, on August 11th 2013, the first of the three games, Dream Team, was released in the US, and its demo was put on the Nintendo eShop for the public to enjoy. I was able to play the demo before school today, and I’ve decided to write a review on my thoughts of the game so far.
I think I should give my history with the Mario and Luigi games a quick overview before I get to the actual review. I’ve sadly never had the chance to own a game in the series. However, I was able to rent Bowser’s Inside Story a year or so ago, and loved the gameplay design. Mario and Luigi both followed each other, but outside of movement, could function entirely separately. The game was fun, the story had a lot of humor, and I enjoyed the short lived experience. I’ve been anticipating Dream Team for a few months now, probably even more so than ALBW and Yoshi’s New Island. I was sure to grab the demo as soon as possible.
Now then, time to cut to the chase. The Dream Team demo only has about 12 uses, which is kind of upsetting, but it’s not a major problem. Upon launch, the player is greeted by three options: Real World, Dream World and Boss Fight. I decided to go down the list and choose Real World first, which is what I’ll cover first.
The Real World segment of the demo portrayed a typical level of Mario and Luigi navigating Pi’illo Island, the overworld for the game. It played like the standard Mario and Luigi game: The Mario Bros. followed each other around the areas, but could jump and swing their hammers independently. The chosen segment revolved around the twins navigating the island park, trying to find the owner and track down an item. Mario could use his hammer to smash rocks and hit enemies to get a pre-emptive strike in combat. While Luigi’s isn’t quite as helpful, he can use it to smash Mario down to a smaller size, allowing for entrance to newer areas. They also have the ability to jump, allowing them to reach higher areas, and get another type of pre-emptive strike. There were a few other things laying around the landscape of the park, such as blocks with bounce back up upon being hit down, allowing the player to reach high areas, and see-saw type blocks. While navigating around was fun and rewarding, the combat system was just as fun as I remembered it.
The combat of the Mario and Luigi series allows for diverse control between the two brothers. Mario’s commands are chosen and used with use of the A button, while Luigi’s use B. Both have a jump attack, which simply makes them jump on an enemy, and a hammer attack, making them smash an opponent with their hammer. If the A or B button is hit at a certain point during these attacks, then bonus damage will be dealt by the brothers. When opponents attack the player, you’re given the option to either dodge an attack, allowing you to elude damage, or counterattack, allowing you to deal extra damage on top of not taking a hit. Finally, there’s the Bro Attack: A special combination attack which uses specific button combinations to make the brothers pull off a flashy and powerful attack. In order to balance these off, there’s a BP system involved, which is similar to MP in other RPGs. The Bro Attacks were one of my favorite parts of this demo. They were fun to watch, fun to execute, and felt rewarding when they dealt a large amount of damage. The Real World portion of the demo also included a quest which the park owner gave the bros, giving the player an idea of potential problems they’d face with. This portion of the demo was very entertaining, and I enjoyed it very much.
After the Real World portion came the Dream World portion, which chronicled Mario and Luigi’s journey into Luigi’s dreams. In the Dream World, Mario is accompanied by a dream version of Luigi. The Dream World changes from the 3D realm of the Real World, to a more 2D sidescroller type of area. Enemies are still fought in RPG format here, however, there are now large mobs of enemies in a battle. To remedy this, a group of Luiginites, or dream versions of Luigi, assist the bros. Using a jump attack causes a few Luiginites to jump with Mario, causing extra damage to the group. Also, the Bro Attacks now change, involving amassing an army of Luiginites to attack. These are called Luiginary attacks. My favorite would be the Luigi Ball, in which Mario collects the Luigis into a large ball, throwing the ball at the enemies at the end. This is controlled using the 3DS’ gyroscope features, tilting the 3DS left or right to collect the Luiginites.
The combat isn’t the only thing about the Dream World that changes. In the Dream World, you will come across all types of obstacles. One would be a pair of branches attached to a platform, which are near areas that the bros can’t reach. Luigi’s action icon will no longer be the hammer in these situations. Instead, he will be able to fuse with the branched platform, and moving his mustache in the real world (Through use of the touch screen, where you can see Luigi snore and laugh during gameplay and cutscenes) will move the branches in the Dream World. You can also stack a group of Luiginites to crush blocks beneath you, and to do a spring jump. It’s a very innovative and fun idea to play around with. The Dream World was by far my favorite section.
Finally, we get to the Boss Battles. There are two bosses. The first is a Real World boss battle, and the second is a Dream World boss battle. The first boss battle was fun, and at a decent level of challenge. The second I found to be quite the challenge. In fact, it took me about 2 or 3 attempts to defeat it. The bosses were both fun however, and I definitely enjoyed the demo. If you’re a fan of Mario, specifically the RPGs such as Paper Mario or Super Mario RPG, or an RPG fan in general, I highly recommend this game. I’m definitely going to get it when I’m able to!
Edited by Black Star