History YMMV / MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam

** The Fly Guy R thieves are treated as bosses, but are just normal Fly Guy Rs. No new attacks or gimmicks, and no more health or higher stats than usual. And you've beaten up dozens of them already.

** One of the most heated debates going around is about which game has a ''better final boss theme'', this one or Bowser's Inside Story, believe it or not.

** Most of the Dream World's enemies are Demonic Spiders, but special mention to Lob-omb (and their R variant) with their attack where they throw one big bomb. Sometimes, it's thrown next to you or behind you, and predicting that and dodging the attack is really diffcult because it goes so fast. And it deals a huge lot of damage.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN78i0nfqE8 Try, Try Again]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B43bXrRVPFE Victory in the Dream World]] seem to share a musical phrase with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdnYHzMbZnk Swanky's Sideshow]] from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble''. (It also shares that same musical phrase with "Fight Against Monsters" from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', whose score was also composed by Yoko Shimomura).

* ThatOneLevel: Dreamy Somnom Woods is a maze with lots of puzzles and confusing rooms, capped off with a frustrating battle against [[spoiler:the Zeekeeper]].

** The Mad Skillathon Challenges and Battle Broque Madame, which are minigame score attack challenges which requiere perfect scores and mastery for OneHundredPercentCompletion.
** The Battle Ring, where you have to play against stronger versions of bosses. The Giant bosses in particular are utterly brutal and requiere playing ''perfectly'', which is not helped by them lacking the possibility of getting easier by grinding or forced motion control sections that can be unresponsive at times, there's also how they requiere an insane amount of spinning the stylus on the touch screen for some attacks and defense, if you're going to take them on for OneHundredPercentCompletion, say goodbye to any non-scratched touch screen you might have.

* ItWasHisSled: The identity of the FinalBoss soon became one of the most talked about aspects of this game, thanks to it breaking a tradition that was present in almost every previous Mario [=RPG=]. It's [[spoiler:Dreamy Bowser, who for once does not end up being betrayed by a more powerful antagonist, but instead backstabs Antasma and firmly takes his place as the true mastermind behind the game's plot]].

* ItsHardSoItSucks: The game has noticeably more difficult enemies and bosses than the previous games, resulting in a significantly more unforgiving gameplay experience that some have found frustrating. It doesn't help that since your stats don't matter for the giant battles, LevelGrinding won't make them any easier.

* SurpriseDifficulty: This game is by far the hardest ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' game yet. It has bosses with a ton of health and healing abilities, difficult to dodge attacks, tricky to master Bros. Attacks, and some surprisingly challenging giant bosses and sidequests. And it gets worse on Hard mode.

%%* ThatOneSidequest: The Mad Skillathon Challenges. Battle Broque Madame. The Battle Ring.

* WinBackTheCrowd: This game, along with ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', was able to convince fans (albeit not completely) that the ''Mario'' franchise still had some ideas left in it, after a long line of controversial ''Mario'' games (namely ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'').

** Driftwood Shore is another example. Though the layouts aren't anything too difficult, the enemies are incredibly annoying, as most enemies in the area have a way to summon more enemies to make the battle last longer (the Fly Guys in particular just love to bring in more Goombas ''even when there's already some on the field''), and the one that DOESN'T has insanely high defenses that pretty much forces you to fight it with countering only. The dream world version isn't any better, as it features Lakitus and Spinies, the former throwing the latter out and someone creating ''more Spinies than they threw at you'' (ie. they throw two at you, only for ''five'' to come into the field afterwards) and the Piranha Plants that can summon Nippers in the background, effectively giving them ''two'' attacks per turn per Plant. It also features some of the worst characters in the entire game; the Mole Hunt Shelltop for being a money-grabbing sleazebag that slows the game down to a screeching halt just to squeeze some coins out of you, and the Seadrings for their obnoxious and unfunny quirks, with the sister in particular being seen as the worst out of all of them, and the fetch quest they give you can also take longer than expected if you don't know to grab all three eggs before going to the main Dream World section, forcing you to backtrack over and over again. The only saving grace the area has is its music, it having the strongest store in the game, and the fun boss battle against the Elite Trio.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: Luiginary Ice used in Dreamy Mount Pajamaja. The mechanic works like this: Starlow uses Luigi's hand to push a button to make a sun with Luigi's Likeness appear in the dream Mario is in. This is used to melt ice and thaw water or vice versa. This, however, is only used in one specific dreampoint when [[spoiler: Luigi is affected by the dreambeats]]. So after Mario escapes the Dream, Luiginary Ice is one and done.

** Antasma is criticized by some for being a FlatCharacter, but he really has no less characterization than most of the previous Mario RPG villains. The difference is that those villains either had quirky underlings to pick up the slack for their flat characterization (Cackletta) or were aliens/[[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]] that didn't require much characterization in the first place (Princess Shroob, the Dark Star]]. Antasma doesn't have either to fall back on, so he stands out more as a flat character.

** Antasma is criticized by some for being a FlatCharacter, but he really has no less characterization than most of the previous Mario RPG villains. The difference is that those villains either had quirky underlings to pick up the slack for their flat characterization, or were aliens/[[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]] that didn't require much characterization. Antasma doesn't have either to fall back on, so he stands out more as a flat character.

* TheScrappy: The Mole Hunt Proprietor, who runs the Mole Hunt minigame, a minigame that you're ''only'' playing because this idiot wants to make a quick buck off you by withholding access to the next part of the game until you pay him. (Granted, 10 coins is a pittance by the point in the game where it comes up, but still...) It's as if [[VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon Moneybags]] reincarnated into the Mario universe.

** The Angel Bangle mixed with the Casual Bros. Rank Up effect. The Angel Bangle restores 20 HP and 10 BP a turn. Casual Bros. cuts the price of special attacks in half. None of the special attacks exceed 20 BP, so none of the moves with Casual Bros. will exceed 10 BP. And since you heal 10 BP a turn, this means ''infinite Bros. moves, with absolutely no restrictions outside of the BonusBoss.''

* UnexpectedCharacter: [[spoiler:Bowser Jr.]] is an interesting case. He usually wouldn't be unexpected, but he doesn't show up at all until [[spoiler:he's revealed to be the Bonus Boss, showing up with no foreshadowing whatsoever]].

** The third (and proper) fight with Kamek is a complete pain from start to finish. From the beginning, he splits into four clones, all with their own attacks. His attacks are easy enough to dodge, but one of his bodies buffs the others stats, and another heals for just over 100 HP (something that regular attacks can barely break when they have their defense buffed). Now remember that, since it's the Dream World, you only have one move between the enemy attacks. Combine this with how all of them can attack one after the other and you have a boss that takes ''ages'' to beat.

* CriticalDissonance: People were not happy when IGN gave the game a 8.0 while giving ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' (which was generally more disliked) an 8.3.

* EightPointEight: People were not happy when IGN gave the game a 8.0 while giving ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' (which was generally more disliked) an 8.3.

** Popple is fought right after beating the Wiggler; in the exact same fight, nonetheless. He is much weaker than the Wiggler and has one easy to dodge attack, so he shouldn't put up much of a fight.

* CryForTheDevil: Even though he's TheDreaded who has a stronghold over Pi'illo Island, many fans ended up feeling incredibly sorry for Antasma when [[spoiler:he was [[TheStarscream betrayed]] by Bowser, who he showed [[VillainousFriendship genuine respect form]], just because Bowser wanted the [[DrunkWithPower power of the Dream Stone for himself]], resulting in Antasma suffering a VillainousBreakdown]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse: