Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

This is the fourth game for the Mario & Luigi series and also the first amongst them to be released on the Nintendo 3DS. Taking cues from the previous titles, the gameplay is similar to Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: With two characters to control most of the time, the brothers attacking monsters to fill up a meter that unleashes the power of their badges, the occasional giant battle, and collecting ten Attack Pieces to unlock an new Bros. Attack. What's new is the ability to enter the Dream World, on account on Luigi's ability to sleep at an moment's notice. Inside, Mario up against a hoard of enemies in every battle as opposed to the usual single-digits band of monsters. And instead of just attacking just one of them with his regular moves, Dreamy Luigi pitches in to help damage them with an area-of-effect attack.

Invited to a luxurious island resort, Mario and company board a blimp to Pi'illo Island; however the cruise takes a dark turn after a mysterious pillow appears and a malevolent spirit picks a fight with Mario. After an emergency landing, the promotional tour largely proceeds as planned until Peach and Toadsworth discovered an ancient, pillow-shaped relic in the depths of Pi'illo Castle. As the protagonists inspect the artifact after Luigi decided to take a nap on it, Princess Peach is pulled into the Dream World and Mario dives in after her to rescue her. Inside, he finds Luigi's consciousness, known as Dreamy Luigi and the duo works together to save the princess. But instead of rescuing Princess Peach, the Mario Bros. wind up freeing Prince Dreambert of the now-defunct Pi'illo Kingdom.

Tropes used in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team include:

• Advancing Boss of Doom: Most of the regular bosses in this game have an attack where they chase the heroes into the foreground and continually attack them until they tire themselves out or they run into something.
• Attack Drone: Pi'illodium creates four drones to not only use them in an attack, but to heal it's wings once it's downed.
• Berserk Button: Kill any of Big Massif's Hooraws, he not only gets angry, his attack power actually gets an temporary boost. And killing off enough of them can turn into an One Hit KO on account of how pissed he is.
• Bonus Boss: The Boss Medley is a challenge where most of the regular bosses are fought consecutively. And right after Antasma, the second-to-last boss of the game, is Bowser Jr., complete with his usual brand of mischief.
• Broken Bridge:
  • The obligatory literal example is the Mario Bros. trying to cross a rickety bridge south of Pi'illo Castle to reach Mushrise Park; the bridge gives out, and the heroes are forced into travelling south to continue the plot after they escape the abyss.
  • And the various exits that are leading out of Mushrise Park are obstructed with debris caused from a violent storm. The only road that's open is the one leading to Dozing Sands.
• Damage Reduction: With the exception of pairing it with the Gold and Silver Badges, the other combinations with the Guard Badge either makes you temporarily invulnerable or reduces the damage that you take.
• Flunky Boss:
  • Big Massif and three of his apprentices have a small army of Hooraws that participate in certain attacks and to serve as a buffer for the standard hammer attack.
  • The Elite Trio has an endless number of Goombas at their disposal
  • Dreamy Bowser periodically summons an army of illusory minions to heal himself.
• Follow the Money: In the Dream World, it isn't an unusual sight to see a string of coins aiding you in making a difficult jump.
• Game Breaker: The effects of using the effect from the Gold and Miracle Badges prevents the opposition from moving for a set period of time. In addition to providing a couple of potshots at the enemy, it also trivializes some of the boss fights. Namely skipping Pi'illodoum's self-destructive sequence and Dreamy Bowser's defenses.
• Glass Cannon: Statistically speaking, Thunder Sass fills this role out of the four Hooraws by having the lowest health and defense amongst them; this is justified by his battle having a "counterattacks only" challenge.
• Get Back Here Boss:
  • The reason why Kamek is fought three times is because he's smart enough to retreat each time the Mario Bros. beat him.
  • Bowser Jr. periodically leaves the safety of his Clown Car to attack the Mario Bros. on the ground. Jumping into it starts a chase sequence where the heroes can throw junk at the tyrant to get their stolen Bros. Attacks back from him.
• I Shall Taunt You: In a rarity for the series, Pi'illodium is capable of rubbing salt into the wound by bragging about how powerful he is when he's airborne.
• Keystone Army: Defeating every Dreamcap Captain on the battlefield will cause the remaining Dreamcaps to huddle in fear and eventually retreat instead of attacking.
• Lethal Lava Land: Even when he gets a new castle, Bowser still wants it filled with lava, even though he's vulnerable to it in the Dream World.
• Lightning Bruiser: Out of all the named Hooraws, Thunder Sass moves the fastest and hits the hardest when it comes to attacking.
• Lost Woods: Somnom Woods is a dense forest that hasn't been touched by Pi'illo Island's tourism industry. Consequently, hardly anyone is aware of the ancient ruins located in the deepest part of the forest.
• Me's a Crowd:
  • In the Dream World, Luigi can generate a seemingly infinite number of copies of himself called "Luiginoids." In combat, they pitch in by turning Mario's attacks into crowd-clearing shockwaves and landing on nearby enemies after he jumps.
  • Sergeant Guy has an attack where he transforms dozens of Goombas into illusions of him and uses them to sneak in a few hits on Mario.
  • Kamek resorts to this during the second and third battles against him, the difference being that the clones in the third battle actually fight back.
• Ominous Floating Castle: After it appears from being created by the Dream Stone, Antasma and Bowser wasted no time testing out the capabilities of Neo Bowser Castle by using it to destroy several uninhabited islands that were near Pi'illo Island...And it also caused a temporary evacuation from the frightened tourists, who thought that Pi'illo Island would be the next target.
• Palette Swap: Enemies with an "R" to their name are a stronger version of the coresponding species, and most of these are a recolor of the "original" ones.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Thunder Sass, the shortest one out of Big Massif's apprentices, manages to be the one who hits the hardest.
• Rank Up: While their actual ranks are still the same as they were in the last game, Private Goomp, Corporal Paraplonk, and Sergeant Guy were promoted to being one of Bowser's elite minions.
• Redemption Promotion: In exchange for their wavering loyalty, Sergeant Guy and his squad were promoted to being members of Bowser's elite guard in the ending of Bowser's Inside Story and their new position carries over to Dream Team... until Kamek demotes them for losing a fight against Mario.
• Ring Out Boss:
  • While it's not to the point where it's immediately lethal, the battle against Earthwake provides an opportunity to deal a lot of damage to whomever runs out of ground and falls into the water.
  • But the giant battle against Bowser, however, mainly has this working against you since the ground behind Luigi is constantly being destroyed throughout the fight. And the battle ends with a content of repeatedly pushing Bowser into the magma.
• Roaring Rampage Of Revenge:
  • In retaliation for constantly having it's slumber interrupted, the Dream Stone's spirit transforms into the Robo-Drilldigger to teach the heroes an lesson and to provide the game's first Giant Battle.
• Shockwave Stomp:
  • Instead of just running towards an enemy to hit it with a hammer, in the dream world, Mario's basic hammer attack is replaced with him slamming the ground with his hammer to summon several Luiginoids, who do the same thing in order to cause a shockwave.
  • Just like in previous installments, some of the bosses are capable of doing this; Big Massif's pursuit attack has Mario not only avoiding where he lands, but the ensuring shockwaves as well.
• Shifting Sand Land: While Dozing Sands doesn't have any pyramids, it does have NPCs complaining about the heat, sand flows that you can't climb, monsters hiding under the sand, and the soundtrack that goes with the desert theme.
• Stone Wall: Beef Cloud is incapable of actually attacking. However, he constantly heals every few seconds and has an unusually large amount of health compared to the rest of Big Massif's disciples.
• Technicolor Fire: Due to being infused with the Dream Stone's power, the flames that Dreamy Bowser exhales have an multicolored hue to them.
• Tennis Boss:
  • A variation with Private Goomp of the Elite Trio, who sends several Goombas charging towards Mario, ordering them to turn back every time Mario reverses their direction by jumping on them. The Private can't keep the rally going indefinitely, as he's eventually run over by his own troops for being too slow on the draw.
  • Pi'illodium swats one of it's drones towards the heroes, who have to repeatedly hit it back towards the boss with their hammers to avoid taking a hit.
• Training Boss: The first battle of the game pits Mario against Antasma, one of the main villains. Despite his prominence, Antasma is incapable of dealing any damage, and this fight is essentially an opportunity to get used to the jumping mechanics.
• Villain Team-Up: The only reason why Bowser is working with Antasma is because the latter promised Bowser a source of infinite power, and he also manages to fulfills his part of the bargain.
• Villainous Crossdresser: Although it was part of a ruse, a derailed conversation with Kamek reveals that he enjoys dressing up as Peach in his free time.
• Warmup Boss: The battle against Dreamy Mario is where the game stops holding your hand: No advice, no explaining the enemy's abilities, and it's as long as an regular boss battle.
• Wake Up Call Boss: During the first major trip through Dreamy Wakeport, Big Massif tasks the heroes with defeating his four students, each of which requiring a specific condition to be met in order to defeat them while they use a portion of Massif's moveset. And if the hint wasn't blatant enough, Big Massif hits like a runaway freight train and is arguably the first boss in the game where dodging your opponent's attacks is essential for survival.
• Worthy Opponent: After ignoring the heroes' pleas for help in favor of taking a nap and eventually attacking Mario and Dreamy Luigi, the spirit of the Dream Stone views Dreamy Luigi and Mario as these after being beaten as the Robo-Drilldigger.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: With the Dream Stone fully charged, Antasma being a potential rival after providing the Dream Stone and also wanting to take over the world, and the Mario Bros. closing in to the top of Neo Bowser Castle; this is Bowser's justification for throwing Antasma to the ground and leaving him to fend for himself against the heroes.
• Your Costume Needs Work: An employee within the staff room of Pi'illo Castle wants to meet the Mario Bros.; despite actually talking to them, she brushes them off because they didn't live up to her expectations.
• Zerg Rush: A lot of enemies in the Dream World will launch an attack against Mario by charging towards him in a group or attacking in quick succession, as opposed to the genre's standard of everyone taking a turn to individually strike somebody.
• Zero Effort Boss: The very first battle of the game pits Mario against an weaken Antasma, who's incapable of dealing any damage.