Friday, August 5, 2011

Dr. Mario (NES Game)


This is my wife's favorite NES game, probably based solely on the fact that she is the ultimate champ as far as Dr. Mario is concerned. I have never seen anyone best her and I doubt I ever will. When she can't talk someone into playing against her, she'll just play by herself by starting on level 20 where all but a half inch of the screen is covered in viruses. It's really a thing to behold.

Dr. Mario is one of many puzzle games that came in the wake of Tetris. Much like Tetris, Dr. Mario drops pieces from above and requires you to position them correctly as they fall. Your goal is to kill all the viruses in any given level, hence the Doctor part of the title. Viruses are apparently easily killed by stacking four pills of matching color on top of them. It makes me wonder if cancer and AIDS are just odd colors, like a Navajo White that's just an impossible hue to nail exactly. I imagine rooms filled with eggshell, beige, and autumn harvest colored pills that didn't cure anything.

Anyway, Dr. Mario is a simple yet highly enjoyable puzzler. The music is catchy, the gameplay is easy to learn, the two player mode is just as fun as two player Tetris if not more so. Dr. Mario really has a lot going for it. Not only that, it's my wife's favorite game.

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