Dr. Mario

"A healthy dosage of what Dr. Mario gives you will just have you ending up with blistered thumbs."

Dr. Mario is a neat little Tetris-clone game in which you play as Dr. Mario and you must stop the Mushroom Kingdom from being perished under the influence of viruses. It was first released as a NES game in 1990, and shortly after, for the Game Boy. The NES version was better, and the Game Boy version is a big cut-down from the colour-version. I'm not saying that the game's bad, but there's a bit of a difference between either game, and this one just didn't match up to the NES version of Dr. Mario.

Released in 1990, Dr. Mario is Nintendo's own version of Tetris starring their most popular mascot. It's full of fun little sequences and a range of difficulty levels, music, viruses and other stuff. Tetris also made for GameBoy is a great puzzle game (which got boring quickly), and the same is applied for Dr. Mario. Not enough stuff packed into the cartridge to make it more ranging, exciting, or addicting. Doing the same thing over and over while it just gets more difficult can get boring within about half an hour. Like Mario Bros.

Of course, there is the factor that it's not completely boring. It's fun for a while when you're playing the overall game. In fact, I even wrote a guide because I found it quite simple. There are secret animations that are simple but not too bad. And if you want 30 minutes to burn, this game wouldn't be a bad choice. Now for a more detailed rundown of each of the game's factors:

The overall gameplay of Dr. Mario is average. Why? Simple. All you do is move pills around and kill viruses by matching up four of the same colours in a vertical or horizontal row. Yet it can get more complex; each pill has two different ends. Sometimes they're the same, sometimes different. You can find different methods of taking out viruses, either one by one, or taking out multiple ones at a time. As the level gets quicker, it does mean moving your thumbs quicker. I had a blistered left thumb for a couple of days after raging myself with Virus Level 18.

The story? The basic doctor's tale: Mario and Nurse Toadstool are working in the Mushroom Hospital when all of a sudden, bad viruses start spreading, and there's only one cure: Dr. Mario's mega-vitamins. The story is pretty lame, but this isn't so much of a bad influence on the game itself.

As far as music goes, there's only two whole soundtracks in the whole game: FEVER and CHILL. Fever sounds better for when you're fired up for a game, and CHILL for relaxing time. But are fine, but when you play several levels in a row, the same soundtrack over and over again can be frustrating. More music should have been added for some variety and loss of boredom.

The graphics in Dr. Mario are OK, but with the loss of colour, it's not that good to be looking at black and white pills all the time. If the game had been a GBC game I suppose it would have been alright. The NES version had good colour. The virsues just look like tiny Ball-bearing pellets, though, and I just didn't like the look of it. However, the other drawings are pretty good, and they aren't too bad overall.

Putting an overall mark on replayability would probably be MID-HIGH. After all, Tetris was addictive. Dr. Mario is great for those who want to play a nice puzzle game as a cool-down for their brains, and it's good to play over and over again if you just want to spend a few minutes on something basic but fun.

Buy or Rent? - that's a tough one. I'd rather really go for the NES version, but the Game Boy version is worth a play. If you do like it that much, then go for it. It should be cheap (around $10), and the quality of the game isn't too bad if you are in need of a decent Mario game to add to your collection.

Ryo's Review Ratings
Gameplay: 5/10
Story: 4/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 4/10
Overall: 5/10
Replayability: Med-High

So this game isn't perfect by a long shot. But if you can't get the NES version, this game is the next best thing, but I preferred Tetris over it personally. However it's not that bad, and it makes a great game to play when bored, or travelling. So a few improvements could have been made, yet this game is still pretty fine.

End of Review

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 05/23/03, Updated 06/19/03