Year released: 1990 (Game Boy)

Number of Players: 1-2 simultaneously

Mario takes on a new sickness with some pills he recently invented, resulting in Tetris-style puzzle gameplay.

Graphics: Same scenery as the NES version, but without color. The settings reminds me of some old LCD hand-held game (think Game & Watch).

Play control: Pills fall from the top of the screen one at a time. Down on the control pad to make the one you control at that time fall faster, left and right to move it left and right, A button to make it move clockwise, B to make it move counter-clockwise. Controlling the pills is easier on the Game Boy screen (or even the Super Game Boy screen) than on the NES; perhaps the sprites are bloated somewhat.

Sound: Great composition from the NES game without the same choice instruments. Sound effects seem original (as far as Game Boy games go).

Challenge: Clear the viruses by matching up their colors with the colors of the pills you get (solid white, solid black, and half of both being the three colors). You almost never get THE perfect pill, thus challenge presents itself. Challenge also takes form when viruses begin to grow more numerous (as you move on to later levels), taking up precious room. Oh, yeah, if you hadn't guessed, hitting the top of the screen means game over.

Gameplay: You can gather what the gameplay is like from the above. By the way, in two player mode, you both race to clear all of the viruses. If you clear two lines of a color or different colors at once (done not only side by side, but you can drop halves of pills--you just have to play the game to get it), you drop one half of a pill for every line you cleared at that time (minimum being two).

Bottom line: I'm not completely sure, but I believe Dr. Mario started a sub-genre in the Tetris-style puzzle genre. That is, matching a certain amount of whatever color to clear out stuff. If you like Tetris, Tetris Attack, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Pokemon Puzzle League (is that what it's called?) or any Tetris-style puzzle game, Dr. Mario is definetely worth checking out.

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