The final handheld installment leading up to the grande finale of Kingdom Hearts, and boy is it fun.
Story: 9/10
Dream Drop Distance does an admirable job of tying in all previous Kingdom Hearts game to understand the importance of each title and to catch up and inform those who haven't played specific titles. Playing both Sora and Riku, you are sent into a dream state (which is obvious as both Riku and Sora both take on their original character models from the first game) in which they must take on the "Mark of Mastery" exam to become true Keyblade Masters. Pretty much each world is interesting (especially Traverse Town since it features characters from The World Ends With You) in helping develop the story and each of the characters are charming and likable. I did wish Dream Drop Distance offered more variety in the Disney worlds since two of the 7 worlds feature Micky Mouse characters.
Visuals: 9/10
Although I do think the 3DS is capable of pushing better graphics than what Dream Drop Distance presents, the game is still beautiful looking, vibrant areas with amazing looking effects when battling or using abilities (like flowmotion). Each world does a great job of staying true to the original and Traverse Town is pretty much exactly how I remember (except for the new areas of course).
Sound: 10/10
Voice work is spot on, it was really great hearing the characters from The World Ends With You speak fully, every voice is exactly how'd you remember each character from their original movie/game. The music is awesome to listen to, remixed versions of the themes from each world, especially the music from The World Ends With You (one of my favorite videogame sound tracks).
Gameplay: 9/10
Dream Drop Distance features a drop system that pretty much forces you to play as both Riku and Sora without going too far ahead with either. Although there is an easy way to just focus on one character, it'll really benefit the player if you go at an even pace with both as you can collect "Drop points" to gain bonuses for the other character (e.g. Sora collects 150 drop points and uses it to give Riku a boost in strength and magic). Although there is the danger of dropping during a boss battle, if you pace yourself well, and recognize when your meter is about to empty, you can avoid this (if anything, just grind when you're about to drop).
The game also introduces a new enemy, the nightmares and ally, the dream eaters. Unlike previous installments, the dream eaters serve as your party members. Raising these creatures is essential in growing Sora/Riku's abilities and stats as each dream eater will have its own unique skill tree. For example, the first dream eater you get has the ability cure, cura, and curaga, if you can unlock these abilities, then Sora/Riku will be able to use them. There are a great deal of dream eaters to create and find and while the game does encourage you to try and get them all along with unlocking their abilities, the game is not long enough for this to naturally happen. It is important to keep the Dream Eaters happy so there is a kind of Nintendogs styled way of caring for them, either nudging/petting them for quick satisfaction, feeding them, or little minigames, which serve as an amusing distraction from the main game.
Finally, flowmotion is introduced which allows Sora/Riku to grind on rails, jump off walls and move at very fast speeds. When in flowmotion, attacking unleashes powerful attacks which are very useful in the beginning of the game (since you lack any other powerful abilities) however these attacks do get overshadowed by more powerful abilities that are easier to execute later on. Flowmotion, when mastered, makes platforming MUCH easier and also allows you to easily scale walls/buildings/cliffs to easily find hidden treasures (most large treasures contain abilities like Thundaga so it's wise to find these treasures). It's a fun and flashy ability (pretty much replaces the need for glide) so I'm happy they included it.
Value: 9/10
The game is huge for a handheld, and 7 worlds does sound large, but when you take into account that each world can be beaten in about an hour (depending on if you grind or go treasure hunting), the game is not as long as I would've hoped. I finished the game in a little under 25 hours (only spent about 2 hours grinding since it's actually pretty easy to level up), but the game does offer incentive to replay it since you can carry over your dream eaters and their abilities, along with Flick Rush, a mini game in which you can use your Dream Eaters to battle either AI Dream Eaters or other players' Dream Eater, medals earned can be used to purchase abilities and items.
Overall: 9/10
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance is a worthy entry to the series and definitely worth your time if you own a 3DS. It does a great job in explaining all the previous games and attempts to tie together the convoluted story that Kingdom Hearts has become, a VERY important game to play if you want to play Kingdom Hearts 3 and want to understand what's happening.