Review #8: Dr. Mario

No, not Dr. Mario Online RX for Wii, the original NES game.

This game will look pretty dated compared to the snazzed out RX, but considering it's from almost 20 years ago, it's no surprise.

Even with the 8-bit graphics, it shouldn't be hard to find yourself at home with the gameplay (all who don't have Online RX or this game, check out this section below).

Okay, a bit early, yes, but it's categorization time...

Graphics: Like I said, they're dated, but not bad for 1990. The colors are kinda grainy, the viruses don't look as totally awesome as in RX, but at the time where RX didn't even exist yet, this worked.

Graphics get: 8/10.

Sound: Well, take RX, remove the "Cough" and "Sneeze" tracks, and you pretty much have the music selection. But don't get me wrong, I like "Cough" and "Sneeze", but "Fever" and "Chill" will never be beaten by ANY puzzle game music, period. Both tunes are sure to get stuck in your head, as well as the title screen music, settings screen music, cutscene music, etc. Sound gets: 10/10

Story: It's Mario in a doctor costume destroying viruses by tossing multi-colored pills into a giant bottle with them. Since a puzzle game doesn't really need a story, I'm gonna skip this category.

Gameplay: Remember Tetris? Well, this is sorta like that game, but you now have enemies already in the field. You have to drop pill-shaped blocks, with two sections that can be different or of the same color (the colors used are red, yellow, and blue). There are 3 colors of viruses as well, and you must line up four half-pills of the same color for them to disappear. If a virus substitutes for a half-pill in a line of 4, it gets destroyed. Your goal is to get rid of all the viruses on screen. Sound simple? Well, when you get to 80 viruses (the highest level), things get ugly.

Overall, I'd say 9/10.

Controls: D-Pad: move pill. A: rotates pill clockwise. B: Rotates pill not-clockwise. Easy as pie, and it seems like there can't be any flaws for such simple controls. This category gets: 10/10.

FINAL SCORE:

(8+10+9+10)/4= 10/10 (rounded up for good measure).

Verdict: Well, if you can't find the NES version (since it's long out of print), get DM Online RX to experience the genius gameplay with even better graphics.