Dr. Mario

The Good
Was Nintendo looking to cash in on the mindless, repetitive entertainment market opened up by the international smash hit Tetris? Only the top executives at Nintendo know for sure. But in any case, this game rocks.

Based on a similar premise as Tetris, this game has the player manipulating the orientation of objects falling at an ever-quickening velocity. Dr. Mario just happens to make those objects colored pills rather than ambiguous quad-part blocks. Match up colors with the malignant viruses in a bottle in order to wipe them out. Build up skill and go for the double, triple, quadruple kill/cures... and beyond!

The game features a handicapping player versus player mode. Two players can get their own bottles of viruses to wipe out and they can select different difficulty levels to play at. Best 2 out of 3 rounds wins the match. Especially fiendish is when one player scores a double kill/cure or better-- the game sends down some random pills into the other player's jar that may or may not mess them up.

Is it arrogant to state that I especially enjoy this game simply because I am so good at it? I challenged many friends (well, they used to be friends; perhaps I should not have gloated so hard) at this game, at all handicapping levels, and no one ever managed to beat me without a handicap.

I summed up Dr. Mario in this review as "mindless entertainment". Curiously, the longer you play, the more lethal you potentially become. As you build up skill it just becomes natural to construct precariously balanced towers of pills that will kill off 5, 6, 7 viruses as soon as you trigger a chain reaction with a certain pill. Do not attempt to try this before you are adequately skilled or else you will just cause a mess in your own jar, as anyone who has ever played against me has learned the hard way.

The Bad
Do not attempt to play the game on a black and white television set. That's something that stuck in my mind from the time I rented this game. Seems obvious. But in the early 1990's, who was still stuck using a black and white television? Apparently, someone who rented this game from this store before me.

As is common with these puzzle games, not a whole lot of effort was invested into the background music. The result is mind-numbing music which may cause you to question your sanity after several straight hours of gameplay.

The Bottom Line
Fear the Dr. Mario game master (that's me).

The Good
Dr. Mario is a game which is extremely easy to pick up and play. The gameplay and controls are simple enough that anyone can learn to play with minimal effort. As far as sound is concerned, the effects are nothing spectacular, but not obstructive to gameplay either. However, the music, in my opinion, is brilliant. There are two songs included, Fever and Chill, which are very catchy and fit the frantic puzzle action of the game well. Finally, the inclusion of a two-player vs. mode is very welcomed as well.

The Bad
Mario storylines are supposed to be...different, but the story line behind Dr. Mario seemed stranger than usual and rushed, as there is only half of a page addressing the story line in the manual. Granted it's a puzzle game and the story is not a huge part of the gameplay, but I still would have liked a little more depth to the story. Also, the graphics are nothing amazing, but, on the other hand, they really don't need to be. Finally, while part of the charm of this game stems from its simplistic gameplay, this leads to its drawback of quickly becoming somewhat repetitive.

The Bottom Line
Dr. Mario is a puzzle game in which your objective is to kill all of the viruses in a jar. The viruses come in three colors (red, blue, and yellow) as do the pills which are used to kill the viruses. The pills contain two "sections" which allows for either a pill with two of the same colors or two different colors. A horizontal or vertical line of 4 or more "sections" of the same color will cause the line to disappear. So, one must strategically place the falling pills in line with the like-colored virus in order to kill it. If the jar is filled with pills and there are still viruses present, then it is game over.

The Good
If you miss something about the classic game of "Tetris", then this is the game for you. When you start the game you immediately see the resemblance between this game and "Tetris". After a few minutes of playing the game, you are in a trance, and that is a very good sign for a game. The good sound effects and the cool music, in combination with the game engine, keeps you going for hours. The first five or eight levels are more like training levels. When you get past level 10, then you really get to use your skills to the max. I'm still trying to get past level 15. But even if it gets more difficult later on in the game, it is still a very fun game to play.


The Bad
As the case usually is for these old "Game Boy" games, it goes faster and faster further out in the game. Though you have set the speed to "Low" it still goes faster and faster.

The Bottom Line
As I wrote in the beginning, if you miss something about "Tetris" or don't like it so much, then this is the game for you.