Dr. Mario World

When Dr. Mario World was first released, I was worried that it would just be another Candy Crush with virtually endless levels and premium boosters that become a necessity in the later stages. To a degree, I was right. I chose to pass on this one for the longest time, and it wasn't until the official end-of-life date for the game was announced that I thought I should finally try it. I had a mild case of FOMO, if you will. While all of the pressure to spend money was still very much in-tact, the microtransactions themselves were permanently disabled, which made me just comfortable enough to appreciate what the game was actually offering.

Dr. Mario World isn't Dr. Mario as you remember it, but the influence of the original is still clear enough. Beyond the aesthetic similarities seen in the pills and viruses, this new puzzler retains the structure of slowly whittling away at a screen full of colored blocks by color-matching three in a row. However, Dr. Mario World literally flips the board on its head and gives you far more control over your pill drops. Instead of guiding one pill at a time as it slowly descends on the screen, you can drop the pills at will, letting them fall or navigating them yourself. You can even hold a pill in place (although you can't reverse its descent) if you need a moment to think. My favorite maneuver was seeing that my next couple of pills were in the wrong order, dropping the first one to descend on its own, using the second one to clear space for the first, then placing the first where I needed it, all in just a second or two.

Different stages have gimmicks to try to add more variety, but they just end up being frustrating most of the time. I also found myself fighting against the move/time limit on occasion. That's all to the game as a whole isn't perfect, despite my previous praise. However, I was definitely surprised by how much fun I had and how driven I felt to keep completing stages. If nothing else, I can appreciate how the game was crafted to be conducive to the touch screen, but I think that appreciation would wane after anything longer than my short experience with the game. Ultimately, it's unfortunate that Dr. Mario World will soon be lost to time, but I think the fact that my time with it was so short really worked in its favor.

The game is available for Android here (as of 8/10/21): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nintendo.zama&hl=en_US&gl=US
The game is available for iOS here (as of 8/10/21): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dr-mario-world/id1440129313

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