My Dr. Mario Sickness

When I was playing my original Game Boy, I didn’t have many games. My parents weren’t too keen on this whole video game thing and therefore were reluctant to buy me games. Most of the games in my tiny collection were purchased after many weeks of saving my precious allowance. As a result, I played a few games many times. Arguably the game I played the most was Dr. Mario. For a long time Tetris was my most frequent game, but it didn’t take me too long to master the art of “four lines at once” and to reach my personal plateau. That was it. Every game of Tetris felt the same to me. Not so with Dr. Mario.

For the uninitiated, the goal of the game is to clear the field of all the viruses. These baddies come in three flavours: red, blue, and yellow. Each field (shaped as a medicine bottle) is randomly populated with these evils and you have to match up coloured capsules which Mario tosses in the top. Any four-of-a-kind disappears, allowing you to not only clear up mistakes but also snag cool combinations such as sneaking capsules in between two nearby viruses. Every capsule has two sides, each coloured, giving you six possible combinations thereof. Even with a preview of the next three capsules it’s hard to plan given the fast pacing.

What I love about this game is that every play field is different from the last. While I always wanted to move on to the next level or a higher speed, I also found myself simply replaying the same level over and over with a different dissemination of viruses. For me, the art was in crafting brilliant combinations and watching them unfold. Defeating not just one or two, but three, four, or five viruses after planting that perfect capsule is an exhilaration I always enjoy.

Dr. Mario express coming to the DSi Ware catalogue was definitely a breaking point for me. I hadn’t played the game since my original Game Boy days and was eager to start again. Little did I know what I was unleashing upon myself. I would say that I’m definitely addicted. I’ve been late getting to bed for no other reason than when I would clear a screen I couldn’t move the cursor down to “Quit Game” before moving on. Having never played the console version of Dr. Mario, the bright colours are a wonderful new addition, as well as the “VS CPU” option. In that mode I try to make combos to release random capsule halves into my opponent’s screen while at the same time lamenting combinations of his own. This variation is particularly deadly since I will often get caught in a “Try Again?” loop: pushing myself further than ever before.

I’ve tried playing other games, but the last week or two has been pretty hectic, often leaving me only a few minutes to play. That’s what makes this game ideal, although I also find myself caught in a downward spiral where five minutes becomes the hour and a half I could not afford at the outset. This character flaw is the reason I don’t yet own a variation of Lumines or Peggle (though I think I’m about to crack).

The bottom line is this: I recommend all puzzle game enthusiasts/addicts check out Dr. Mario, and if I’m late posting to this blog again you can blame it on the game.

Until next time kittlings…