I got the Year of Luigi 3DS as a gift back in January, which came with Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (MLDT). I started playing it after I finished Tomb Raider, thinking I could finish it in about a month. I just finished it today. It took me 50 hours and 36 minutes to beat. This was my first Mario RPG game and while I enjoyed it, I’m not sure if I like the concept of Mario RPGs.

I think the on and off playing supports my wavering stance on the concept. It was a hard game to play and I didn’t have the patience to try and get through all of the bosses on normal mode (I only finished off 3 bosses in easy mode, though). It did get a little repetitive, especially with my general dislike of “Press X now!” mechanics.

On top of that, the 3D aspect was a little hard to play with as well. Often, I had to rely on shadows to figure out if enemies were in my line of path, but this didn’t work as well when enemies or objects were approaching from the screen towards me (along the z-axis).

My last qualm with the game was controlling both Mario and Luigi at the same time. This wasn’t so much an issue when enemies single-targeted one of the brothers, or even both at the same time, but as soon as attacks started to stagger, it got a little frustrating.

However, it did have an interesting story and interesting characters. I never pictured Bowser the way he was represented in this game. I wonder if the American version took some liberties to try to appeal to the American culture. The Zeekeeper was an attempt at portraying a “cool” character but it came off as cheesy to me. Although, strangely, the Zeekeeper wasn’t as irritating as I would have thought.

I also enjoyed the soundtrack. The Somnom Woods track was my favorite and reminded me of the tracks from The Secret of Mana. Looking back, none of the tracks were reminiscent of the classic Super Mario, but they did fit the game well and felt like it was a part of the Mario universe.

In summary, I did enjoy the game. It was well-designed, even with the difficulty level a bit high. However, the length was a bit long for me and I started taking longer breaks in between sessions. I took a week off before finishing the last 2 bosses. I’m not sure if it could have been “better” or “more fun.” I’m glad they implemented the easy mode on the bosses, otherwise I might never have finished the game.