Video Game / Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Together in dreams, now in 3D.

Describe Mario & Luigi: Dream Team here.

Sure, I'd be happy to... NOT TELL YOU!

The fourth game in the Mario & Luigi series, and the first to be released on the Nintendo 3DS. Its Japanese name is Mario & Luigi RPG 4: Dream Adventure and its European/Australian name is Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. As with New Super Mario Bros. 2, it was announced late in its development and, therefore, closer to its release date (February 2013-Summer 2013).

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toadsworth, and the many Toads are invited to Pi'illo Island and so they travel to the island for sightseeing. While touring the island, Luigi sleeps on one of the special pillows of the island, opening a portal to the Dream World. This gives an opportunity for the game's Big Bad, Antasma, to kidnap Peach and take her into the Dream World. It is then explained that there are two sources of power in the Dream World, the Dream Stone and the Dark Stone, the latter being shattered by Antasma in order to turn Pi'illos into stone. It is then up to Mario and Luigi to travel across the island, trek into the Dream World, and to free the frozen Pi'illos and to Save the Princess.

The game's main gimmick, as opposed to Partners in Time (Time Travel) and Bowser's Inside Story ("Fantastic Voyage" Plot), involves levels in Luigi's dreams. For the first time since Superstar Saga, Mario and Luigi are going on an adventure by themselves (the previous two games paired them up with the Baby Mario Bros. and Bowser, respectively). The catch: for about half of the game, Luigi sleeps, allowing Mario to visit his dreams. Luigi can still manifest within his own dreams to assist his brother, and he can even multiply himself in this case.

Notably, despite the DS' polygonal graphics, this is the first time the style of the games' artwork gets adapted to 3D graphics (although the characters still mostly use 2D sprites).

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This game include examples of the following tropes:

#-E

• 1-Dimensional Thinking:
  • Mario and Luigi do a lot of running away from foes in boss battles, usually towards the camera. They never think to just step sideways a bit. Averted with Mammoshka who moves left and right during its chase attack while trying to suck the Mario Bros. up meaning stepping sideways wouldn't have worked.
  • Also, Mario can only counterattack in two directions in overworld battles. It's only in the dreamworld that he can counter from all fronts.
• Absurdly High Level Cap: The level counter maxes out at level 100. It's likely you'll be about level 40 when you beat the final boss. It takes longer to get to level 100 than to literally start the game over and play through it twice more. Similarly, your stats max out at around 999. Reaching level 100 gives you maybe 400-500 per stat if you're lucky, and grinding to that point with randomly dropped beans is likely another fifty hours' worth of gameplay. Either way, don't expect to reach either in the storyline, and don't expect anything to last a single turn in battle (including the final boss) if you do.
• Achievement System: The game has the Expert Challenges, which give you points for things like dodging a certain number of enemies, winning fights against each monster without getting hit and using special attacks successfully. This eventually unlocks some useful items, some of which grow stronger depending on the point total.
• Actually Four Mooks:
  • Inverted in the beginning, where a two enemy ambush turns out to be just one enemy. Which is weird because right after that, you encounter one enemy that turns out to be two.
  • Played straight with viruses and the dream world, where one enemy on the overworld ends up being about 16-20 enemies in the battle. Or where background enemies fly in mid battle.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: During dream world sections, the player can use the stylus to pat Luigi's head while he's asleep. He reacts with either confusion or a smile and a hum.
• Agony of the Feet:
  • As per the series norm, jumping on a spike-covered enemy results in you taking damage rather than the target. A certain enemy also has a sneaky attack that superheats the ground after you dodge the initial fireball, still resulting in foot pain and a burn if you don't keep jumping.
  • Dreamy Bowser has an incredibly painful-looking variation if you reach the end of his chase attack.
• Airborne Mook: Some enemies fly and can't be hit with hammers or other ground-based attacks. A variation later in the game involves enemies appearing in the background where they cannot be attacked directly. The Taunt Ball item can either defeat them, provoke them into the foreground or provoke an attack that can let the Bros. do tons of damage via counter-attacks.
• All Just a Dream:
  • A version in a non-Dream World context at the beginning, with Luigi dreaming of Antasma attacking the Zeepelin and causing it to crash.
  • On Mount Pajamaja and its dream world version, there are fountains the Bros. can drink from. Doing so begins one of two dream sequences that end in a fake Game Over. One has the Mario Bros. gorging on mushrooms and growing bigger than the island, but then realizing they have no way to return to normal; the other is more benign, featuring the Bros. easily defeating Bowser and Antasma, while Pi'illo Island becomes a tourist hotspot.
• All There in the Manual: The names for the various Luiginary Works all come from Prima's Official Strategy Guide.
• Always Accurate Attack:
  • Strike Badge powers deal flat unblockable damage to either all enemies or just one, depending on what badge is paired with it.
  • The first laser/energy ball attack Robo-Drilldigger uses is unavoidable, with the game then using the damage taken from it as an excuse to teach you how to heal in giant battles.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Inverted. While the background itself is no slouch in the looks department, it is positively outshone by Dreamy Bowser, who is glowing in all colours after inhaling the remnants of the Dream Stone.
• Ambiguously Gay:
  • The Bedsmith. He desperately wants to "nap" on Prince Dreambert and even has hearts emitting from him on one occasion. Later on, seeing how the Mario Bros. get things done, he wants a reward for the things he's done in helping them... namely "napping" on the Mario Bros. Cue hilariously horrified expressions and Bedsmith's insistence that's it's just a Pi'illo expression...
  • A more straight (heh) example would be Dreamy Broque Monsieur, who claims Dreamy Luigi is a "dreamboat".
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Every area has Expert Challenges, including the early-game areas. If you fail to earn any "dodge attacks"-related challenges in an area before becoming too strong for the enemies there, you can use Boo Biscuits, which make the Bros. both take and deal zero damage and removes their ability to take their turns, allowing the enemies to do free attacks on the Bros. that count toward completing Expert Challenges.
  • If you fail certain Bros. or Luiginary Attacks enough times,^note  as in - if you missed the execution frames for the Attack, you will botch the move entirely and do no damage at all the game will offer to let it greatly slow down the animations during the most crucial moments of that move^note Much like the Level 1 version of the various Bros. Attacks from Superstar Saga with no penalty. This handicap makes it much easier to execute the moves successfully, and is especially helpful when using 'Luiginary Typhoon', which otherwise has an extremely strict execution window.
  • There's a very easy way to defeat Gold Beanies: enter the battle with Mario at low health, and simply have the Gold Beanie KO him. Purposely losing to this enemy gives you the option to restart the battle on 'easy mode' (which gives a massive boost to Mario's stats for that one battle), giving you a better chance to beat the Gold Beanie before it flees.
• Anvil on Head: Mario and Luigi can get boots or hammers that, when worn, may cause a giant iron ball to fall on an enemy that one of them attacks, dealing extra damage.
• Art Evolution:
  • The art style got even more vibrant and colorful for this game, perfectly reflecting the theme about dreams. The environment is now composed of polygonal models as well.
  • Animations, especially noticeable with the Mario Bros., have more frames, making them smoother. Characters also now have separate idle animations, instead of just using the first frame of their walking animation for all but a few characters like the previous games.
• The Artifact: This game introduces the ability to save the game at any time, rather than having to rely on a Save Block. However, Save Blocks are still present and serve the same function as usual, though this is most likely to still act as a sign that a boss fight is coming up.
• Art Shift: The Dream World has a flatter, more cartoony style with less shading.
• Ass Shove: Mario and Luigi free Boss Brickle, who is trapped on the center fountain of Mushrise Park, by unloading a powerful spray of water that ejects him out of the contraption. Brickle even says the water's going straight to his rump.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Giant battles return from the previous game, done with Dreamy Luigi instead of Bowser. You even fight Giant Bowser in this manner near the end, and he doesn't hesitate in calling Luigi out for copying him.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: When Bowser has been beaten and reverted back from Dreamy Bowser, Mario and Luigi give him one slam each with their hammers, and Mario does the last slam that sends Bowser flying .
• Bag of Spilling: The Mario Bros. have not retained any of their items or Bros. Attacks from Inside Story, as is usual for the series. However, Bowser has retained all of his abilities from the last game. Up to and including the ability to turn into a ball, which is one of his attacks during the Bowser and Antasma fight, his ability to turn giant (though only in the Dream World), and even the Vacuum Block ability, which ends up being the basis for the final boss of the game.
• Bandit Mook: The Bandits make their return in the game, being found in Dozing Sands and will try to steal coins from Mario, as well as Luigi, though this time they fight with bandaged smoke bombs and explosive cardboard copies, in addition to their fast stealing.
• Battle Theme Music: The game has two different battle themes depending on where you battle, either the real world, or the dream world. They're actually two different versions of the same track, though.
• Bee-Bee Gun: Beehosses, the living beehive enemies, return from Bowser's Inside Story and can now send entire swarms of bees at Mario and Luigi.
• Beef Gate: The Hermite Crabs in Mushrise Park, near the entrance to Wakeport, which appear as soon as you get the hammers (yes, you can fight them even before you get Bros. Items). The Toad even warns you that you'll get mugged if you try to take on these monsters at this point. Played with in that although the Hermite Crabs are much tougher than the Thorbs or Capnaps in the rest of Mushrise Park and can do a lot more damage, their attack patterns are pretty easy to figure out and dodge, and if you do a preemptive strike where there's just two of them and don't forget which coconut they're hiding under, they'll never attack because they'll waste their turn getting new coconuts to hide under. Plus you can level up so quickly that it's essentially a Disc-One Nuke against Grobot, Bowser and Antasma, and Torkscrew.
• Be the Ball: The Ball Hop has Mario and Luigi curl into a ball again, but this time they bounce instead of roll.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Antasma and Bowser team up early on. Near the end of the game, Bowser becomes the true Big Bad.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Mario's protective of Luigi as always. He's even pretty reluctant to use the Luiginoids as a Ball Hammer to smash large blocks until Dreamy Luigi convinces him to do so.
  • Luigi's got a Younger Brother Instinct going as well what with the Giant Battles and everything.
    Luigi: Big bro's in danger! Gotta save big bro!
  • They both show this in the final battle with Dreamy Bowser when he grabs one of them and throws them for the other to chase them until they catch the other. Another attack shows Mario's big brother instinct BIG TIME when Dreamy Bowser summons an airship to chase Luigi and Mario goes after it smashing the absolute crap out of it until it's destroyed, not to mention Mario giving an angry glare at the airship before it gives chase and if he doesn't destroy it.
• Big Damn Fire Exit: Averted, as opposed to Superstar Saga. Neo Bowser Castle has mostly collapsed when you try and escape, and there's no remaining path out. Thankfully, the Zeekeeper is there to save Mario and co when the last bit gives way.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • In an almost literal sense — just before Dreamy Mount Pajamaja runs over Mario, Luigi turns giant and sends him flying with a hammer swing.
  • Princess Peach and Starlow of all people get one right before the final battle with Bowser, when they combine their good feelings together into a pair of Frickin' Laser Beams to shatter the Dream Stone...too bad Bowser immediately turns around and inhales the Dream Stone fragments, turning into Dreamy Bowser.
  • The Zeekeeper, when he rescues Mario and Luigi from the crumbling castle. He lampshades it immediately afterwards.
• Big "WHAT?!": Starlow and Toadsworth get this after finding out that the Peach was a fake.
  Toadsworth: Master Mario! How fared you?
  Starlow: Did you hide her in a pleasant spot?
  * Mario explains to them*
  Toadsworth: Mm hmm... so Princess Peach was an impostor, was she?
  Starlow: Well, excellent news. It was a fake prin -
  Both: WHAAAAAAT?! SHE WASN'T REAL?!
• The Blacksmith: The Pi'illo equivalent is The Bedsmith. In fact, his name is Bedsmith.
• Bleak Level:
  • Dreamy Mount Pajamaja, on the summit. Bleak enough in itself (being the summit of an icy mountain), but even moreso in context. While you're in there, everyone in the real world is unconscious, and the portal back to the real world is sealed.
  • Dreamy Neo Bowser Castle. The regular Neo Bowser Castle has an exciting intensity to its ominousness that keeps it from being too eerie, but the Dream World equivalent has nightmarish chains and Bowser faces floating around and two musical tracks, a dirge-like one for the main portion and a harsh electronic one for Bowser's Dream, that give it a very sinister vibe.
• Block Puzzle: Several times in Dreamy Mt. Pajamaja, with an ice block. It's a standard platform in frozen form, but when the area gets thawed it melts into a water trampoline (that still retains its block shape) to reach higher areas. It can only be pushed by the Bros. when in frozen form.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: Damage dealt to the enemies or Bros. as a result of gear effects is delivered via sudden lightning strike. Even if you're fighting underground.
• Boss Bonanza: Neo Bowser Castle has three fights with Kamek and, later on, a gauntlet with Giant Bowser, Antasma and Dreamy Bowser. Luckily you can save in between, and you get healed before the Final Boss.
• Boss in Mook Clothing:
  • Pi'illodactyls in Mt. Pajamaja can become this if you provoke them with a Taunt Ball. They take a long time to defeat and can deal very powerful damage to the Mario Brothers. There's also a tougher variation later on in the game in Somnom Woods.
  • The Gold Beanie too, being the toughest non-boss enemy in the dream world. It even has its own chase attack (a sequence with Mario running to the foreground/background), which is usually only given to bosses. It's come quite a way since Superstar Saga.
• Boss Remix: Antasma's Leitmotif is remixed for the final battle with him, as well as the very first battle against him in the beginning of the game.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • This is the first game in the series where Bowser is actively the Final Boss.
  • This is also the first game in the series where the Once per Episode Wiggler Boss Fight doesn't take place in a forest, a tradition the sequel would return to.
  • This is also the first game where the Mario Bros aren't Swallowed Whole and have to fight inside the innards of a giant creature.
• Brick Joke:
  • Early on in the game, you can find a Toad talking to a staff member in a Zeekeeper costume, the former claiming that the latter is in a costume all the while the latter denying it. Later on, when you have the ability to get to the Pi'illo Castle Staff Room, you can talk to another guy in a Zeekeeper costume. Talk to him, and he'd ask you to help him zip up, only to realize that you're actually a guest and tells you to keep quiet about it.
  • At the beginning of the "Massif Brothers' Tour" arc, you find out that the Massif Brothers have long desired to gain enough muscles to break open the gate that's in front of them. When you free both gatekeeper Mega Pi'illos, they open the gate by...smashing them into pieces. Cue the Massif Brothers praising them and calling them "Muscle Lords" (all the while the Mega Pi'illos kept on insisting they're not "Muscle Lords").
  • An easy to miss brick joke involves the Shelltop cleaner in Pi'illoper's house. When you first encounter him, he claims he could've sworn the house had a basement at one point. When you finally find Pi'illoper by going to the second floor of his house, he promptly drops down to reveal the entrance to his basement (a pipe disguised as a table). Talking to the Shelltop again will cause him to comment on both the "secret basement" and the fact that there's people falling from the "second floor", causing him to essentially go "What's wrong with this house!?!".
• Broken Aesop:
  • Played for Laughs. The Zeekeeper refuses to piece the Dream Stone's dust back into its original form because he doesn't want people to use a trinket to get their jobs done for them... instead, he turns the dust into a massive Dream Coin that he breaks through to shower the island with coins, and then he adds that the money will pay for his illogical services for helping the heroes. Dreambert is crushed by this action.
  • The Zeekeeper also says that people shouldn't use the Dream Stone for material gain... right before he shouts how much he loves coins and uses up the Dream Stone to shower the island with money.
• Brown Note: The Dreambeats. Anyone who hears them that isn't a Pi'illo, Starlow or Antasma instantly falls into a deep sleep. Mario barely got out of it, Bowser simply covered his ears since he expected it, but Luigi wasn't so lucky, to the point of falling into a sleep so deep that the Dream Portal collapsed, trapping Mario in the Dream World he was hiding in.
• Buffy Speak: Dreambert's comment before the Earthwake battle is this. "Dreamy Luigi! Focus! Don't freak out! Be at one with defeating this giant... town... monster."
• Bullying a Dragon: Popple gets in a fight with a Wiggler and forces Mario and Luigi to help him. Throughout the fight, the Wiggler beats him up with a few of his attacks and Mario and Luigi beat him up when Popple tries to "help". After you beat the Wiggler, he decides to fight the ones who did all of the work to get them out of the way. Yeah, reeeaaalll smart there, Popple.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Many characters who only appeared in the first game in the series return, including Popple and some Beanbean Kingdom citizens, such as the Beanish folk. There are also the Yoshis, who missed the previous game. Kylie Koopa also makes a return.
  • We also have Toadsworth, who was absent from the Mario series as a whole since Bowser's Inside Story; and Bandits, which were last seen in Mario Party 8.
  • The game also features Hooskis, which strongly resemble Hoohooligans from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
• Cactus Person: Caccacs are humanoid cacti found in the Dozing Sands, which attack by tossing cactus parts at the bros.
• Catapult Nightmare: Upon waking from a nightmare where Antasma causes their Zeepelin to crash, Luigi shoots up and starts running in panic across the perfectly intact vehicle, only to fall off so hard that he conks out again. It was an epic nightmare though according to one of the Toads.
• Catching Some Z's: Luigi in the localization's boxart, as seen in this page's image.
• Cerebus Retcon: You were encouraged to point and laugh at Luigi when he was made out to be inferior to Mario in the previous installments. Dream Team will singlehandedly make you feel guilty for doing that.
• Character Customization: Limited, but whenever you rank up, you get to pick a trait that will stick on your character for that playthrough, with no way of changing it.
• Character Development: It's subtle, but Mario is getting more of it such as his reactions towards his brother, his shock upon being completely ripped off, and that Mario can act, how shall we say, in a less than heroic manner?
  Dreambert: Mario, I never knew you could be so... devious.
• Chain of Deals: In Wakeport, there's a Matchmaker Quest the Mario Bros. can do a for a Hooski named Hoolo. He wants something to propose to his girlfriend Hoola with, but the only thing he has is a plush Zeekeeper doll, which he thinks won't be to her taste. He gives this to the Bros., who can exchange it for a rare fruit, which can be traded for a Yoshi egg, which can be swapped for a photo of Princess Peach, and so on. This eventually ends with the Bros. receiving information about something a bird buried in the town; this turns out to be a ring that they can give back to Hoolo, who uses it to propose properly.
• Chekhov's Gun: The first door you find within the Dream World in Pi'illo Castle is locked. It plays a important role in the mid-game where it's revealed that behind the door is another section of Dream's Deep or, more specifically, the front of the Zeekeeper statue that details how one would summon him.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Downplayed with Dr. Snoozemore. He's mentioned (but doesn't appear) in the beginning, is dropped for a while, and then finally appears in the midgame and tells Mario and Co. about the Ultibed, but he still plays a relatively minor role.
• Chest Monster: The default appearance of the Dark Blocks in Dream's Deep is that of a black colored ?-block. When defeated, they turn yellow, making it safe for Mario to hit them normally.
• Climax Boss:
  • There's the Elite Trio, fought in Dreamy Driftwood Shore after the reveal that Peach was being impersonated and the real one was kidnapped all along.
  • Right before the end, you fight Antasma after Bowser reveals that he had the Dream Stone in his power and his betrayal of Antasma, thus becoming the true Big Bad.
• Cognizant Limbs:
  • Pi'illodium's wings. Taking them out causes Pi'illodium to drop to the ground and reduces its power and defense.
  • Dreamy Bowser's arms. You have to destroy the right arm otherwise he will shield damage to his head.
• Common Place Rare: Beans and Wellington Boots (Farmer Boots in the American Localization). Seriously, the only way to get the Pi'illo Island/Mushroom World version of a common real life food item is literally to dig up at random marked spots, kill rare enemies or equip the (equally rare compared to real life) Wellington Boots that let you grind them from normal enemies.
• Continuity Nod: Tons, not just to previous games such as the return of old characters like Beanbean Kingdom residents, but also to past (non-RPG) Mario games.
  • One NPC is singing a song whilst working in the desert, and mentions Donut Plains and Jolly Roger Bay in his song.
  • Bowser's portrayal in itself is a continuity nod to Bowser's Inside Story. Corporal Paraplonk, Private Goomp, and Sergeant Guy have all been made elites, and Bowser retains and uses all the abilities he had in that game — including the inhale ability and the power to grow giant (though it's only used in his dreams).
  • Also pertaining to Giant Bowser: instead of the usual transformation method, he is instead trying to grow giant in his dream by eating a lot of meat (and a bunch of background objects), but it just doesn't cut it before the Mario Bros. arrive. So he seemingly jumps off the wall to his death... and then you remember that a Near-Death Experience was the regular trigger for his supersizing.
    Bowser: Show time!
  • In the Giant Bowser battle, Giant Luigi can grab him by the tail, spin him around and throw him like in Super Mario 64.
  • Kamek acts as a decoy Peach, just like in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
  • Peach and Starlow retain their ability to use good feelings as a powerful weapon.
  • One to Luigi's Mansion and its sequel: one of the things Luigi says during the first visit to Dream's Deep is "I fight ghosts!"
  • The lanterns in the Underground Level areas are shaped like Lantern Ghosts.
  • It's possible to catch Broque Monsieur talking about his hatred of the Mario Brothers to his fellow Brocks because of the fact that they hit blocks and get their contents, thus devaluing them.
    • Another subtle nod to the above game: The poses the Bros. make after certain Bros. Attacks are the same ones they made when victorious in battles from Inside Story. Namely, their "level up" poses for the Bye-Bye Cannon, and their "battle victory" poses for the Star Rocket.
  • Dreamy Bowser can summon a number of dream-versions of his common mooks, which look exactly like the regular enemies, only given an overlaying color. Dreamy Goombas are blue.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Gold Beanies are immune to Luiginary Flame. Just Gold Beanies. All bosses take normal damage from it, and Gold Beanies themselves take normal damage/effects from everything else but Luiginary Flame.
• Conveniently Empty Building:
  • The villains demonstrate their newly gained power by blasting apart a number of small neighboring islands with no visible features and no mentions of casualties.
  • Similarly, it's very lucky that Dreamy Wakeport's buildings are deserted during the battle against Earthwake. Especially when you consider that the hammer uppercut sends Earthwake flying straight through a line of skyscrapers. Though, as a Dream World location, it's vague as to whether the buildings were ever occupied in the first place.
• Cool Airship: There are Airtubs as background enemies, manned by Shy Guys. Dreamy Bowser can create them, as well.
• Credits Medley: The credits theme uses the beginning of the real world's battle theme, as well as the themes of all of the levels besides Neo Bowser Castle before ending on the end of the battle theme.
• Creepy Crossdresser: When trying to hide Princess Peach in Dreamy Driftwood Shore, Kamek once again reveals himself as having dressed as Peach to fool the Bros.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The timing for Excellent Jump attacks has been changed since Bowser's Inside Story.
• Deal with the Devil: Why Bowser and Antasma team up. While Antasma (and many M&L veterans) thought he was the devil in the deal, he finds out all too late that it was Bowser all along.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If you are knocked out in a battle, you are given the option to try it again, even on easy mode if you so want to, without having to go back to your last save point. In Giant battles, you can retry as often as you want but there is no easy mode available. Averted on Hard Mode, where dying sends you back to whenever you last saved.
• Death Throws: Enemies that you walk into while Mario's standing on some Luiginoids will do this instead of causing you to enter a battle screen.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Almost everything Dreamy Luigi does affects the real Luigi in some way. Every time Dreamy Luigi jumps (not Mario; just him), the real Luigi's eyebrows jump with it. This occurs even in cutscenes.
  • Almost every NPC in the entire game, assuming they didn't leave first, had their dialog changed to accommodate them noticing Neo Bowser Castle appearing within the sky and the fact that it destroyed the neighboring smaller islands.
  • If you already hit a Camera Block before you start Kylie Koopa's side quest involving said Camera Blocks, she'll comment about this.
  • Luiginary Wind can move blocks from the background to the foreground. If the move were to cause one of the background blocks to move into Mario, it would push Mario into the foreground, only for him to literally jump back into the playfield soon after. (This is the only time one can get to see Mario doing this).
  • If you destroy every one of a Beehoss' bees (by doing the risky move of stomping them when the Beehoss sends them out to attack due to said bees retaliating with an unavoidable attack when you manage to take out some of their brethren), the Beehoss will flee due to it being robbed of its only method of attacking.
  • Halfway during Kamek's second fight, Kamek will summon some Dry Bones to take you on while he heals in the background. You're supposed to take out the Dry Bones first (or else you can't attack him directly), but if you're wise enough to try to use a Taunt Ball on Kamek, the game will allow you to do so...only for Kamek to briefly appear in the foreground to state that his Dry Bones are fully capable of defeating you before he goes back to the background.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Zeekeeper battle. To wit: The Zeekeeper is heavily implied to be a Physical God. It can shoot powerful energy blasts, lay explosive eggs, rip open dimensional rifts, and other god-like powers. Luigi manages to defeat him with nothing but jumping, his hammer, a bunch of tree stumps and sheer determination. He even manages to keep up with the god-bird... WHILE ON FOOT.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • Luiginary Wall is tricky to master, but if you do, it can deal more damage than Luiginary Hammer or even the ultimate move, Luiginary Typhoon, can do.
  • Jet Board Bash can be absolutely DEVASTATING to a powerful enemy or even a boss, possibly dealing even more damage than a Zee Egg and Star Rocket, but at the cost of less BP than the former. However, it's not THAT difficult to use, and even if you mess up the timing a little bit, it'll still do at least twice as much damage as a successful Bros. shell, unlike attacks like the Slingsniper, which are all-or-nothing.
• Disc-One Nuke: The Birthday Hammer is the second reward from Eldream's Collection Sidequest, given at a mere seven Pi'illos rescued, a number that you'll be able to reach easily in the next area. This increases your hammer-strike power by 400% on your birthday, and there's nothing stopping you from changing what date you have your birthday listed as in the 3DS's settings.
• Dismantled Macguffin: The Ultibed, which is needed to wake the Zeekeeper. Its components are scattered throughout Pi'illo Island. And then you also have to find the Bedsmith, the only one capable of putting the pieces together.
• Disney Villain Death: You are led to believe that Bowser falls to his death in his dream while furiously searching for food to grow. The cutscene ends for a split second before Giant Bowser emerges.
• Divergent Character Evolution:
  • Mario and Luigi once again have unique special attacks, after sharing specials in the last two games. The only special attack used by both is the basic shell attack, which is a red shell for Mario and a green shell for Luigi, but even that works slightly different depending on the character: Mario's is aimed at the initially targeted enemy until it dies while Luigi's hits random targets.
  • You can enforce this for Mario and Luigi through the ranking system, picking bonuses that the other brother does not have such as HP increases and so on.
  • As usual for the series, the Bros.' stats develop differently by nature, such as Luigi having greater defensive and 'stache stats than Mario at the cost of having lower speed and offensive stats (AKA ATK and Bros. Points). Level-up bonuses and beans can be used to balance this out or to specialize them more as the player wishes.
• Double-Edged Buff: The Boo Biscuit makes the Mario Bros. invincible but prevents them from dealing damage. This is best used for practicing dodging and countering attacks.
• Double Take:
  • Upon first encountering Dreamy Luigi in Dreamy Pi'illo Castle, Mario simply nods at his younger brother and keeps walking into the level... only to turn back around and realize that, from his own perspective at least, there's no logical reason for Luigi to be following him in Luigi's own dream.
  • When Dreamy Luigi first goes giant, he looks down at his own hand in a rather indifferent fashion... then a couple seconds later, he realizes how big he's gotten and starts to panic.
  • Starlow and Toadsworth after finding out that Peach was really Kamek in disguise in Driftwood Shore.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: The Rookie Gloves allow you to use Bros./Luiginary Attacks without using any BP, as long as you don't get a Excellent score.
• Dream Land: The main setting aside from the real world.
• Dream Sue: Dreamy Luigi is slightly...different then he is in the real world. A bit taller and a bit more handsome, and his 'stache has a sort of "oomph" to it that the real Luigi's doesn't. He's a dreamboat, as Dreamy Broque Monsieur might say. A Downplayed example, however, as Dreamy Luigi quickly proves to be the same Lovable Coward we all know and love.
• Dream Walker: Mario journeys through Luigi's dreams, assisted by Dreamy Luigi, Luigi's dream self.
• Dream Weaver: Luigi himself can manipulate the environment to help Mario through outside intervention by Starlow, help Mario directly through the same method, split himself up into many Luigis, turn into a towering giant, and give Mario an attack boost and access to "Luiginary" special attacks while in his dreams.
• Dream Within a Dream:
  • Mount Pajamaja has a fountain of technicolor "magic water" that puts Mario and Luigi to sleep, giving a text description of their dreams. Its dream world counterpart has one too, thus giving a use of this trope.
  • During the final fight with Antasma in the Dream World, if you fail to dodge his bat swarm, Mario can fall asleep and has to dodge another attack until he can find a portal that lets him wake up.
• Dual-World Gameplay: Pi'illo Island and the Dream World. The part of the Dream World the Bros. end up visiting depends on where exactly Luigi falls asleep, except that there are no dream world versions of the treasure caves.
• Dungeon Town: While the main portion of Wakeport is rather non-dangerous, the outlying sections and the Dream World feature plenty of monsters and puzzles.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Easy Mode is present here but it's only if the player goes down in a battle (which means that it is naturally inaccessible during the tutorial fight against Antasma and Beef Cloud's boss battle) and just makes the Mario Bros. stronger during the retry of the fight and is unavailable during Hard Mode, Dreamy Luigi Giant Battles or the Battle Ring. Paper Jam and the remakes of the first and third games would make Easy Mode a switchable option to make the Mario Bros (as well as Paper Mario and Bowser in their games) stronger while making enemies weaker.
• Eldritch Location: Dream's Deep. While the other Dream World areas are quite bright and cheery versions of their real-world counterparts, Dream's Deep is a deep and dark location full of no special gimmicks. It is literally the Dream World's representation of subconsciousness itself.
• End-Game Results Screen: A pretty detailed one shows up after the credits. As a nice bonus, it's set to a soothing music box version of the main theme.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: The result of Bowser agreeing to help Antasma attain power. Antasma, Bowser is not a toy!
• Evil Overlooker: Antasma on the cover. Though not in gigantic head as per the norm, but as a bat.
• Experience Booster: One rank effect, some gear, one badge effect.
• Exposition Fairy:
  • Starlow returns from Bowser's Inside Story as one of the two main fairies, though she's quite a bit more cynical than last time.
  • Prince Dreambert is the other fairy, who is much more direct and eloquent.
• Expressive Mask: Pi'illoper's mask within the dream world animates as if it really is part of his face (in other words, it expresses his emotions). Justified in that it's implied this Pi'illoper is his "dream self". Or rather, what he himself wishes to be^note In the real world, he collects a magazine dedicated towards anything related to the Pi'illo folk. In the dream world, he's a writer for said magazine. Averted with the real world's equivalent of him, for which his mask's simply a simple non-expressive mask.

F-N

• Face Fault: All of the time. Mario and Luigi even have a unique animation for it. One scene has them do several in a row in reaction to a character making some bad puns.
• Fake Special Attack: When you encounter the Elite Trio in Neo Bowser Castle, they panic for a moment before using their special move: "LETHAL RETREAT!"
• Finishing Move: Giant Luigi battles end using a special move called Finishing Bros. Dreamy Luigi jumps into the sky to retrieve a star. Mario hops on as Luigi throws it at the boss, allowing Mario to guide it into the enemy for the final hit.
• Fission Mailed: Drinking from the fountain at Mt. Pajamaja triggers a cutscene where Mario and Luigi fall into a deep sleep, wake up, discover a huge mushroom patch and begin munching on them. They grow huge, unable to return to normal. Game Over. Until Dreambert wakes them.
• Flat "What": Starlow uses one of these in response to another absurd statement from the Massifs in Mount Pajamaja.
  Big Massif: BEEF!
  Li'l Massif: FOR!
  Big Massif: TWO!
  Both: BEEF STEW!
  Starlow: What.
• Flunky Boss:
  • Just about every normal Dream World boss is this or a variant, thanks to how attacks work in the Dream World. Dreamy Bowser also counts, with his ability to summon Dreamy versions of the Koopa Troop.
  • Big Massif fights with smaller versions of himself.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Why is it that, for being the main antagonist, Antasma has little to no direct conflict with the Mario Bros., while Bowser and his minions are constantly stirring up trouble? Furthermore, Bowser's visage is all over Neo Bowser Castle, and even the name of the place; why does Antasma get such little emphasis? Because he isn't the main antagonist.
  • When Antasma first teams up with Bowser he outright states his intentions for teaming up with Bowser, albeit in a way that makes it easily overlooked. "I vanted to steal Peach's power...But I changed my mind! You are much stronger...and evil!" Is it any wonder Bowser ended up playing him for the fool?
  • As a non-villainous example, most Dream World counterparts of NPCs are able to go from place to place via teleporting, save for the tour guide in Dreamy Wakeport, who has to run around on foot to keep up with the Bros. Because he's not a Dream World counterpart at all; he's just the dreamy avatar of Big Massif in disguise. He can't teleport any more than Dreamy Luigi can.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Big Massif and his Hooraw disciples. Sorrow Fist (melancholic), Beef Cloud (phlegmatic), Heavy Zest (sanguine), Thunder Sass (choleric), and Big Massif (leukine).
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: More than one player has noticed symptoms of drowsiness while listening to the Dreambeats; see for instance this LP video, about 12 minutes in.
• From Cataclysm to Myth: Mention is made early on of the cataclysm that caused the Pi'illo Kingdom to vanish far in the past, and that it's still not known exactly what happened. Dreambert provides more details on this once you meet him.
• From Nobody to Nightmare:
  • Antasma used to be a normal bat living on Pi'illo Island before he started eating nightmares to become a Sorcerous Overlord.
  • Bowser goes from being the sideshow who was only there to kidnap Peach and add comic relief to the game's Big Bad who very nearly succeeds at his conquest goals.
• Fusion Dance:
  • The Power Booster kind; when battling in the dream world, Dreamy Luigi sort of disappears into Mario, leaving a green glow around Mario. The effect is that the brothers get only one turn, but also a huge boost in attack power and turning all attacks into herd hitting attacks.
  • Antasma and Bowser pull the same trick during the first Bowser battle; Bowser gets a purple aura, and lots of Antasma clones appear for certain attacks.
  • Giant Luigi is created from hundreds of Luiginoids.
• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • It's possible to have the game completely fail to register gyroscope input during the Zeekeeper and Giant Bowser battles. This pretty much makes them impossible until the game decides to work correctly, since these battles both have parts which have Luigi moved by the gyro only, as mentioned here. Fortunately, this has been mostly fixed by a later update; it can still happen, but far more rarely.
  • If you downloaded it off of the eShop, it is very possible for the save file to randomly become corrupted, forcing you to start all over.
• Genius Loci:
  • The boss of the Dream World version of Mount Pajamaja is... Mount Pajamaja. The volcano itself is sapient and wants to kill you.
  • Earthwake is a partial example; it's made of the buildings of Dreamy Wakeport, though it's more of a Humongous Mecha controlled by a single computer than a living location.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: The Zeekeeper fight consists entirely of you attacking it while chasing it down.
• Giant Flyer: The Pi'illodactyls, as well as the Zeekeeper.
• Green Hill Zone: Mushrise Park is a natural outdoors area with trees, flowers, hills, bridges, fountains, and ponds to look at. As a park, the setting is cultivated by Brickle and his team of Brocks to look as nice as possible.
• Grin of Audacity: Luigi sports one in his sleep right before the final Giant Battle in a display of Character Development. Even Starlow notices that he's exuding confidence.
• Group Picture Ending: One's shown at the end of the credits montage, with the friendly NPCs in it. The other is shown after the ending/results screen when you finish Hard Mode, and has all the important characters and bosses in it.
• Hailfire Peaks: Mt. Pajamaja is a regular mountain but it is half covered with snow and is full of lava. Dreamy Mt. Pajamaja plays this straight because it can be changed from icy to fiery or vice versa at the push of a button.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The first battle with Bowser. At the end of the fight, he doesn't explode into sparkles like other bosses; instead, the fight ends when you pop Antasma out of Bowser, ending the Fusion Dance followed by a "SCREEK!" by Antasma. Their health depleted and realizing they can't win against you in their normal forms, he and Antasma simply leap offscreen, ending the battle. Afterward, Antasma uses his remaining power to power up Bowser, who knocks the Bros. out with his super fire breath before they escape.
• Healing Boss:
  • Beef Cloud doesn't attack, instead healing himself for a small amount every five seconds in real-time. The goal is to deal so much damage, he can't sleep anymore and then finish him off.
  • One of Dreamy Bowser's moves during the final battle has him going into the background and summoning Dreamy Goombas, Dreamy Paratroopas, Dreamy Bob-ombs and Dreamy Shy Guys to attack while he summons endless piles of meat to heal his head and arms.
• Heavy Sleeper:
  • While Luigi is asleep, Starlow can tickle his nose, pull on his moustache, and even knock his hat over his eyes. He doesn't appear to be disturbed from his sleep despite this. The fact that he also appears to be able to fall asleep at the drop of a hat shows how easy it is for him to fall asleep as well.
  • Luigi apparently likes being petted on his face as well, making a rather pleased sound. Go figure.
  • Beef Cloud, too. In battle, all he does is sleep to heal himself every five seconds — in real-time.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": The Bedsmith's name appears to actually be Bedsmith, just because of how good a bedsmith he is.
• HP to One: Non-attack example: The Badge Combo Risk + Starter Badge will either do this or do a full heal.
• Human Snowball: Mario and Luigi get turned into one these escaping the erupting Mt. Pajamaja.
• Humongous Mecha: Robo-Drilldigger and Earthwake, two of giant Luigi's foes.
  • Robo-Drilldigger is a robot seemingly formed from a large amount of mining equipment, which has been weaponized to attack the Mario Bros. by the Dream Stone's spirit.
  • Earthwake is a collection of buildings in a generally humanoid shape, which is capable of shapeshifting into a hammer or adding on more buildings to use as armor.
• Hypocritical Humor: At the end of the game, the Zeekeeper's message about being less materialistic is a little ruined by how much he clearly loves coins.
• Ill-Timed Sneeze: While in the real world, Luigi has an ill-timed sneeze that causes the boss of Mount Pajamaja to wake up.
• Improbable Power Discrepancy:
  • Considering their species, Goombas in this game are kind of stronger than usual, being mid/late game enemies instead of weak ones. In fact, all of the usual Bowser Minions don't show up until about halfway into the game.
  • Hermite Crabs, which have two different species, are absolutely tiny... but surprisingly tough when they do attack.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Star Rocket and Zee Egg, the last two Bros. Attacks. On the one hand, they're found quite out the way, with the former being hidden in the final dungeon and the latter requiring you to save all 52 Pi'illos first. On the other hand, they're by far the best weapons/attacks in the game, ludicrously easy to use and able to make every other attack you have obsolete immediately (especially with the Casual Bros. rank up choice). Bowser Jr. can steal these away from you though.
• Interface Screw:
  • At one point in Dreamy Mt. Pajamaja, the screen starts becoming covered with snow. You need to use a recently learned Luiginary Tornado in order to clear the screen so that you can see what you're doing.
  • Apart from the fake Game Over, a minor one occurs after Bowser in the Dream World fakes out, and Antasma flips the screen during one of his attacks.
  • The Inky Piranha Plants from Super Mario 3D Land once again spit ink during battles in Neo Bowser Castle, interfering with enemies like Fire Bros.
• Inventory Management Puzzle:
  • Hard Mode's item restrictions. Not as bad as many games (it's a fixed limit of 10 of each item rather than 10 items total), but it still means the likes of Taunt Balls, Refreshing Herbs and other such 'one type' items are easy to run out of.
  • The Battle Ring gives you a very stingy preset list of items to use against bosses, meaning that you'd better not mess up too often.
• It Amused Me: The events at Driftwood Shore only transpire the way they do because Kamek wanted to mess with the Bros., for kicks (he actually did say the latter two words to drive the point home).
• Jerkass: The Dream Stone's Spirit. So you just want some information on where the real world Dream Stone is. Well, he'd be happy to...NOT TELL YOU! You still insist? SHADDUP! SHADDUP! GO TO SHADDUPVILLE! Oh, you've bumped into it with a Luigi stack? GET THE BIG GUNS OUT! At least until you kick his backside upon which it will finally, finally divulge the secret with "big green".
• Jive Turkey: The Mad Skillathon's host is probably one of the more egregious examples of this in the Mario series.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: The basic premise.
• Kaizo Trap:
  • If you are in a battle with some Fire Bros. with one brother down and the other on very low health, then you can still be KO'ed even if you defeat the Fire Bros. One attack launches a fireball in the air that falls down later. It will fall down no matter what and could very well knock you out if you're low on health and do not counter it.
  • If you're battling Hermite Crabs with one bro and said crab throws its shell up in the air, you can defeat the crab but if you're not careful, you can still potentially be knocked out by the shell.
  • Pi'llodium activates a self-destruct when his health is low, which could result in this if neither bro survives the explosion.
  • If you successfully dodge Bowser Jr's version of the Border Jump, he'll kick the Shy Guys away. Those Shy Guys are actually flying toward Mario and Luigi, so you need to dodge them, too.
• Kill Sat: Neo Bowser Castle has one and demonstrates it in the first minutes after first appearing.
• Large Ham: Oh, so very much with Big Massif and Lil' Massif, the tour guides for Mount Pajamaja, with their constant references to BEEFY MUSCLES! and being PRIME CUTS OF STEAK! They even mention "HUGE HAM", which is possibly lampshading it.
• Last Lousy Point
  • For the Expert Challenges, Monolift R can be this. They're only found in the area of Pajamaja that leads to the Pajamaja Rock Frame, relatively tiny compared to the main area. They also seem to have an uncommon spawn rate compared to Viruses in that zone, so if you accidentally kill it without getting the No Hitter or kill it on purpose thinking you can just find more, you'll have to backtrack there for the sole purpose of getting that challenge cleared.
  • Shy Guy and Shy Guy Airtub Rs are only found in just about the very last area of the very last dungeon in the real world, and have a spawn rate as low as or even lower than the normal Airtubs. Plus, the attack they launch when you hit them with a Taunt Ball is extremely difficult to dodge perfectly as it is much faster than the same attack with the normal airtubs, meaning you'll likely have to find at least two of them to get those last 10 points.
• Lethal Lava Land: Dreamy Mt. Pajamaja if the sun is turned up.
• Light Is Not Good: The Dream Stone is said to be powered by good and benevolent dreams, as opposed to the nightmares that powered the Dark Stone. But it's still designed to grant wishes regardless of whether they're good or evil, and is used to that end by Antasma and Bowser. What's more, its spirit in the Dream World is a cranky and unhelpful Jerkass with few redeemable qualities.
• Little Miss Snarker: Starlow plays this role once again. She will let NPCs know if she thinks something they say is stupid or ridiculous and then, and then there is her hilarious reaction to being told that she is nude...
  Starlow: OPEN YOUR EYES! I have SHOES!
  Pi'illo: Just shoes?
• Little "No": Played for laughs when Mario and Dreamy Luigi meet Seatoon, who's convinced that the two, plus Dreambert, are the heroes on his favorite TV show and ask to see their transformation poses.
  *Mario spins around and does an Item Get! pose*
  Seatoon: ...No. Not right AT ALL!
• Load-Bearing Boss: The final boss.
• Long Song, Short Scene: A cover of Peach's Castle is played at the beginning of the game and is never heard in the game again, unless you start a new file.
• Lone Wolf Boss: Grobot, Torkscrew, Drilldigger, Big Massif, Mammoshka, Mount Pajamaja, Wiggler, Popple, Pi'llodium, Zeekeeper... about half your opponents are just jerks or characters with no real connection to the Big Bad.
• The Lost Woods: Somnom Woods.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase:
  • Dreambert's "Be at one with __________!"
  • Bedsmith's "BEDSMITH! IS! ________!"
• Magic Music: The Dreambeats. No ordinary person can resist sleeping when they hear them. The only characters shown to be immune are Antasma, Starlow, and Prince Dreambert. Luigi, who is the characters' portal to the Dream World, is even more affected by the Dreambeats than the rest, as shown when the portal out of the Dream World collapses, temporarily trapping the team inside Luigi's dream. Even Mario is affected, though he manages to resist it long enough to avoid falling asleep. Bowser, while not immune, simply covers his ears.
• Magikarp Power: The Expert gear starts out rather weak, but gets stronger as you progress through the game and complete Expert Challenges, eventually becoming some of the strongest gear in the game.
• Make My Monster Grow: Bowser uses several of his usual methods during his boss fight: eating meat, having a near-death experience, and calling upon Kamek. And they stack. What's the final result of this, you may ask? You know how standard Giant Bowser's usually around as tall as his castle in these games? Multiply that size by about five. Giant Luigi is barely up to the largest form's knee; "Giant Giant Bowser" could probably body slam a city.
• The Man Behind the Man: Bowser was simply using Antasma for his own ends from the beginning.
• Marathon Level: Actually invoked; Dreamy Driftwood Shore is not as large as other Dream areas, but the bros make it their mission to expand it multiple times in order to hide Peach.
• Mega-Microbes: The Dr. Mario viruses. They are absolutely huge compared to the size a virus should be.
• Me's a Crowd: While journeying through Luigi's dreams, Mario can be assisted by an army of Luigis called Luiginoids, either in the field when using a constellation Luiginary Work or in battle.
• Mercy Mode:
  • The game will offer to make battles easier if you keep on getting knocked out.
  • If you keep on failing the Star Driver in the final Giant Luigi battle, the game will offer to make the dodging sequence visually easier.
• Meta Twist: No, Bowser does not get betrayed by Antasma when he outlives his usefulness. It's the other way around for once.
• Metal Slime: The Gold Beanie is this proper in this game. Two things make it easier to defeat, though: perfectly countering its attacks will prevent it from running away, and letting it defeat Mario will allow fighting it in Easy Mode, which will forfeit all experience and most of the money, but will still grant its Rare Candy drop.
• Mini-Game: Several are part of the main story line, such as the drilldigger. And then there's Kylie Koopa's photo puzzles, which are optional, but net you some beans.
• Money Spider: Best not to think about how defeating the likes of Mount Pajamaja gives you a human-sized pair of gloves, a couple of thousand coins and some edible items. Or why the items dropped by the monsters and bosses all come in a nice gift box with a ribbon and bow, including Antasma.
• Moral Myopia: Played for Laughs. After Mario and Luigi take back the Driftwood Jellyfish Sheets thanks to Starlow and Dreambert distracting the Fly Guy R Thieves, the Fly Guy Rs accuse Mario and Luigi of being thieves. Cue Dreambert and Starlow pointing out the Fly Guy Rs are clearly the thieves first.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • One concept art piece◊ depicts a ferocious Bowser triumphantly stomping a pillow. And not one of the Pi'illo folk, either, but a regular white pillow.
  • Luigi sleeps for the majority of the game. This is actually a good thing, however - it not only allows Mario to enter the dream world (because Luigi just happens to have the same wavelength as that of a Pi'illo which allows "dream portals" to appear when he sleeps on one), it also allows Dreamy Luigi, Luigi's dream self, to accompany and help Mario on his journey. Dreamy Luigi's powers borders on supernatural — he can possess various things, many of which allows him to influence the environment when Starlow does something with his sleeping body. During dream world combat, Dreamy Luigi instead possesses Mario, giving him the ability to summon both holographic and normal Luigi clones that turn all his moves into Herd Hitting Attacks. Lastly, he can grow big in order to take on ginormous foes that threaten him and his brother.
• Mushroom Samba: Mario and Luigi come across a spring of "magic water" on Mt. Pajamaja. Should you choose to drink from it, they instantly fall asleep and we're treated to a trippy description of their dream, which involves a field of mushrooms, culminating in a fake Game Over.
• Musical Nod:
  • "Sunny Driftwood Shore" is a remix of "Oho Oasis" from Superstar Saga.
  • Bowser's theme is the same as the one he had in Bowser's Inside Story, but sounds more sinister and has ominous chanting.
• Mythology Gag:
  • After passing the first elevator in Neo Bowser Castle there are four coloured tiles, which are Yellow, Red, Blue and Green clockwise, the colours of the Super Nintendo controller (when viewed at a 90 degree angle). This is the only time these four colours are together, and the only time they're arranged as such.
  • Kamek's third and final battle has him generate three magic-imbued clones of himself: a red one that focuses on attacking, a green one that applies defensive buffs, and a white one that heals its teammates, just like the colored Magikoopas from Paper Mario.
• Never Say "Die":
  • Averted with Britta. She appears to be dying after being spat up by Torkscrew and as her workers crowd around her, the screen goes black and depressing music plays, only for her to shout "I AIN'T DEAD!"
  • Played straight later on with the Zeekeeper talking about leading you into the light and Bowser wanting to make the Mario Bros. "disappear", or at least cooked to a golden brown.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: The fact that Kylie Koopa's a guidebook writer in this game instead of a reporter like in Partners in Time is Handwaved as her having so many jobs within her lifetime that she doesn't remember everything she did.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Dream portals appear above Luigi's head if he sleeps on a Pi'illo because, by sheer coincidence, he happens to have the same wavelength as them when it comes to sleeping.
• No Cure for Evil: Averted. Three out of five giant bosses and every normal boss from the Elite Trio onwards can heal, and for a significant amount of their health. This includes Antasma and both Giant and Dreamy Bowser.
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: Attempted during the Final Boss. Dreambert has Starlow and Peach destroy the Dream Stone, declaring that it's better for it to be destroyed than for Bowser to use its power for his plans any longer. It backfires; Bowser inhales the fragments and becomes Dreamy Bowser.
• No Man Should Have This Power: When Antasma was about to be sealed in the Dream World in the past, he destroyed the Dark Stone as a final curse on the Pi'illo, petrifying them all. Peach and Starlow later do this to the Dream Stone in an attempt to save Mario and Luigi from Bowser wishing them away, but then he inhales the fragments, and absorbs all the power. Dreambert tries to have it restored afterwards, but the Zeekeeper instead uses up all of its power to make millions of coins, saying it's for the best.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Dark Blocks are the only 3D enemies in the entire game that aren't fought in Giant Battles. Justified because they're Chest Monsters in the style of the classic Mario blocks (which are 3D within this game).
• Noodle Incident: An NPC's dialogue mentions that they never look at the sky since "the incident", and doesn't elaborate on what this was.
  Dozing Sands Worker: I keep hearing loud noises coming from the sky! Is something up there? See, I don't look at the sky anymore. Not after... the incident.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Your first visit to Dream's Deep has no enemies besides Bowser and Antasma.

O-Y

• An Odd Place to Sleep: Very few of the Pi'illos are located anywhere near a bed, leading to some interesting sleeping conditions for Luigi.
• Oh, Crap!: A Paratroopa has one when Bowser, in his dream, appears to have jumped to his doom. Veterans of Bowser's Inside Story will probably also be making this expression, but for a different reason.
• Older Than They Look: Kylie Koopa appears not to have aged at all since the past portion of Partners in Time.
• Ominous Floating Castle: Neo Bowser Castle. By the time you storm it, it's ceased floating though.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: The music heard in the Dream World version of Neo Bowser Castle contains this. Bonus points for being able to speed up or slow down the chanting in one of the dream worlds.
• One to Million to One: Antasma can split apart into a swarm of many bats (He can also do this when "bat" is his default state, making it more akin to Me's a Crowd in those cases), and then reform into his normal form. Notably, jumping on and destroying the bats during this attack will deduct from Antasma's HP.
• One-Winged Angel:
  • For the final boss battle, Bowser inhales the fragments of the shattered Dream Stone to become Dreamy Bowser, a giant, technicolor-glowing Reality Warper version of himself with the Dream Stone on his forehead and chest.
  • Antasma takes on five different forms over the course of the game; a ball of vapor, a pillow, a bat (or bats), his human-sized true form, and the true use of this trope for his battle form.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Luigi is the only one who can open portals to the Dream World by sleeping on the magic pillows, because he's connected to their power.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: Giant Bowser gets even bigger after seemingly being defeated, dwarfing even Giant Luigi.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Antasma is awfully similar to a Classical Movie Vampire without actually being a vampire. This includes the wardrobe, the fangs, the Vampire Vords, and the bat association. Certain translations base his name on "Count" and/or "Dracula," and his battle music even sounds like something that wouldn't be too out of place in a Castlevania game.
• Out-Gambitted : When Bowser gets access to the wish-granting Dream Stone, the protagonists immediately conclude he'll go after Peach again and set off to hide her in the dream world. Unfortunately, they're too late; Peach was swapped out with a disguised Kamek at some point beforehand.
• Overshadowed by Awesome:
  • Luiginary Stack, which is made completely pointless the minute you get Luiginary Hammer (and anything else afterwards).
  • The Fire Flower Bros. Attack which is inferior to everything else for single enemies and outclassed by a massive degree in every respect by the Zee Egg. Fire Flower is, however, excellent for dealing with the Beehoss enemies of Somnom Woods, which have a weakness to fire.
• "Pachelbel's Canon" Progression: The background music for Pi'illo Castle, Mushrise Park, and Rose Broquet all feature variations on this progression.
• Palmtree Panic: Driftwood Shore is a fairly natural sandy beach area. There's also rotating rafts to sleep on, which allow gravity to be shifted in Dreamy Driftwood Shore. Durapurl and Hermite Crab R, two of the enemies here, are also based on clams and crabs respectively, two things associated with beaches.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: The entrance to Wakeport can easily be this, especially on Hard Mode. Why? Because it has Hermite Crabs you can fight the minute you enter the Mushrise Park area, which give you much more experience than the stuff found in Mushrise Park or Dozing Sands itself. Very useful if you want to level grind past the point you're supposed to be at.
• Permanently Missable Content: The 1-Up Gloves are the only missable item in the game. They're a 50% drop from Mammoshka.
• Plot Coupon: The Dream Stone. It used to be one of a pair, but long ago, Antasma stole the Dark Stone, and broke it when the Pi'illos had him cornered, which resulted in them being petrified and Antasma being trapped in the Dream World. Both stones are able to grant wishes, which is why Antasma wants them.
• Plot Tunnel: The Dreampoint segment of Dreamy Mount Pajamaja. The dream portal closes and traps you there until you beat the boss (who happens to be a living copy of the mountain itself).
• "Pop!" Goes the Human: After you defeat Antasma, he swells up bit by bit and eventually explodes in the post-battle cutscene.
• Port Town: Wakeport is a town set on the west of the island, near and above the ocean waters. This area has very little fighting, and a lot of exploring on the streets and atop the buildings. There's item and gear shops, houses and hotels to stay in, and a gathering place for events, alongside bridges and paths above the waters and a handful of ancient ruins that have been left untouched.
• Power Glows: The Final Boss, Dreamy Bowser, is a very shiny array of colors much unlike the normal Bowser.
• Punny Name: The entire Mario & Luigi series thrives on this, aside from the obvious:
  • Mammoshka, which combines "mammoth" with "matryoshka".
  • The previous inhabitants of this island are called Pi'illo. They got turned into pillows. Also, the island's tourism, when not about sightseeing, is about being able to sleep well.
  • The two pairs of larger than normal, Mega Pi'illos you rescue are named Phil and Lowe (pillow) and Cush and Shawn (cushion).
• Random Effect Spell:
  • The Risk Badge, befitting its name, can be a gamble when paired up with other badges. With the Starter Badge, it either fully heals the Bros. or drops them to one health. With the Master Badge, it either fills the Badge Meter or empties it. With the Expert Badge, it gives everyone a 50% chance of taking enough damage to go down instantly. With the Bronze Badge, it gives everyone in the fight a random status effect.
  • The Secret Box items are a random effect ITEM. You use a nondescript box with a ? mark on it, and something random happens in battle. Could be good (healing both bros, doing huge damage to enemies), could be bad (healing enemies) or it could be plain suicide (wipes out everything on the field including your playable characters in a one-hit kill).
• Reality Warper: After inhaling the Dream Stone, Bowser can basically do whatever the hell he wants. Portals? Child's play. Creating dark vortexes? Comes standard. Duplicating himself for a pincer attack? A nonissue. Generating airships and minion swarms from nothing to assail you? Of course! Poofing up piles of meat to heal himself? Would you have it any other way?
• Recurring Boss:
  • Antasma is battled three times. Once in Luigi's dream at the very beginning, a second time fused with Bowser in Dream's Deep, and one final time at the end.
  • Bowser is also fought three times. The first being the aforementioned battle in Dream's Deep, the second time as the fifth and final giant battle, and the third time as Dreamy Bowser, the final boss.
  • Kamek is, again, fought three times. All three fights take place in the final dungeon, and only in the third do you truly beat him.
• Red Herring:
  • During your first trek through Pi'illo Blimport, Broque Monsieur is suddenly seen with a dark purple aura and an angry scowl as he sics several Grombas at the Mushroom Kingdomites while threatening the new guests. Has he suddenly been bewitched or possessed by Antasma to be used as a puppet to attack our heroes? Nope, turns out this was all just another part of the welcoming festivities, and he apparently got that purple aura for no real reason. Or at least, he thinks so. There's a bit of a Call-Back to this in the dream world where his dreamy counterpart releases the first dream monster you battle in an almost identical fashion (although this time he's doing it to train you, and there's no purple aura).
  • Antasma actually looks like a cross between previous Mario & Luigi antagonists, all of whom hijacked the Big Bad role from Bowser, so you'd expect him to be the biggest threat in the game, right? Nope, he's upstaged by the Bros.' long-time Arch-Enemy and no-longer Butt-Monkey, Bowser.
• Repeat Cut: Anytime you end a Giant Battle with the Finishing Star. The more accurate your target of flight is on the Giant boss's weak point, the more this occurs, with up to three on Excellent. You also inevitably get three after hitting Giant Giant Bowser with the Star Driver, as you are merely trying to make sure you can get to him rather than aiming for a specific spot.
• Reset Button: The Miracle/Silver Badge combo is a badge effect that acts as an any time player-activated version of this, reverting your status to what it was at the beginning of the battle, including returning all used items. Notably, the game claims it only reverts the status to the previous turn, which is wrong.
• Resource Reimbursement:
  • The Rookie Gloves refund BP if the player gets less than an Excellent on a Bros Attack.
  • Master Gloves refund BP if the player scores an Excellent on a Bros Attack.
• The Reveal: Bowser is the true Big Bad of the game, not Antasma. Bowser was manipulating Antasma to his benefit instead of the other way around.
• Ring-Out Boss:
  • Earthwake is fought in Dreamy Wakeport, which has water at each end. Being knocked into the water will allow the knocker to execute a powerful attack on the one who was knocked into it.
  • Near the end of the fight with Giant Bowser, both parties begin spinning, allowing them to knock each other around in an attempt to dunk them in lava.
• Same Content, Different Rating: Not notably different content-wise from the past games, but for reasons no one will ever be quite sure of, the ESRB saw it perfectly fit to raise the rating a notch. The extra detail resulting from the Video Game 3D Leap, or the surprising increase in sex related jokes (one NPC commenting that Starlow is nude). Oddly, PEGI gave it a 3+, the same as the other games.
• Save-Game Limits: Averted for the first time in the series. Although Save Blocks are still in the game, you can save whenever you want. The Blocks just act like a suggestion that you should save now.
• Save Scumming: What you might end up doing for all of the "Excellent Ten" and "Dodge Ten" Expert Challenges, as later enemies tend to have very ridiculous attack patterns. In some cases it's actually recommended to do this, as getting enemies to respawn (especially in the Dream World) tends to be a bit of a chore in the Mario & Luigi series, and getting those Expert Challenges out of the way as fast as possible ensures that your fun isn't cut short by frustration.
• Save the Princess: This time, Peach is lost in Luigi's dreams. For a while, anyway. At some point Kamek takes her place and the real Peach is taken to Neo Bowser Castle.
• Self-Damaging Attack Backfire: The combination of the Risk Badge and Expert Badge gives everyone — including your characters, of course — a 50% chance of taking enough damage to drop to 0 HP.
• Senior Sleep-Cycle: Dr. Snoozemore looks like an elder. In addition, he has a very bad habit of falling asleep every time he tries to do something. As he puts it in his own words, "Clearly, sleep also researches me..."
• Sentient Sands: The Sandoon enemies are little more than, well, sand dunes with eyes and three pink antennae. They only appear in the Dozing Sands.
• Sequential Boss: The multiple bosses variant is done with Wiggler and Popple. Though unlike most such bosses, your strongest attacks and healing items should be used during your fight with Wiggler.
• Serious Business: If you're a member of an entire pillow-like civilization gifted with dream world-related abilities, then this is a given. In addition, the resort Dr. Snoozemore built upon the ruins of their civilization are technically sleep-themed.
• Shifting Sand Land: Dozing Sands.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: The Zeekeeper will only help you out once a price has been agreed. First, Dreambert declares that Mario will hand over every last coin to the cause. (Surprisingly, it's Mario who objects to this the most; Dreamy Luigi doesn't seem particularly bothered.) Then, when the Zeekeeper tots all the expenses up, the final bill comes to 80 million coins. No wonder Mario's horrified by it.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The chapter where the heroes guess that Princess Peach is now a target when Bowser gets his hands on the Dream Stone and she must be hidden well turns out to be this. Because the Koopa Troop kidnapped the poor princess sometime prior.
• Shout-Out: Thunder Sass tells the Mario Bros. that "he can tell that they lift".
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Dreamy Mt. Pajamaja if the sun is turned down.
• Smurfing: The Hooskis milk the word "hoo" for all its worth. Oddly, the Massifs, as well as Big Massif's Hooraw disciples seem to be exempt from this.
• Sneeze of Doom: If Starlow gets Luigi to sneeze while dreaming, a massive wind storm happens within the dream.
• Snot Bubble: Luigi has one of these in the Japanese boxart.
• Some Dexterity Required: The various Bros. moves and Luiginary moves not only utilise the usual A and B buttons but also tilting left and right, back and forth and the option to have the 3D effect on or off, and if you're not careful, you can easily mess up your timing. This also applies to dodging enemy attacks so you're not just getting attacked from the right or above, but also left, below, back, from the foreground and even the background and they can be pretty difficult to avoid. Now try getting ten dodges and ten Excellent attacks in a row in the Expert Challenges and you've definitely got yourself a challenge. Also, the Giant Battles require the use of the stylus and occasionally tilting as well. Phew.
• Sophisticated as Hell: The Zeekeeper appears to be a terse and easily angered character with some Worthy Opponent tendencies. Then Dreambert shows up, and the Zeekeeper drops the act.
• Sound Test: Unlocked for beating the main game once.
• Spin Attack: Bowser has one, and Giant Luigi performs one against Bowser. The Zeekeeper can also do this during his Dimensional Rift phase.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: The environments are completely 3D, and some of the characters use 3D models. Most characters seem to still be represented by sprites done to look like 3D models, though, in the same general style.
• Staging the Eavesdrop: Mario get an idea to use this as a distraction: Prince Dreambert and Starlow pretend to know something embarrassing about Bowser and talk about it within earshot of some minions of Bowser's who have successfully stolen an important MacGuffin, and are about to escape with it. While the minions (who think they're way ahead of Team Mario) are listening to this conversation, Mario and Luigi sneak past them and steal it back.
• The Starscream: Private Goomp, Corporal Paraplonk and Sergeant Guy, when hearing about the possibility of a promotion for beating the Mario Bros., imagine being promoted over Bowser and what's more about bossing him around. Of course, that obviously would never happen even if they did win.
• Stealth Pun:
  • While many aspects of Pi'illo Castle have changed since the disappearance of the population, Dreambert vouches that the Battle Ring was their traditional place for competition. Or in other words, Pi'illo fights.
  • When the Massif Bros. are in full-on Large Ham mode, Starlow reckons, "We've made a massive mistake."
• Stronger Than They Look:
  • Luigi in particular despite a lot of characters thinking that's he definitely less than buff. Dreamy Luigi is definitely strong if he's able to stop himself from being crushed by Giant Giant Bowser, Giant Bowser made even more massive thanks to Kamek. Dreamy Luigi is also able to block an absolutely humongous fireball from Giant Giant Bowser as well. That's some strength. Starlow also says this outright of the brothers.
  • Goombas are first encountered around the midgame. What do you expect of Bowser's lowest henchmen that are usually easily squished in many other Mario games (and are usually the first enemies fought in other Mario RPGs)? These Goombas are pretty powerful for when you fight them and they even have a slightly more powerful version later on. There's also the Goombas that fight alongside the Elite Trio: They can swarm up on you and do an almost unavoidable attack on you. Oh, and their numbers are infinite, so you'll be dealing with them the entire fight.
• Suddenly Voiced: Zig-Zagged with Luigi. While he's as unintelligible as Mario during most of the game (as in the past games in the series), when you visit Dream's Deep for the first time, you briefly read what's going on in his mind. It progresses to where Luigi directly addresses Mario, telling him what would happen next and asking him if he still wants to carry on, before joining him again as Dreamy Luigi. He goes back to being unintelligible afterward, except before every Giant Battle, where you can hear what goes on in his mind while he grows.
• Suicidal "Gotcha!": When other methods of making himself giant prove ineffective, Bowser suddenly jumps off the edge of the platform he's on... those who have played the previous game might remember that near death experiences trigger his ability to grow massive, and he does exactly that.
• Superboss: Like Bowser's Inside Story did with The Gauntlet, Dream Team's Battle Ring has one new boss hidden at the very end of the Battle Medley. This time, it's Bowser Jr.
• Symmetric Effect: Most of the combinations involving the Risky Badge affect both your characters and all enemies. Using it with the Bronze Badge gives everyone a random Status Effect, while the Silver Badge boosts everyone's attack power, the Gold Badge deals 256 damage to everyone, and the Expert Badge gives everyone a 50% chance of instantly dropping dead (which means a 25% chance for a Total Party Kill).
• Tactical Suicide Boss: In a game where every enemy attack can be countered and backfire on them, what really counts as this trope? Maybe these attacks that have in common to be used by bosses, being easy to counter relatively to their other attacks and backfiring horribly for their user.
  • The Elite Trio's Giant Bob-omb puts you in a chase sequence where you just nee to avoid or stomp goombas until the Bob-omb explodes, dealing massive damage to the entire trio (except Private Goomp if you let him escape). It's not rare for the trio to give Mario the victory by blasting themselves with this attack.
  • Earthwake has an attack that consists of creating a big ball of bricks it then sends rolling at Giant Luigi. It moves so slowly that jumping on it doesn't require much timing, then you just have to hit Earthwake with it between the swings of its arms, again not that demanding in terms of timing, and you send it directly in the water pond, ready for punishment. Add to this that Earthwake doesn't benefit from its heavy armor when attacking, rendering it useless against this counterattack if it was on and you hadn't broken it yet.
• Taken for Granite:
  • In the backstory, when the Dark Stone was shattered, the fragments rained down all over the island, turning all the Pi'illo people into stone pillows. The only way to turn them back is to enter their dream world and break all the fragments there.
  • The Massif Bros. can temporarily turn into stone as a sort of defensive mechanism, though it's mainly used as a shock reaction.
• Taken from a Dream: Luigi has the ability to fall asleep and open up the dream world which Mario may enter. This is necessary for them to acquire the dreamstone to keep it out of the hands of Bowser and Antasma.
• Take Your Time: Neo Bowser Castle won't collapse until you leave the tower before the final boss. Despite the falling bombs.
• Talking to Themself: In Dreamy Wakeport, the tour guide is actually Big Massif. So when Big Massif called him on his phone, it was actually him talking to himself.
• Technicolor Fire: One of Dreamy Bowser's attacks is to breathe rainbow-colored flames.
• Tempting Fate: During the Elite Trio battle, Private Goomp actually boasts after you KO one of them for the first time: "You like that, buddy?! It's called teamwork! Unless you KO all 3 of us at once, we can't lose!" Cue Sergeant Guy booting Private Goomp hard for spilling the beans.
• Testosterone Poisoning:
  • The Massif Bros. are Large Hams and practically never stop talking about bulking up or overcoming challenges.
  • The various "Heroes of Buffness" that they worship also qualify, as their monuments on Mount Pajamaja poke fun at their excessive manliness and/or musculature.
• That's No Moon: The giant bosses for the most part. Those drills and machines in the background of Dreamy Dozing Sands? Form the main structure of the boss Drilldigger. That version of Mount Pajamaja in the Dream World? Is alive, and tries to kill you. That weird building holding the Nightmare Chunk in Dreamy Wakeport? That's Earthwake's head, which flies into the air and summons a Humongous Mecha made of buildings before it attacks. You only ever realise any of this right before the giant battles with said foes begin.
• Theme Naming: To keep this section short, let's just say that many of the places visited and characters met over the course of the game have something related to sleeping in their names. To the point that the few bosses that don't directly have a name based around sleep/dreaming (Pi'illodium and a few others) get such names in the French/German/Spanish/Italian translations.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • Miracle Badge and Gold Badge combo + max level + high stats + Zee Egg and Star Rocket over and over + Duplex Crown = 99,999 damage on weak enemies. Enough to destroy the first monsters you see twelve thousand times over!
  • The Quick Healer rank-up perk doubles the effectiveness of healing items. Combine that with a Max Candy (Bottomless Gloves optional) which already heals you for all of your health and BP, and you'll be healing amounts of Heart Points and Bros. Points that no sane person could ever hope to reach.
• Third-Person Person: The Bedsmith every now and then. "BEDSMITH! IS! THRILLSMITH!"
• This Is a Drill: The giant drill machine in the desert (And its Humongous Mecha counterpart in the Dream World). Also Torkscrew, the area boss, has a gigantic horn drill on its head.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Luigi seems to be treated with more respect in this game from nearly every character remembering his name, except Bowser, of course (and even he remembers it at the very end after having his tail handed to him by Luigi in the final giant battle and the final boss fight). He's generally the one to come up with ideas on how to solve things such as the solution to opening the Pi'illos door panels and significantly, he gets equal credit alongside Mario for helping save Pi'illo Island and, by extent, the world. Even Starlow is (a little) less teasing to him this time round.
• Tiered by Name:
  • Like its counterpart in Bowser's Inside Story, all of the bosses in the Battle Ring besides Bowser Jr. are rehashes of older bosses, who also have the same names as the original bosses but with "X" at the end of their names.
  • All Underground Monkeys in this game have the same name as the originals but with "R" at the end of their names.
• Time-Limit Boss:
  • Every boss in the Battle Ring, with the hard mode fights having shorter time limits and the hard mode giant boss fights having 'do perfect or die' time limits.
  • Pi'illodium activates a self-destruct timer once damaged enough — oddly, this is a thirty second countdown in real time, despite the turn-based battle format. Thus, outside of using a Boo Biscuit (which turns the Bros. intangible) to survive the blast, the player has to either defeat Pi'illodium before it even activates the self-destruct or take it down before it the timer runs out.
• Time Stands Still: The Gold and Miracle badge combo is stated to "stop[s] time for a moment", causing enemies to be unable to take their turns. You can still take yours, though, and can thoroughly wallop them while they're incapacitated.
• Toggling Setpiece Puzzle: While most Luiginary Works are more akin to a single action, a few of them are, effectively, on/off switches for level navigation.
  • Luiginary Ice allows Luigi to freeze an area, holding certain platforms in place. In-universe, this can be undone at the press of a button.
  • Luiginary Gravity allows the direction of a level's gravity to change alongside Luigi's orientation in the regular world. The level cannot be completed without rotating Luigi several times.
  • Luiginary Antigravity turns gravity in the Dream World off entirely. This allows Mario to float freely, though at the cost of his typical moveset.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Bowser apparently finally, finally learned some cunning before the game, and was using Antasma all along. Good to see you back, Koopa King.
  • Private Goomp, Corporal Paraplonk and Sergeant Guy, the three ragtag rookie minions from Bowser's Inside Story whom Bowser allowed back under the stipulation that they pull their weight, have become the Elite Trio. You even have a boss battle against them, wherein Goomp commands the entire Goomba army (which never runs out of troops, so resource depletion is impossible), Paraplonk airlifts Giant Bob-ombs and becomes a whirling shell of death, and Guy has a Banzai Bill Cannon and a magic scepter—the kind the Magikoopas use. Nice job, guys.
  • Kamek has become more dangerous than ever, having gained the ability to summon hordes of Dry Bones as well as incredibly specialized clones of himself. Especially when you consider that when he was fought in the distant past he was an Inept Mage in an apron. In fact, he and the Elite Trio took such a level in badass that Bowser still praises them at the end despite losing to the Mario Bros.
  • It's not just the villains, either. Mario and Luigi's abilities, both in and out of battle, are much more dynamic, resulting in situations like Mario swinging around a huge ball of Luiginoids to smash through rock, or using them to create a tornado of hammers, or creating a giant wall of clones and then knocking it onto the enemies. And the Bros. beat a Reality Warper Bowser at the end of the game without powering up.
  • Giant Luigi is made of this trope, particularly the battle with Giant Bowser.
  • Bowser's Koopa Troop have finally gotten their act together, after the last three games. Every single Koopa Troop enemy is a nonbrainwashed mid-to-endgame enemy, when in other Mario RPGs (except the first Paper Mario or Sticker Star) including the other three games in the M&L series, they are some of the earliest enemies encountered, and in some games, the most powerful of them are brainwashed into service of someone else.
  • The Beehoss enemy from the previous game returns with brand-new Spikes of Villainy and now releases a swarm of bees instead of a single one. If the Bros. jump on any of the bees while dodging, the rest will counter with an unavoidable attack.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • Popple is much crueler in this game than in Superstar Saga, especially when he turns on the Bros. after they beat the Wiggler.
  • To an extent, Starlow is much more critical and snarky towards Luigi than she was in the previous game, though she also softens up more.
• Totally Radical: Skillit, the Shelltop host for the Mad Skillathon.
  Skillit: Are you goin' to pull out some mad skills, boyeeeeeeeee?
• Transforming Mecha: Both Earthwake and Robo Drilldigger. The former is a mecha made of buildings that can transform into a flying swarm of them and a gigantic hammer, the latter a robot made of drill pieces that can become a tank or a flying vehicle in order to use different attacks.
• Tropical Island Adventure: This game is set on Pi'illo Island, a tropical island the Mario Bros. and Princess Peach were invited to for vacation.
• Underground Monkey: Tougher versions of early enemies appear with "R" added to their names, with the expected Palette Swap. The more iconic foes like Goombas and Spinies don't even get that, retaining the exact same appearance but with increased stats.
• Uniformity Exception:
  • The games reveal that Broque Monsieur and Broque Madame both look very different (and, in the case of the latter, a lot bigger) than the average Brock (a species of block-looking beings introduced proper within these games^note Broque Monsieur and Broque Madame had appeared beforehand in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, but not the rest of their species). In addition, Brickle and Britta, two other noteworthy Brocks introduced in this game, also have appearances unique to them, with the former having a blue propeller hat, blue shoes and a triangular moustache (that seems to replace his mouth) while the latter resembles a miner (due to her being the boss of the Dozing Sands mining team).
  • The Mole Hunt Proprietor is the only Shelltop with a moustache in the entire game.
  • Pi'illoper can be distinguished from other Beanish folk by the mere fact that he usually wears a Pi'illo mask (due to him being a Pi'illo fanatic).
• Unique Enemy: There is only one Monolift R in the entire game, strangely. It's in the eastern part of Mt. Pajamaja, in the area with the warp pipe.
• Unwitting Pawn: Antasma ultimately turns out to be one of Bowser.
• Vacuum Mouth: Bowser keeps this ability from the previous game. He uses it to merge with the Dream Stone for the final boss battle.
• Vampire Vords: Antasma sports this type of accent.
• Various Video Game Views: The game uses Three-Quarters View for the overworld and Side View for the dream worlds.
• Vehicular Turnabout: If you use a jump attack on Bowser Jr's Koopa Clown Car while he's not in it, the Bros. hijack it, and can then chase him, throwing random junk at him to do damage.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Neo Bowser Castle, formerly an Ominous Floating Castle and weapons platform before being grounded. The place is filled with lava and menacing decor as per the Bowser standard, has some of the most hardy enemies like the mechanical Antasmatrons and the Elite Mook Fire Bros., incorporates a lot of puzzles, and has a number of bosses standing in your way.
• Villain Team-Up: Antasma escaping sets off the plot, but him teaming up with Bowser is what drives it forward, Antasma doing his best to become The Man Behind the Man and failing.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • Bowser is a nightmare if you're not used dodging in the Dream World and mastered Luiginary Ball, and it's still not easy if you do either, thanks to its multi-hit attacks and ability to attack multiple times per round, while Mario only gets one turn (and Luigi's boost do not compensate for Mario's paper defense and the boss's offensive and defensive stats). Have some Super Shrooms handy for this battle.
  • Later in the Dream World, there's Big Massif and his disciples. This is an intentional example as each of the disciples is a Beef Gate tailor-made to test a specific skill of the player (dodging, damage-dealing, etc.), so the game is making sure you're ready for the difficulty spike that starts with Big Massif himself.
  • For Giant Luigi battles, Mount Pajamaja. The previous giant boss Drilldigger was pretty easy, and you even had a point in the fight where Dreambert tells Luigi to heal back to full health, then lets him use Rhythm Mushroom non-stop until he does. The battle with Mount Pajamaja? Has a strategy needed to weaken the boss for attack, a much wider range of moves, some attacks that knock Mario away, preventing the use of Bros. attacks, and some nice strategy needed to stop him healing. Think of it as a nice warning about the next few such bosses, who will certainly not go kind on anyone...
• Warm-Up Boss: Smoldergeist for normal battling, which also doubles as a Wolf Pack Boss. Antasma's Dreamy Mario in the Dream World.
• Wham Line:
  • After Mario and Luigi defeat the Elite Trio, Kamek gives them KP duty as punishment, before.
    "Hmph. Well... this isn't as much fun as I'd hoped. But... Oh well, who cares? This was just for kicks. Because Bowser already kidnapped the real Peach!"
  • In Neo Bowser Castle, after Antasma declares that he has Bowser on his side to back him up, Bowser throws him to the ground and reveals that he was just using Antasma all along.
    Bowser: Hmph! I don't work well with others!
    Antasma: SCREEK! Vut do you mean by this?!
    Bowser: I mean you're an idiot! You thought you were using me? ME?! Buddy, I was playing you like a bat fiddle!
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Just where does Broggy go after the very beginning of the game?
  • What does the destruction of the Dream Stone at the end do to the Dream Stone's Spirit? And where is the Dark Stone Spirit, if it has one?
• Who Dares?: Bowser exclaims "How DARE you?!" upon being hit by a Hammer Chop during the Giant battle with Luigi.
• Why Won't You Die?: One of Pi'illodium's battle quotes is this, rendered through its Robo Speak.
  Foe still active: Why?
• Wintry Auroral Sky: The skies atop the freezing Dreamy Mount Pajamaja are laced with multicoloured auroras.
• Wolfpack Boss: The Smoldergeists, as well as The Elite Trio that combine this with Flunky Boss, as well as Kamek's third battle.
• The Worf Effect: Antasma finds himself on the receiving end of one near the end of the game. From Bowser.
• Your Costume Needs Work: You can talk to a staff member in the Pi'illo Castle staff room who wants to meet Mario and Luigi in person. When Luigi tries to convince her of his and his brother's identities, however, she dismisses it on the grounds that "the real Mario and Luigi look much cooler".
• You Shouldn't Know This Already:
  • Towards the end of the Wakeport Chain of Deals, a Toad will tell you to look through a pale patch of grass near the pair of fountains. Normally, you're supposed to dig through this after finishing the trading portion. However, if you dig through it earlier than that, you will find nothing.
  • Plotwise, the Fly Guy R's who stole the Driftwood Jellyfish Sheets won't appear at the Pi'illo Blimport without winning the Mole Hunt minigame the second time.

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