Dr. Mario (Nintendo Entertainment System) Review

Mario has been put in countless spinoff games, Dr. Mario is one of those spinoffs from the original platforming plumber games. Dr. Mario a puzzle game released on the NES in 1990.

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In Dr. Mario, you drop pills and rotate them to match the virus with three of the same pill colors in a row. The pill colors being red, blue or yellow. Each pill will have two pieces, some can be the same color, some can be different colors. If you match four with one of the pills that has a half pill hanging on, the half pill will fall down, giving you an opportunity to combo your next match.

You can press the A or B button to rotate the pill in alternating directions. You can pick which level you wish to play on. The higher the level, the more pills you have to worry about to clear. You can also set a speed which determines the pill fall speed. I prefer medium in my case.

Hirokazu Tanaka did the sound for this one, you can also set a music between fever, chill or none. I prefer Chill as my preference.

There are two game modes in Dr. Mario. Single player and in my opinion where Dr. Mario really shines, its multiplayer.

Call up a friend or in my case, my wife and here’s where it gets interesting. 2 player head to head features a combo system where if you match two, three or four virus’ in a row the opponent gets a random drop of a single pill per match. It can be really tough when you are planning your next move and suddenly you’ll have to improvise your next move.

In a multiplayer round, you win by either clearing all of the virus’ on your side of the screen or by having your opponent reach the top of the pill jar. First person to win three rounds wins.

So should you play it? If you have someone to play against and enjoy puzzle games, this one is definitely up your alley. I’m not a huge fan of the single player mode personally but it does allow you to practice for that day when you finally win a round in multiplayer.

Dr. Mario is also available on the NES Classic Edition