Launch Station: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Gaming's favourite plumbers have explored many genres from goomba smashing platformers to fist pumping sports.  While Mario and Luigi have put on many caps, one genre has blended with the antics of the Mario Bros. better than the platformers they originated from.  This particular genre has been the RPG genre.  Quite a few developers such as Square and Intelligent Systems have successfully brought Mario and company to the realms of role-playing greatness.  While these Mario RPGs have found homes on Nintendo's consoles, there has been one that has dominated on Nintendo's handhelds- AlphaDream's Mario & Luigi series.  AlphaDream has taken the Mario Bros. through the BeanBean Kingdom, the past and Bowser's innards, which shows that there are no limits for where they can take Mario and Luigi next.

For the Mario & Luigi series' first foray on the 3DS, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, the Mario Bros. are going to a realm they have never travelled to before- Luigi's dreams.  After their latest adventure, Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toadsworth decide to take a vacation on Pi'illo Island.  What originally starts out as a relaxing vacation turns into another princess-saving adventure as Mario and Luigi must save Princess Peach and the habitants of Pi'illo Island from the devious bat-king Antasma.  Only exploring the exotic locales of Pi'illo Island will not lead Mario and Luigi to their goal.  In order to save the habitants of Pi'illo Island from their stone pillow prisons, Mario must enter Luigi's dreams.  On Pi'illo Island, Dream Team plays like every other entry in the Mario & Luigi series from the turn-based battles to team-based puzzles.  In the Dream World, Dream Team turns into a 2D side-scroller in vein of the Super Mario Bros. series.  Considering Mario is in Luigi's dreams, the player is able to interact with the sleeping Luigi on the bottom screen of the 3DS to manipulate the environment or create a great number of Luigis to demolish enemies and barriers.  Luigi also helps Mario when fighting enemies in the Dream World by allowing to hit multiple enemies with successful attacks and through special Luiginary Attacks such as using a humongous ball of Luigis to crush your foes.

The Mario & Luigi series has been a fan-favourite due to its quirky humour, charming visuals, engaging combat and interesting gimmicks.  Dream Team seems to have all that in spades along with a lot of new gameplay options for gamers to sink their teeth in to.  All the interesting ways to manipulate the Dream World both inside and outside of combat looks to be an excellent hook for this new Mario & Luigi adventure.  All-in-all, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team looks to be another great entry in AlphaDream's Mario & Luigi series and yet another great RPG to get for the 3DS this summer.