Dr. Mario

"Pill overdosing has never been more fun!"

Once upon a time, a great man named Alexey Pajitnov made a game. It's name, Tetris. It spread across the world and conquered every device capable of playing a video game. Now, Nintendo saw this and decided the kids wanted to drop things down vertical playing fields to make them disappear! So what do they do? Make such a game and let all the kiddies empty their pockets! The end result: all the block dropping fun of Tetris with a dash of Mario.

Story

In Dr. Mario, we discover that between kicking Koopa shells, dropping Bowser into lava, and all his other misadventures, Mario practices medicine. Viruses have invaded the Mushroom Kingdom, infecting all the residents. What does a qualified doctor like Mario do at a time like this? Like any good authorized doctor, he ignores the problem completely and throws pills into jars all day! Why Nintendo decided to make a story? Who knows.

2/10

Gameplay

Since this is pretty much a Tetris clone, you'll see a lot of similarities. Much like the playing field in Tetris, the jars you'll be throwing pills into will be vertical and rectangular. The only difference is that instead of starting off with a clean slate, there will be some red, blue, and yellow viruses in the jar. To get rid of them, you have to throw similarly colored pills in the jar and move and spin them to match 3 colors. Once you get rid of all the viruses, you move on to the next level with more viruses to eradicate. Much like Tetris, Nintendo keeps the Dr. Mario gameplay simple, but all the while fun.

10/10

Control

The controls are an exact clone of Tetris's. Left and right on the D-pad moves the current pill in the respective directions, down speeds the pill's descent, the A button spins it clockwise and the B button spins it counterclockwise. Once again, simple and accessible controls win me over.

10/10

Graphics

You won't hear any gripes about these graphics. It's a puzzle game, so the graphics don't really make much of a difference. Mario does look good and in the lower left hand corner, the viruses dance and slowly move in a circle. When you clear viruses, the virus of the corresponding color gets knocked down. When all of a type of virus is gone, the virus is knocked down and dissapears with a BLIP! While your focus is mainly on the viruses, especially in the later levels, the graphics on the side are definately amusing.

9/10

Sound

Excluding the song you are greeted to once you power on your NES (Or whatever you play this game on nowadays), there are 2 songs you have a choice of listening to: Fever and Chill. While Fever is the song most people like better, Chill does hold up against it. They're both as catchy as any Mario, Zelda, Halo, or any other big name franchise theme.

10/10

Replay Value

Just like Tetris, Dr. Mario has a lot of replay value. Also like Tetris is the fact that no 2 games will be the same, keeping each game session fresh and new. You can continually revisit this game to beat your high scores.

Final Reccomendation

If you are a fan of Tetris and similar puzzle games, Dr. Mario is right up your alley. Those of you who would rather spend your time fragging guys in Halo, run through the Mushroom Kingdom, or whatever other games suit you, you should pass this one up.

9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/08

Game Release: Dr. Mario (US, October 1990)