Dr. Mario

I wasn't always a fan of falling-block puzzle games like I am now. The stress of simultaneously planning and acting really put me off from the experience. I eventually warmed up to Tetris and its contemporaries, but I was still wary of Dr. Mario. I'm not sure what held me back, but I just had no interest in giving the game a chance. I have since come around to find that it offers a truly unique experience, and now I have a lot of fun with it.

Contrary to the typical structure of a falling-block puzzle game, Dr. Mario is not endless. When you start playing, your screen already has viruses scattered around, giving you a pre-determined playing field, rather than one you make for yourself like you would in Tetris. Viruses are cleared by connecting them with pills. Four or more units (viruses or pills) of the same color in a horizontal or vertical line will automatically be cleared. If only half of a pill is cleared, the unused portion will remain on the screen and fall down if it was suspended, allowing for some neat combos if you planned ahead. If you succeed in clearing every virus without running out of space to drop pills, then you move on to the next stage, where there may be even more viruses or the pills may fall faster.

Just playing the single-player mode can be fun, and I feel really accomplished when I manage to clear all of the viruses on a really messy stage, but I actually prefer the multiplayer mode when I have the option. After setting your preferred difficulty levels, you and your opponent try to clear stages faster than one another in a best-of-five format. Big combos or clears can result in junk pills falling on your opponent's field and disrupting their plans, making for a small level of interaction that can quickly as some fuel to the competition. There's not really a sense of progression when playing multiplayer, but it still makes for a fun option when you want to do something with a friend.

While Dr. Mario is completely unlike its mainline cousins, using Mario exclusively for the brand recognition, it as far from a bad game. To the contrary, in fact, Dr. Mario is one of the most enjoyable puzzle games on the NES, owing to its clever design, the flexibility of its difficulty, and its exciting multiplayer mode. It took me a while to come around on this title, but now that I have, I can't imagine any puzzle-game fans not playing it. Dr. Mario is a gem, and it's clear that Nintendo knows it based on how many times it has been ported and remastered. With the game being available in so many places, you should definitely be able to find a platform you'll enjoy playing it on, and I would recommend seeking it out.

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