Dr. Mario

"From plumber to doctor in record time."

Dr. Mario is another puzzle game based on the Tetris concept, and while it is impossible to talk about it without mentioning Tetris, I think Dr. Mario is different enough to consider it just a Tetris-like game and not a Tetris clone, well, this is not a very accurate difference... enough babbling nonsenses, into the review:

The objective this time is to get rid of some viruses, there are three different viruses, yellow, blue, and red, they just differ in the colour, aside from that they do exactly the same, that is, nothing. Then, like in basically any other Tetris game, pieces will start fall from the top of the screen only that this time they aren`t exactly pieces, this time they are coloured pills. These pills come in different colours, and as you are probably thinking, we have to align at least three pills over a virus to destroy it. As expected we will be able to move the pills horizontally and vertically whenever we want, and some pills have more than one colour at the same time, which makes everything a lot harder. Fortunately the pills always have the same form (the shape of a simple pill with no more than two colours), what I mean is that they don`t come as long bars or cubes like in Tetris, they are always small pills.

There is a two players option also, in which each player has to beat all the viruses three times to win, and you can change the number of viruses, difficulty, music and everything like in the single player option, but there is nothing much to it really.

As expected, this game is simply impossible to beat, and if you are one of those people that think there is no puzzle game out there challenging enough, better know that this one is a million times harder than Tetris, it is faster, and viruses increase a lot from stage to stage. We are able choose the speed and difficulty whenever we want, but everything just keeps getting harder and harder very quickly.

About the graphics well, what can be said, they are simple yeah, but a lot more colourful and funny than in any Tetris, the viruses have faces and extremities, and they are quite charismatic, then we have Mario dressed as a doctor, and... ok, they are not all that better than in any Tetris to be honest, but they are as good as necessary, and with Mario dressed as a doctor (can`t you tell?), but anyway I just can`t think about anything more stupid than complaining about the graphics in a Tetris-like puzzle game, yet now that I think I haven`t said anything bad about them, ok I`ll shut up.

The music is surprisingly good, it is really funny, it has some of those tunes that are simply impossible to forget due to their unbelievable ``catchiness``. There are only two themes, and you will probably end up tired of them, but it is undeniable that for a puzzle game they are excellent, and there is no doubt about that the music is one of the things you are going to remember the most about the game.

So, Dr. Mario is a very nice puzzle title, fans of genre have a great game to add to their collection, an non puzzle fans have a good opportunity to try to start enjoying these games to see that they are a lot more entertaining than most people think if you give them the time they deserve. With all, I would suggest the Game Boy version better, because, at least in my humble opinion, this kind of games look better and are more entertaining in portable systems.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/04