Technical Information
Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 1990
One experiment got out of control, and viruses started growing uncontrollably. But Dr. Mario has a trump card! He developed a vitamin that can eliminate them. At least that’s the story the game manual tells!
Dr. Mario is a puzzle game with the simplest possible rules. Its objective is to eliminate all the viruses present on the screen.
Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole
Graphics and UI
The graphics were excellent and took full advantage of the NES capabilities.
The only thing that bothered me is that the background color never changes! 🙁
The game itself is intuitive to comprehend.
Before starting a match, the player can adjust the number of viruses, the speed at which vitamins fall, and the background music.
On the gameplay screen, viruses appear on the left side, along with the score. On the right side, there’s the level, speed, and remaining viruses to eliminate.
Soundtrack and Sound Effects
There are only three available music tracks for gameplay, which can make the game feel repetitive in a short time.
I confess that after some focused playing time, I stopped paying attention to it altogether, but I think it’s important that the music helps the player feel more immersed in the game instead of feeling tired.
Gameplay
Right from the start, the player can configure their difficulty preferences before beginning the match.
The objective is to eliminate all the viruses on the screen. Each virus has a color, and you need to combine three pills of the same color to destroy it.
Vitamins are divided into two parts, which can have the same color or not.
The game’s physics aren’t the best, as pieces aren’t very flexible (once they hit a virus or vitamin, you can’t move them quickly if you’ve placed them there by mistake). But this doesn’t hinder the game in any way, it’s just a matter of adaptation.
Unfortunately, there is no storyline mode.
Your objective is only to accumulate score. Having only one goal can make the game feel repetitive after some time, as there’s no sense of progress.
In multiplayer mode, the player who destroys the viruses first wins. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to play against a bot in this mode. 🙁
Replayability and Game Retention
The game is infinite, you can start over whenever you want and spend hours accumulating score.
An excellent casual game option for killing time or entertaining yourself without commitment.
