Freak369's Full Review: Dr. Mario for Game Boy Color
Being a fan of puzzle games like Tetris and Klax, Dr. Mario was a game that spent more than a few hours playing on the Nintendo NES. Even though it requires a lot of cleaning and upkeep, it’s still one of my favorite games to play when I can’t sleep or have some spare time to kill. I’m not sure which game sucked more of my free time away when I was waiting for paint to dry or floor tiles to cure - Yoshi or Dr. Mario. Even though they are both older game titles they are still a lot of fun to play but almost impossible to beat unless you have the dexterity to keep plugging away at it. The real downfall of these early games is that there is no way to save your progress so you have to keep playing until you beat it. For me it’s something to play for a half hour then get frustrated with it and swear I’ll never play it again - but I always go back to it when I’m bored or in the mood to play a quick game. The graphics on this version of Dr. Mario are pretty crude and really reflect technology of the era [or lack there of]
Dr. Mario For Game Boy Color
The premise of the game is pretty simple - capsules are dropped from the top of the screen and you have to rotate them to best match blobs that are on the screen. When you line up four or more of the same color then it disappears from the screen and you get points for it. That sounds pretty easy right? Well, the longer you play the faster the game gets. You can start off on level one with a slow speed until you get the basics of the game but don’t get too cocky and kick it up to high speed right away, they start to drop faster and faster until you can’t keep up with them. There are a total of twenty levels to make your way through as well as two different types of music [fever or chill] that you can have playing as background music. There are three speeds that you can have the game running at - slow, medium and high. There is a two player option but since I am the only one that really loves this game, I play it in the one player mode.
Even though I do love the whole concept of the Dr. Mario game, this GameBoy version leaves a lot to be desired. I was so used to playing the NES version that I got spoiled with the colors and ease of gameplay. This isn’t that hard to pick up on or to beat the early levels but when you get into the ten plus stages, it gets hard to try and figure out where to properly place a piece - especially after you have been playing for a while and your eyes are getting strained. As far as the “color” - it’s minimal and mostly at the main screen. The blobs that are on the screen [the ones you have to clear to complete the level] are pulsating or blinking in white, gray or black. Since there are only three colors to choose from you might think that it is easy to complete the game but it’s not, the blobs are randomly scattered and the capsules that drop from the top of the screen rarely exactly match what you have available to you have to side stack them or get creative with where you place them.
If you are a fan of the old school games like Tertis, Klax, Pipe Dreams or anything that has a puzzle solving theme then chances are you will get a kick out of Dr. Mario but if you have an NES, spend the money on the cartridge unless you want a portable version for your GameBoy or GBA. I have to really wonder what the deal is with them saying that this is a great GameBoy Color game - the only colors that you are shown are the ones on the victory screen [for each level] and the background - I paid seven bucks for this used but it came with the box and instructions and I feel a little ripped off. I was expecting to get color capsules. When I asked the guy at the Video Exchange about this he looked it over and said that it was indeed a GameBoy Color game. The version for the original GameBoy has no color at all to it so Nintendo can get away with marketing this version for the BG Color because it does have color components to it. To me that’s like advertising apples for .59 cents a pound and when you get to the store they are the green tart ones for baking, not the red ones - they are still apples but they are worlds apart.
The Bottom Line
Even though the game lacks a little bit of color and doesn’t have the replay value of the NES version, it is still a nice thing to have if you like to play puzzle games. There are a total of twenty levels to beat but when you combine that with the three skill / speed levels - there’s a lot of variations that the game can take on. It is impossible to memorize screens or blob set ups so you don’t have to worry about getting the same pattern over and over but they music choices are pretty lame. Even so, I got this for seven dollars used at the video store. I could have gotten one that was cheaper but it didn’t come with the box or instructions and the cartridge did look pretty beat up so I splurged and spent two extra bucks for this one. I’m not disappointed with the game but with no way to save your progress or even pause a game, turn off the unit and restart it at a later time - you will have to invest a lot of time to beat it from level one. You can opt to start on any level you like but playing on level twenty is pretty freakin’ hard!
End Note: While I was waiting to post this I started playing around with the game and managed to beat level 20. The victory screen was a complete let down. It was an underwater scene with some nice music. It said, “Congratulations, Virus Level 20, Speed Med”. I was expecting something ‘more’ than that - and yes, I felt ripped off in a very big way. When I pressed the play button I got startled; it went to level 21 - I promptly died and got so frustrated I shut the game off. Stupid me, I should have pressed it again to see if it would stick at level 21 or take me back to level 20. The easiest way to ‘beat’ the game is to start on level 20 but you may have to kill yourself a few times until you get a lay out that has the pills on the screen low enough in pattern that you can knock out some of the doubles and free up some room
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