Dr. Mario

"A great puzzle game starring everyone’s favorite mascot Mario"

Dr. Mario is a puzzle game, that was released for the Nintendo in 1990. It is a good game, but I believe it did not sell too many copies. Like they always do in a game with the Mario label, Nintendo has delivered an exciting game, that can be quite addictive to puzzle fans.

In this game, Mario is a doctor in the virus research center at the Mushroom Kingdom Hospital. One day, when he was going about his daily business, a nurse came running in. An experiment was getting out of control, and the virus’ were spreading rapidly. This leads to the gameplay. Dr. Mario is found in the game throwing pills into the containers filled with virus’ and it is your job to manoeuvre the pills so that they can wipe out the virus’.

Gameplay is similar to Tetris. Pills, and virus’ come in combinations of three colors: red, blue and yellow. In order to kill virus’, which come in the same colors, you have to match up pills with the virus of the color, and stack a certain number of these same color pills on top of the virus. Having so many of the same color pill pieces together will also cancel out other pills for when you may have the wrong color on a virus, or you just need to get rid of a few of the extra pill pieces at the bottom of the jar. After you kill a virus, any loose pills will fall down to the next lowest spot. To complete a level, you must kill all virus’ in the jar. If the jar becomes full to the top with pills, you lose.

There are 20 levels that you can choose from. In the first levels, you will have very few virus’ and each level after that, more virus’ will appear. A unique feature is that you can start from any level that you choose, without having to beat the levels before it. You are given three options for speed: low, medium, and fast. There is a good balance between each speed, so you can customize the game fairly well based on the challenge that you are looking for.

The graphics in the game are very simple. Each level is the same: a jar, filled with different numbers of virus’. A large image of Mario can be seen outside of the jar, throwing pills inside. For the graphics the game does use, they are fairly simple, but done well. Seeing Dr. Mario standing outside the jar is probably the most impressive graphic point in the game. Virus’ are tiny, and do not contain too much detail, but it works well for packing levels full of virus’ to kill.

Music is fairly well done. With each level, you can choose between two styles: fever, or chill. Each one is pretty catchy in their own way, and provide a good background for the action going on. Despite having only the two songs in the main game, you will not get bored with the music for quite a while. Some small sound effects are also present, and are done well.

Control is very easy to pick up. The direction pad is used to move the pill around, and the a or b buttons can be used to rotate pills in different ways. Difficulty is a matter of your choice due to the fact that you get to pick all of your settings before you start, including the level to start at, and the speed of the pills. On the low speed, it is fairly easy to complete any level. Medium is a greater challenge, but not too hard, and of course fast provides the greatest challenge.

Due to the fact that you can choose your settings right from the start, there is a lot of replay value in this game. Each level takes a relatively short amount of time, so it is easy to get in a quick round. Gameplay is a lot of fun, and with random pills, each game is a new challenge.

Overall, it is an entertaining game. If you are into puzzle games, and you are able to make quick decisions, you will have a lot of fun with this game. Like a lot of other old Nintendo games, for a couple of bucks, you cannot go wrong buying this game.

Gameplay - 8/10 - Exciting puzzle action, and the ability to start with any level settings you want help to make a very fun game.
Graphics - 7/10 - Not the most detailed, but they get the job done for this game.
Sound - 8/10 - Only two main songs, but good ones.
Control - 10/10 - Very simple and easy to pick up.
Difficulty - 10/10 - Perfect balance for new or old players of the game. Customize to fit your needs.
Replay Value 7/10 - High. Easy to pick up for a few minutes and get into a whole new challenge.
Buy/Rent - Since you can find it fairly cheap, definitely a buy.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/01, Updated 11/21/01