Dr. Mario

The Good
This game has all the wonderful puzzle-solving and level-clearing action that the original Tetris had, and this is a quick addiction, so whenever you find a brief moment you will want to play this game. And the gameplay is so complicated, yet so simplistic, because it's just dropping colors onto colors (rather shades of gray) and yet it will take many weeks to master the science of pulling off combinations.

The Bad
The later levels (starting with Level 13 and going through 20) are practically impossible to beat, and it would be wise to just not attempt them. Also, the music grates on you, and playing this game for extended periods will cause your dreams to be full of that psycho MIDI and dropping pills onto bacteria.

The Bottom Line
This game is a Tetris clone modified by Nintendo to cater to a younger audience and with a Mario theme thrown in. This game has absolutely nothing to do with Mario or his compadres, but is one of those simple chain-reaction puzzlers that will have you clearing blocks in your mind far after your Game Boy has been shut off.

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.

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).