Dr. Mario

"Dr. Mario, Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bugs"

Dr. Mario, Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bugs

Dr. Mario has often been dismissed as a tetris clone, and it sorta is, but it does do a lot of things differently, which makes it more of a Columns clone.

In Dr. Mario, you play as, yes, you guessed it, Dr. Mario as he attempts to kill Viruses and Bacteria (bugs) in a beaker. Why? I suppose he's doing clinical research, the old fashioned way (by tossing pills at it until something sticks). You kill the bugs by stacking 3 single pills of the same color on top of the bug. The challenge comes when you see that each pill is 2 smaller pills put together, usually in a different color combination, such as Red-Blue, or Yellow-Red, so you have to place only part of the pill on the bug, and wait for the next pill to try to finish it off. That's about it, the only thing that ever changes in the game is the speed of which the pills fall, and the amount of bugs in the beaker.

This game manages to be fun, as most puzzle games do, but it doesn't quite have the mindlessness to it that makes Tetris and to a lesser extent, Columns, such great time wasters. Dr. Mario falls in just under those, as a second tier type of game, one that you play when you get bored of Tetris, and want to try something similar, but a bit different.

The graphics are pure NES, not that great, but colorful, and they do their job, which is to present the game in a clear ordered fashion.

Sounds aren't good, but this isn't a major game, it's a puzzler, so we'll let this slide.

Dr. Mario is a fun addictive little puzzle game, that tries to surpass Tetris, but only manages to be a good puzzler (as compared to Tetris, the best puzzler ever made).

I gave Dr. Mario a 7, it's a good puzzle game, a good time waster, but it isn't as good as others in its category.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/00, Updated 04/09/00