Dr. Mario, one of Nintendo’s most popular puzzle games, has been making house calls on nearly every Nintendo console since the NES.  But the gameplay has remained relatively unchanged.  And now Dr. Mario is on the 3DS eShop as a downloadable title, and includes not only Dr. Mario, but also Dr. Luigi and Virus Buster as well.  Better still, there is a new gameplay mechanic in the form of Miracle Cures, which are pills that can clear out even more viruses than before!  It’s a pretty neat collection of Dr. Mario fun, so let’s see what’s all in here.

The object in Dr. Mario is pretty simple and will remind players of other falling & rotating block games like Tetris.  Different colored viruses fill a bottle and it’s your job to clear them away with the pills that Dr. Mario or Luigi throw in.  If you match four of the same color together in a row or column, they disappear, including any viruses that are in the line with it.  You can also do combos and chain reactions, too.  You win the level if you clear the whole bottle of viruses, but you lose if you let the pills stack to the top of the screen.

The new gameplay element in this one comes in the form of Miracle Cures.  As you clear colors in Dr. Mario & Dr. Luigi, a meter fills up on the side of the bottle.  When it is full, you’ll get a pill that you can use to clear out more colors and viruses.  These pills have various effects.  Some will clear out one color in an area, while another will make anything around it disappear.  Other pills will clear out anything horizontally or vertically (or both).  This new gameplay element helps speed things along and gives new life to one of the older puzzle games out there.  There are also new ways to hinder the other player with Miracle Pills in Vs. and two player modes, too.  But if you are a Dr. Mario purist, you can always turn off the Miracle Cures before you start playing.

There are three main ways to play in this game.  Dr. Mario is the tried and true game you know and love.  Dr. Luigi first appeared on the Wii U eShop in 2013, in honor of The Year of Luigi anniversary celebration.  It plays just like Dr. Mario, but Luigi throws L shaped pills, which can make things easier at first, but tougher at harder levels when the pill colors get mixed up.  Finally is Virus Buster, where you use the touch screen to move and rotate the pills around.  Virus Buster was originally in the Brain Age game as a relaxation activity, so it’s quite a bit slower paced than anything else on here.  But it’s good they put it on this collection for good measure.

There are four game modes, and you can play Dr. Mario, Dr.Luigi, and Virus Buster in each one.  In Miracle Cure clinic, you can play stages in single player like little missions.  There are training stages that explain the rules of the game and the new Miracle pills, as well as Normal and Advanced missions.  In Custom Clinic, you can choose to play Endless Mode or Vs. Mode against the computer in Dr. Mario & Dr. Luigi, or play a relaxing round of Virus Buster.  You can choose the level of difficulty in each game.  You can also play online against others around the world, or challenge another human player locally through single cart play (meaning only one of you needs the game; the other can do all modes with you via Download Play).  You can even do co-op or vs. in Virus Buster, too!  Finally, toggle various gameplay features in the options mode.

The problems in Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure and few and far between, and are pretty minor.  I think the game could’ve used more stages in the mission mode.  And you don’t have the choice of music selection in this one, or at least I couldn’t find it.  There are two kinds of people in this world, those who play Dr. Mario with “Fever,” and the other “Chill.”  You’ve always been able to select them in other Dr. Mario titles, but why not this one?  Also, the single player Vs. Mode stages (against Wario & friends) from Dr. Mario 64 would’ve been nice to have, since you can only play against Luigi or Mario here.  But otherwise this is still a pretty decent collection of puzzlers, and at less than ten bucks, it’s a pretty good deal, too.

Kid Factor:

Violence is nearly non-existent.  When you clear out viruses, they just disappear and the cartoon viruses on the bottom screen in some modes just wiggle around and poof away.  Reading is helpful for the instructions and menus, but the game is pretty easy to figure out just by playing.  It’s a pretty decent puzzler for all ages, and is one of my mom’s favorite games, too!  Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews