by: Michael Barnes

Dream Trigger 3D is a strange game, and although it feels like some potentially innovative ideas are being kicked around in it, the package falls flat under the weight of its arcane presentation and oddly complicated gameplay. It also doesn’t quite feel complete, as if what’s on the 3DS cartridge is a half-finished idea of what could have been a potentially fresh comingling of mechanics that, on paper, might have seemed like an interesting mash-up of a Treasure-style bullet hell shooter and a beat-based music puzzler such as Lumines.

Unfortunately, it never gels and what remains is an awkward game that might have been better received as an experimental flash game or a one dollar IOS app. As a $40 3DS game, most gamers are going to feel a little cheated.

The framing story, such as it is, is some balderdash about fixing people’s dreams and making them beautiful. Whatever. It’s an abstract game with sometimes bizarre visuals. The player’s avatar is displayed on the top screen of the 3DS and it changes over the course of the game to suit the level. Each stage has a different fully 3D background and enemies change shape but ultimately it’s as non-specific as it gets with zero narrative.

The core “World Map” game mode offers a confusing campaign structure with some 117 different challenges to complete and it requires that players earn “Dream Points” to move from level to level. Each level offers a constant barrage of enemies and bullets to dodge culminating in a boss fight. There are also freeplay options and a multiplayer-over-WiFi option.

Gameplay is weird, and more complicated than it needs to be. The circle pad controls the butterfly or whatever it happens to be for the level on the upper screen. The enemy patterns are hidden in the top screen but visible in a grid on the bottom. They have to be revealed by placing “pings” with the stylus on the touch screen. As in Lumines, there’s a rhythm bar that travels horizontally across the screen that triggers the pings, so timing is something of an issue. Sort of. Once they’re revealed, you can hit the right or left trigger to engage a limited energy shield around your avatar and destroy the baddies by running into them when they appear. Then there’s bonus shapes to collect for points, too.

Did you get all of that?