Mario & Luigi: Royal Wrecks

Mario & Luigi: Royal Wrecks (Mario & Luigi RPG 5: Princess Troubles in Japan) is a game for the Nintendo 3DS game developed by AlphaDreamand published by Nintendo. It is the eight title in the Mario & Luigi series of RPG games. Though the Japanese name has a number five in it, this indicates that it chronologically the fifth game in the timeline of the series.

As all Mario & Luigi games have specific themes. This one revolves mainly around Music. As Mario and Luigi end up getting trapped in the Vibecuole, a strange dimension where feelings are different enemies and animals caused by the sound and genres of music. Princess Peach is also playable in the Real World and has battles similar to that of Paper Mario's, involving a stage and audience.

Story
In the far depths of the Mushroom Galaxy, different comets are shot into space. However these comets seem more or less like Orbs rather than comets. The thing shooting the orbs turns out to be an eye.

Upon mastering the art of music on her keyboard, Peach announces she'll preform at a concert and  invites Mario, Luigi and a huge amount of residents across the Kingdom to have a huge noisy music fest around the Mushroom Kingdom. But both brothers decide to stay outside the castle expecting Bowser to appear to crash the concert. Luigi eventually gets tired after being on guard for hours and falls asleep but Mario stays up and peppy thanks to his headphones which are playing rock. Sure enough, Bowser appears and a battle commences without Luigi.

After the fight, Bowser is about to punch Mario, when an orb hits him on the head. Making him not remember where he is or what he's doing at the entrance. He shrugs it off and walks away. Suddenly, Luigi starts moving and gets up, oddly his eyes are closed and even stranger, his mouth has opened to reveal an eye. A mysterious being appers out of nowhere and is using strange magic on Luigi. The strange being introduces himself as Scilence and makes Luigi chant mysterious ancient words but nothing happens. Scilence is annoyed that the chant did nothing and unhands Luigi and uses Mario's voice and chants the same thing, and yet nothing. But Luigi now truly awakened becomes extremely scared and attempts to run into the castle to get help but Scilence uses magic to block the gate's entrance. A battle commences verses Scilence & Scilenced Mario.

The battle is over and Luigi wins unhanding Mario, but Scilence simply gloats as it did nothing to truly harm him. Knowing that the brothers had seen him, Scilence can't have them tell the story to the whole Mushroom Kingdom so he tells the brothers to 'be silenced" and is about to destroy them with powerful magic. When he is interrupted by the sound of cannonballs being shot, by one of Bowser's airships. But Bowser isn't controlling that ship. Instead it turns out to be that fat ugly piglet himself. Midbus.

Bowser who was hiding behind a tree looks up and sees this and jumps out to give whoever is flying that ship a piece of his mind. This angers Sillence, as he thinks he's the one who interrupted the death. Bowser tells him to shut up and to mind his own business. This angers him even more, which Bowser can't careless about, since he's concentrated on seeing who's flying that ship a piece of his mind.

Sclience silences both the brothers and tyrants before things go far off his course. Toadsworth, watching this, decides to fight the devil, but he ends up being silenced. All five of them, disappear. The devil sneaks into the castle and is about to strike here as well. But sees the person who has got, the perfect voice.....Princess Peach. He snaps his fingers and everything goes to white.

Peach wakes up in a bed, beside the bed is a lamp, which she pulls it's currently 10 PM. She calls out Mario's name, wondering if Mario is even in the Mushroom Kingdom. It turns out he's not. She looks around and sees Toadsworth's stick. She starts crying, thinking they're all dead.

However one of her tears, stream down her cheek. The tear shows Mario, as he wakes up in a place called the Vibecuole. He walks around the place and wonders where he is or what he's doing there. He finds Luigi and the two of them then find Toadsworth, shuffling in his sleep, Mario wakes up him up and is given a book, a book that explains all the basic commands and everything. Luigi wonders where they are.

Gameplay
Mario & Luigi: Royal Wrecks, as with previous Mario & Luigi games is an RPG, where players move Mario and Luigi and make them jump and hammer using the A and B buttons stays exactly the same as it once was. They can also use Toadsworth's ? Bag in order to use items, check on Stats, practice Bros. Attacks, and so on.

Here, in this title, Mario and Luigi are stuck in a dimension called the Vibecuole. Where feelings are different enemies and animals caused by the sound and genres of music.

Toadsworth acts as the guide of the game, replacing Starlow from the previous two games in the timeline of the series. The reason he travels with them in the game is because courage has finally covered him completely and now he's ready to save Princess Peach. Even though he's not a playable character, he still has involvement in the overworld and even in battle. He has been affected by an Orb shower, one of the orbs corresponds with the Mushroom Kingdom.

Princess Peach is also a playable character, as she travels around in the Mushroom Kingdom, looking for the five Melody Suns that have been scattered around the Kingdom, by the new masked villain Scilence. As she is controlled by the X and Y buttons, X is for Slap and Y is for Umbrella Jump.

Battle System
Much like the other games, this one has a battle system as the player interacts with the battle even while attacking and dodging enemy attacks. For example, when the player attacks if they press A right before hitting an enemy it does more damage, or when being attacked the player can jump to avoid the attack. These actions are known as Action Commands and each move has a certain way to power it up to do more damage. For example, when using a jump attack, pressing A before the player lands on an enemy will cause them to jump again on the enemy to deal more damage.

This battle system slightly changes in gameplay depending on who the player is playing as. Throughout the game, the story will change roles from Mario and Luigi who are trapped in the Vibecuole, to Princess Peach who is wandering around in the Mushroom Kingdom, playing different songs for a lot of different NPCs.

Both campaigns of teams also gain EXP  (Experience Points) when they defeat enemies in their battles. When enough EXP is gained, the player levels up which increases their stats and allows them to pick one stat they want to boost a bit more than the others. The tougher the enemy defeated, the more EXP obtained, although enemies start to give up less EXP as the player levels up.

Vibecuole Battles
To start a battle with Mario and Luigi. The player must jump or hammer an enemy pressing one of the buttons that represent the two characters. During the entire battle with the exception being when they attack, they can jump at anytime. Pressing A will make Mario jump and B will allow Luigi to jump. When it's one of the Bros. turns, a circle of 6 blocks that represent battle actions circles them and the player can rotate the blocks to have one block directly over their head and when the player wants to select the action they simply make the bro jump and hit it.

The battle actions include: Due to Toadsworth staying on the sidelines, he acts an audience member, and throws Mario and Luigi coins if they preform the attacks correctly, similarly to the second Midbus fight in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Sometimes he even throws Mushrooms to them in times of danger such as when a brother might be low on HP.
 * Jump: A Solo Move that involves Jumps.
 * Hammer: A Solo Move that involves a Hammer.
 * Bros. Attacks: Special Attacks that cost Bros. Points and have both Bros. use teamwork skills to preform a move that can be extremely powerful if preformed correctly.
 * Items: Mario and Luigi can use an item, each item has varying effects to benefit the player.
 * Roulette Rally: Replacing Battle Cards and Badges. An icon will appear on the top screen of the 3DS whenever each brother gets a matching rating such as OK, Good, Great, Excellent! and Amazing!! after using an action command of an attack. If the brother has four matching pairs of ratings, the brother can hit the block representing the move and then Toadsworth, who is on the sidelines with hit take the Roulette wheel for a spin.
 * Flee: Which allows the player to run from a battle taking no EXP and dropping 1/4 of their coins.

When a brother's HP hits zero, he passes out and Toadsworth moves him onto the sidelines and acts as the CPU replacement for that Brother or if he is revived with a 1-Up Mushroom, then Toadsworth will move back to the sidelines.

Sometimes in Battle, especially during Boss Fights, Toadsworth can transport bigger enemies into the Mushroom Kingdom, where Princess Peach will fight them.

Mushroom Kingdom Battles
To start a battle with Peach, the player has the option of slapping an enemy in the face by pressing X, or just simply jumping on the enemy by pressing Y. Her battles are very similar to the battles in the Paper Mario series, taking place in a stage and having an audience. This audience consists of Toads and is more important than the one in the Paper Mario series. Peach has a special keyboard that can play from five different categories of music to summon creatures and NPC's to attack the enemies

-Pop which is capable of making cheery characters apper which will preform cartoonish attacks -Metal which will summon characters and objects made of pure metal to heavily damage enemies. -Country which summons the power of nature as well as animals -Soul Calm songs to summon characters that may heal Peach. -Retro which has a selection of songs that summon familiar characters.

There is no limit to how much Peach can play one song, no limitations such as SP. However, instead there is a picky audience. In order to use any song, Peach must have a big enough audience, stronger attacks will always require a larger amount of audience at a time. Each Toad in the audience will have a different colored cap, which is important because each color represents a genera that Kind of Toad color likes. For example, a Red toad likes Pop music and when it's played,a ll red Toads in the audience applaud and make it so more Toads a varied colors join the audience. However, each toad color also has a genera they despise, making all Toads of that color leave.

When the audience is full, Peach can play special songs known as Symphonies, where she calls up all Toads in the audience of a desired color and have them form into an instrument to do huge damage on an enemies, and the more of that color there is the more damage the attack will do.

Team Battles
Whenever, Princess Peach encounters a special type of enemies called Minorities, then this brings the opportunity for her, to get the brothers' attention by playing different songs, that affect the action commands that Mario and Luigi posses. This particular little routine is called the Beat.

Peach will play a four note beat that will not only make the idle animations dance to it but also effect the action command. For example, if the player uses the Jump attack and when they land on an enemy, they can tap the attack button to the beat to continually jump on an enemy. Some enemies will even be effected by the beat, for example, the Minority can disappear in and out, just like a Beat Block. Peach will have to play a different song, in order to get the Minority to appear again.

Bros. Attacks however don't use this mechanic, instead they posses something different, yet similar. During a Bros Attack, different music will play whilst Mario and Luigi preform them. The type of music that plays during them, will be heard all over the Vibecuole, which will either affect Peach's emotions. Ranging from Excited, Upset, Enraged or Scared.

These emotions will then force Peach to mix and match her songs on the Top Screen with Mario and Luigi's Bros. Attacks on the Bottom Screen, in order to do a serious amount of damage to the Minority.