where Dr Mario (at least the NES version) really shines is head to head play. fast paced gaming with combos allowing you to "bomb" the other player with random half pieces. what's more, the other player can't do anything while the "bomb" pieces are falling. really adds some strategy.
Totally echo this. Local multiplayer was what made the NES game fun; I couldn't be bothered to run up the score by getting double and triple combos just for points, but make it so four pieces slowly fall onto somebody else's board, and suddenly I'm making Rube Goldberg machines.
My sister was a huge Dr. Mario fan when we were kids - she used to take the NES into her room just to play the game for hours while listening to music. She always said the Game Boy was fine until you reached level 20, at which point that specific version didn't give you enough room to maneuver to finish the stages consistently. Apparently it's missing a line compared to the NES one?
I am not sure if the gameboy has 2 player. The NES has two player, and that really is where this game shines. It is a battle to finish first, while you can try to get the multiple drops, it will drop pills slowly on the other players side giving you more time and messing them up.
Fun fact: The height of the well is 16 units high in the NES version, but only 15 in the GB version, but the stacking of the viruses isn't adjusted, so the game basically becomes impossible at the highest virus setting because you can't lay down enough pills to eliminate the virus at the top without being extremely lucky. Also, kind of surprised the weirdly racist witch doctor commercial for this game didn't find its way into the episode as b-roll. At any rate, great work as always. Looking forward to what comes next (with a j-rock sound cue)!
I could honestly barely tell the discrepancy in the color even as it was being demonstrated. I just always saw "light," "dark" and "dotted." (Incidentally, I believe the red virus is "dark" and the blue virus is "dotted," if you look at the virus characters on the side and compare them to their NES counterparts.)
If you told me the coloration was the result of a bug or oversight on the part of the graphic team, I would have believed you -- in a sense, it's a game that's not really forward-compatible with colorization because they didn't notice their error before those devices came out. Consider how much the GB screen was prone to ghosting; in a game like this, it must have been really hard to detect the subtle difference on the original models. And for future, colorized ports, they made a SNES Dr. Mario (with Tetris!) so it's not exactly a Super GB must-have or anything, much as how the NES version also made it to GBA as part of the classics series. But, I mean, you can also just hold Left+B on startup if you're going to play it on a GBC or GBA and that'd probably be close enough for the same reason, that the differences in shade are minor enough that nobody noticed.
I was all “what’s the big deal” when he was explaining the different grey shade discrepancy but then when he showed how that would result in completely different colors in the Super Game Boy I let out a “oh no!”. Jeremy, as usual, is right on the money.
Compared to the NES version, "Fever" has a beautiful, beautiful little extension (which you can hear at 3:10) on the Game Boy. It also appears in the later renditions, but none of them get it quite right (except maybe Smash Bros Melee). It also plays the SMB Invicibility theme when you manage to pull off a 4-chain, which is a nice touch. Too bad the awesome title screen music is missing, though. I also like the ocean-themed cutscenes, which are a nice change from the tree-based cutscenes of the NES version. Some quality thought went into this port.
You've dramatically underrated Dr.Mario. It's terrific and there's a reason it's so beloved still, in a market as saturated as falling block puzzlers i don't see why such a "mediocre" game would still retain such cache. I think it's just not for you.
I agree with Kevlar44. This is the first time I’ve disagreed with something on this channel. The lack of color was never an issue for me. I never noticed the slight discoloration of the checkered pills. I sank an equal number of countless hours play this and Tetris. I still pick up and play both from time to time. After this version I can’t adjust to color versions of the game. I’m sure I have the minority opinion there.
I think the game manages to be engaging and addictive, because it has an engaging colour palate, fun character sprites, and some iconic sounding music. Plus it just sticks out more uniquely from other Mario games of the time.
On the SGB was pretty evident even with the Nintendo.chosen default palette. But on the origina hardware, with all the motion blur and low contrast, is less apparent.
I played a lot of Dr Mario as a kid, as well as Tetris, Zoop, Columns, and even Yoshi and later on, Yoshi's Cookie. Those games are super addictive, even to a 8-12 year old kid like I was back in the day.
I never knew about the color issue. Another issue with Dr. Mario on the Game Boy is the dimensions of the play area. All other version of Dr. Mario have a 16 x 8 play area while the Game Boy version is 15 x 8. Unfortunately the same number of virus appear in all version of the game so occasionally at level 20 a virus will appear with only 2 spaces above it, making it much more difficult to deal with.
What makes Dr. Mario standout for me is the philosphy behind it. You can actually win the game and not only drag out the moment you lose. I personally find the Game Boy version to be the most responsive and fun to play compared to newer versions (3DS for example). It also a really great multiplayer. As much as I love Tetris, Dr Mario is what I prefer.
Another fun bit of trivia regarding how all puzzle games of the time tended to be related to one another in no particular ordrer, is that both Tetris and Columns first releases in Japan were on SEGA arcade systems, in 1988 and 1990 respectively. On the System C-2, Columns would even launch alongside a game called Bloxeed, SEGA's very own and very official Tetris sequel, from which the company still had the rights for arcade exploitation (and arcade only) but chose not to use the name after the success of the Game Boy release a year prior, to avoid confusion and advertising of a rival company. (On an unrelated but still strangely coincidencial note, the System C-2 would also be host of a certain Puyo Puyo in 1992...)
One of the Dr. Mario tunes bears a striking resemblance to the music that plays when you encounter the hammer bro or boomerang enemies that walk around the map in SMB3.
Indeed, in the invention description of the patent for Dr. Mario, it states: "The above described 'TETRIS' game is a simple game in which only a plurality of blocks having different shapes are aligned laterally, and soon becomes monotonous and boring. In addition, blocks are the only characters appearing on the screen, and therefore this game has a simple dimensional quality." The patent mentions Tetris a couple of times, but not Columns, so I think it's safe to say that it was--more than likely--a coincidence. I find it funny that the patent calls Tetris "monotonous and boring." I like Tetris, but I prefer Dr. Mario. The goal of eliminating viruses within the playing field (the bottle), as opposed to just stacking blocks, is more interesting and engaging for me as a player.
I really like all your videos, but it made me a bit sad that you dont seem to appreciate or understand the brillance and the philosophy behind Dr Mario. The mechanics in Dr Mario are not so-so, they are great and the game is really easy to learn but hard to master. The head to head matches in Dr Mario World Championship on youtube are thrilling, and really shows the strenghts of the game. Keep up the good work!
Dr. Mario on Game Boy was one of the few games my grandparents had for their Game Boy I eventually got as a kid. I've probably played more of it than any other Tetris-like puzzle game. Definitely only second to Pokémon for most played Game Boy game for me.
I actually think the Game Boy version of Dr. Mario is a bit better than the NES version. There is something about the music I find slightly better than the NES version. Otherwise I think the game is one of the all time puzzle classics and I still enjoy it today. I also never noticed the color issue mentioned in this video. The game is definitely overly simple but that’s fine. I find it fun. I enjoy these videos quite a bit. Thanks for taking the time making them. I wish I had known about this channel a few years ago.
Gotta disagree with this being the worst version of the game. While I understand your complaints about it, black white and grey are very distinguishable on the screen, and being portable makes this a perfect "I've got five minutes" game. This is my absolute favorite Game Boy game, and hardly ever leaves my OG game boy.
Not sure if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but, I think Dr. Mario is vastly superior to Tetris. In fact, I find Tetris to get pretty boring after just a couple of minutes. Not saying Tetris is a bad game, just that Dr. Mario is more fun, more interesting, and can hold my attention for a way longer time.
Personally I would say that Dr Mario is the vastly superior vs human game compared to Tetris. The levels of strategy required in high level vs Dr Mario is leagues above the rather mundane "who can make a tetris first" strategy of Tetris.
I usually love your analysis of games but on this one I think you don't understand how to play the game well enough to really understand the magic and complexity it holds. When you learn to set up combos that kill 10 to 15 viruses in a single move it's more complex than Tetris. Hell I tend to glitch and freeze the game almost daily by setting up combos so big the hardware doesn't understand how to deal with it.
This version is getting released on Nintendo Switch Online on March 12, 2024. Personally I'm excited. I've already put over fifty hours into the NES version on Switch and would like the variety.
For some reason, I always thought this was one of those games where the GB version was superior to the NES version (ala Tetris). However, I never actually played this version... Your video has shown me the error of my decades old thoughts, Jeremy. Thanks! (For real.) I love Game Boy World and Good Nintentions! Keep up the fantastic work!
This was my first exposure to Game Boy World, and I'm now hooked. Please keep my wallet in your thoughts as I buy both books in color as black and white.
Hmm, definitely going to agree to disagree on this one. I concede that it's nowhere near as good as Tetris, but despite that, it's simplicity lends itself to that addictive quality by virtue of being so simplistic, as to be easy to pick up, easy to grasp, and then difficult to master as you advance in levels and the game gets faster. Granted, it's a much more stripped down experience, but like Columns, it can be addictive in its own right. It's also one of the few Game Boy games I had the ability to experience in 2-player mode, as at least 2 of my friends also had this game, and we played it together on multiple occasions. So while I fully admit that nostalgia is a factor, I think the game is perhaps a bit better than you give it credit for. Either way, you're spot-on with the soundtrack. It's so catchy, and those songs get stuck in your head and can be recalled at the craziest times.
I think there was a demand at the time for more games like Tetris so that players could have some variety and Dr. Mario was a lot of fun even if it lacked the depth of Tetris. Even though Dr. Mario for Game Boy wasn't a perfect port, I think it still felt like less of a downgrade from its NES counterpart than when a lot of franchises in other genres such as platforming tried to go portable.
"If you have to pick a Game Boy puzzler to play, stick with Tetris." ...Or Tetris Attack, the best puzzle game in my opinion. Too bad the Game Boy version suffers from the same problems Dr. Mario does, namely that there's no real color. Pokémon Puzzle Challenge for the GBC came out a few years later though, and it's easily one of the best versions of the game. It's portable, it can save without passwords, and it has a soul unlike the later releases of "Puzzle League" for the GBA and DS.
The difficulty in the later stages of Pokémon Puzzle Challenge is no joke either. Too bad the 3DS Virtual Console version doesn't allow for a two-player mode, but its a very good game anyway. SNES Tetris Attack is still the definitive version of the game for me. Pokémon Puzzle League on N64 is great too, unfortunately the 64's d-pad doesn't quite allow for the high levels of play that were possible on SNES.
The SNES version is a close second for me. Sure, it looks and sounds better, but the GBC version is portable, can save, and has tons of unlockables. It even has a hidden Panel de Pon GB beta in it! It's not that useful or anything because it's basically the same game with less options, but you can supposedly still play that one even if you put the cartridge in a Game Boy or Super Game Boy, because as we know, the normal game won't start on those systems. I'm not a big fan of Pokémon Puzzle League, however. Sure, the gameplay is the same, which is great, but the anime theme and the midi 2BA Master soundtrack make it seem really cheap to me. It doesn't help either that the default block patterns are not the usual Tetris Attack ones, but at least you can change that. I think it's also the only Pokémon game that never came out in Japan.
Kristóf Muzsik Good points, but the two-player mode in SNES Tetris Attack puts it over any other version for me. There's nothing like two top players going at each other with all they've got and the game barely keeping up with the speed and intensity.
luisguillermojg Yeah, you're right on that... Too bad none of my friends are that good at the game, so I never really got any intense action from the multiplayer. But it's still fun.
Interesting how the gameplay of Dr. Mario would go on to further inspire PC- and Sega-adjacent puzzlers, as this is a very clear inspiration for Compile's later Nazo Puyo (which, in fact, got added to the 8-bit localizations of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine for Game Gear and Master System)
I think you hit it on the money. Dr. Mario is well designed and addictive, but it feels somehow lesser than other falling block games. For what its worth though, I'd rather play this over Tetris Blast any day of the week. See me in Quarth though--
Nah bro, I don't agree.. I like Dr. Mario more than Tetris. I by 33.000 views with only 691 likes, I think I'm not the only one. I never played Dr. Mario in the 90s. I played it 2019 for the first time, and since then its the most played game. Even my last two girlfriends loved it. It aged very well (in contrast to flat chested ex girlfriend)
I totally understand that Dr. Mario hovers just above mediocrity but I feel I owe it something. It helped get me out of a serious funk in my 20's. Something about keeping my stack organized and defeating viruses helped set my thoughts straight. Or something like that. Good show as usual.
Oh man, I gotta disagree with this one. IMO, Dr. Mario is definitely better than Tetris or Puyo Puyo, and the reason why has a lot to do with the game's take on gravity. In short, Tetris has not enough gravity, Puyo Puyo too much. In Tetris blocks simply have no gravity once placed. Chain reactions are completely impossible, which is boring. And you're basically always focused on the top of the playfield, not the whole playfield (since leaving holes is bad). Puyo Puyo meanwhile has gravity and chain reactions... but gravity applies to individual blocks rather than to block pairs, meaning that there are no holes; the playfield never takes on an interesting shape. And it's just so free with how you can match four! Meanwhile, Dr. Mario unlike Tetris applies gravity, but unlike Puyo-Puyo does so on a per-pill basis (and exempts viruses from it entirely); this allows for the playfield to take on interesting structures that aren't possible in Puyo Puyo (and would be disastrous in Tetris), while also allowing for exciting chain reactions (but because the four have to be in a line, doing so requires more spatial awareness than Puyo Puyo does). I really think Dr. Mario is the best of the three and so much of it is because of the gravity. Sure, there's fewer pieces, but their interaction is more complex. It is, IMO, a more *spatial* game. (Alos, as other commenters have mentioned, breaking the game into discrete levels with specific goals also helps.)
Dr mario and also dr klax in my opinion don’t belong on gameboy because they both require colors to make objects distingible from each other and turning those colors into
Over the years, I've come to realize that Dr. Mario isn't a great game, a truth that saddens my inner child. It's just so slow, and the skill ceiling is too low. That said, I have learned that excelling in versus mode requires much more thought than I ever knew.
![Game Boy World #040: Space Invaders [Taito, 1990] & Space Invaders [Taito/Nintendo, 1994]](/img/n.gif)
I'm not sure you're giving Dr. Mario enough credit. It's SO addictive, I still play it literally every day. And I really enjoy the Game Boy version.
Agreed. The depth comes from balancing reaction time and careful planning.
It's a good game. I got the NES version for my birthday from my aunt when the game first came out.
I never played the Gameboy version.
where Dr Mario (at least the NES version) really shines is head to head play. fast paced gaming with combos allowing you to "bomb" the other player with random half pieces. what's more, the other player can't do anything while the "bomb" pieces are falling. really adds some strategy.
Totally echo this. Local multiplayer was what made the NES game fun; I couldn't be bothered to run up the score by getting double and triple combos just for points, but make it so four pieces slowly fall onto somebody else's board, and suddenly I'm making Rube Goldberg machines.
Combo are the new mechanic that tetris didn't have back then.
This and the level and speed options really adds depth.
Dr. Mario is still my favorite competitive puzzler! Yes, even more than Puzzle Fighter and Puyo Pop!
My sister was a huge Dr. Mario fan when we were kids - she used to take the NES into her room just to play the game for hours while listening to music. She always said the Game Boy was fine until you reached level 20, at which point that specific version didn't give you enough room to maneuver to finish the stages consistently. Apparently it's missing a line compared to the NES one?
Oh my god fancy seeing you here mr Atari archive
Personally I never had any problem distinguishing the 3 colours from each other. I don't think it was much of a problem on original hardware.
I am not sure if the gameboy has 2 player. The NES has two player, and that really is where this game shines. It is a battle to finish first, while you can try to get the multiple drops, it will drop pills slowly on the other players side giving you more time and messing them up.
Fun fact: The height of the well is 16 units high in the NES version, but only 15 in the GB version, but the stacking of the viruses isn't adjusted, so the game basically becomes impossible at the highest virus setting because you can't lay down enough pills to eliminate the virus at the top without being extremely lucky.
Also, kind of surprised the weirdly racist witch doctor commercial for this game didn't find its way into the episode as b-roll.
At any rate, great work as always. Looking forward to what comes next (with a j-rock sound cue)!
Just looked up that commercial...ohhhhh nooooo D:
Search for Cartoons Witch Doctor, it's the lady in the Elvis costume, the music video is really unfortunate too.. D:
Tetris on the Game Boy has a similar issue.
I could honestly barely tell the discrepancy in the color even as it was being demonstrated. I just always saw "light," "dark" and "dotted." (Incidentally, I believe the red virus is "dark" and the blue virus is "dotted," if you look at the virus characters on the side and compare them to their NES counterparts.)
If you told me the coloration was the result of a bug or oversight on the part of the graphic team, I would have believed you -- in a sense, it's a game that's not really forward-compatible with colorization because they didn't notice their error before those devices came out. Consider how much the GB screen was prone to ghosting; in a game like this, it must have been really hard to detect the subtle difference on the original models.
And for future, colorized ports, they made a SNES Dr. Mario (with Tetris!) so it's not exactly a Super GB must-have or anything, much as how the NES version also made it to GBA as part of the classics series. But, I mean, you can also just hold Left+B on startup if you're going to play it on a GBC or GBA and that'd probably be close enough for the same reason, that the differences in shade are minor enough that nobody noticed.
I was all “what’s the big deal” when he was explaining the different grey shade discrepancy but then when he showed how that would result in completely different colors in the Super Game Boy I let out a “oh no!”. Jeremy, as usual, is right on the money.
Compared to the NES version, "Fever" has a beautiful, beautiful little extension (which you can hear at 3:10) on the Game Boy. It also appears in the later renditions, but none of them get it quite right (except maybe Smash Bros Melee).
It also plays the SMB Invicibility theme when you manage to pull off a 4-chain, which is a nice touch. Too bad the awesome title screen music is missing, though.
I also like the ocean-themed cutscenes, which are a nice change from the tree-based cutscenes of the NES version. Some quality thought went into this port.
You've dramatically underrated Dr.Mario. It's terrific and there's a reason it's so beloved still, in a market as saturated as falling block puzzlers i don't see why such a "mediocre" game would still retain such cache. I think it's just not for you.
I agree with Kevlar44. This is the first time I’ve disagreed with something on this channel. The lack of color was never an issue for me. I never noticed the slight discoloration of the checkered pills. I sank an equal number of countless hours play this and Tetris. I still pick up and play both from time to time. After this version I can’t adjust to color versions of the game. I’m sure I have the minority opinion there.
I think the game manages to be engaging and addictive, because it has an engaging colour palate, fun character sprites, and some iconic sounding music. Plus it just sticks out more uniquely from other Mario games of the time.
I think it also has one of the most iconic box arts of any game on the Nes.
Naw, Dr. Mario is kinda boring.
I've never noticed that discrepancy in colour at all..
On the SGB was pretty evident even with the Nintendo.chosen default palette. But on the origina hardware, with all the motion blur and low contrast, is less apparent.
I played a lot of Dr Mario as a kid, as well as Tetris, Zoop, Columns, and even Yoshi and later on, Yoshi's Cookie. Those games are super addictive, even to a 8-12 year old kid like I was back in the day.
I never knew about the color issue.
Another issue with Dr. Mario on the Game Boy is the dimensions of the play area. All other version of Dr. Mario have a 16 x 8 play area while the Game Boy version is 15 x 8. Unfortunately the same number of virus appear in all version of the game so occasionally at level 20 a virus will appear with only 2 spaces above it, making it much more difficult to deal with.
Yep, I'll make mention of this fact in the book for sure.
You know, GB isn't my go to source for BGMs, but with this and X, I may have to look into more soundtracks for these games. Some really dope tunes.
It took a while, but now we are finally back to a major first party game!
I actually regret not getting the Game Boy version of "Dr. Mario" for my eight birthday when I ended up getting the Game Boy version of "Paperboy". :(
I am forced to hear my own made up lyrics on the "chill" song. "I'm over here, now I'm right over there. I'm over there now I'm back over here."
What makes Dr. Mario standout for me is the philosphy behind it. You can actually win the game and not only drag out the moment you lose. I personally find the Game Boy version to be the most responsive and fun to play compared to newer versions (3DS for example). It also a really great multiplayer. As much as I love Tetris, Dr Mario is what I prefer.
Another fun bit of trivia regarding how all puzzle games of the time tended to be related to one another in no particular ordrer, is that both Tetris and Columns first releases in Japan were on SEGA arcade systems, in 1988 and 1990 respectively. On the System C-2, Columns would even launch alongside a game called Bloxeed, SEGA's very own and very official Tetris sequel, from which the company still had the rights for arcade exploitation (and arcade only) but chose not to use the name after the success of the Game Boy release a year prior, to avoid confusion and advertising of a rival company.
(On an unrelated but still strangely coincidencial note, the System C-2 would also be host of a certain Puyo Puyo in 1992...)
JP I love your vids so much. I watch them as I’m falling asleep. I’ve fallen asleep to Dr. Mario 3 times now.
4 times
One of the Dr. Mario tunes bears a striking resemblance to the music that plays when you encounter the hammer bro or boomerang enemies that walk around the map in SMB3.
Dr. Mario wipes the floor with Tetris. No contest.
Indeed, in the invention description of the patent for Dr. Mario, it states: "The above described 'TETRIS' game is a simple game in which only a plurality of blocks having different shapes are aligned laterally, and soon becomes monotonous and boring. In addition, blocks are the only characters appearing on the screen, and therefore this game has a simple dimensional quality." The patent mentions Tetris a couple of times, but not Columns, so I think it's safe to say that it was--more than likely--a coincidence. I find it funny that the patent calls Tetris "monotonous and boring." I like Tetris, but I prefer Dr. Mario. The goal of eliminating viruses within the playing field (the bottle), as opposed to just stacking blocks, is more interesting and engaging for me as a player.
I really like all your videos, but it made me a bit sad that you dont seem to appreciate or understand the brillance and the philosophy behind Dr Mario. The mechanics in Dr Mario are not so-so, they are great and the game is really easy to learn but hard to master. The head to head matches in Dr Mario World Championship on youtube are thrilling, and really shows the strenghts of the game. Keep up the good work!
Dr. Mario on Game Boy was one of the few games my grandparents had for their Game Boy I eventually got as a kid. I've probably played more of it than any other Tetris-like puzzle game. Definitely only second to Pokémon for most played Game Boy game for me.
The fan hack "Dr. Mario DX" adds color back in and it is great.
Was not expecting to hear an obscure Ranma song at the end of a video on Dr. Mario...
One of gameboys best! Still play this to this day!
I actually think the Game Boy version of Dr. Mario is a bit better than the NES version. There is something about the music I find slightly better than the NES version. Otherwise I think the game is one of the all time puzzle classics and I still enjoy it today. I also never noticed the color issue mentioned in this video. The game is definitely overly simple but that’s fine. I find it fun.
I enjoy these videos quite a bit. Thanks for taking the time making them. I wish I had known about this channel a few years ago.
I recognize that voice at the end...
So uncute!
Gotta disagree with this being the worst version of the game. While I understand your complaints about it, black white and grey are very distinguishable on the screen, and being portable makes this a perfect "I've got five minutes" game. This is my absolute favorite Game Boy game, and hardly ever leaves my OG game boy.
I could never get into Dr Mario.... but Tetris was my jam. So many hours I played Tetris on the Gameboy!
Harsh. Definitely one of the gameboy games I dedicated the most of my time to when I was a kid. NES version is far superior though.
Not sure if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but, I think Dr. Mario is vastly superior to Tetris. In fact, I find Tetris to get pretty boring after just a couple of minutes. Not saying Tetris is a bad game, just that Dr. Mario is more fun, more interesting, and can hold my attention for a way longer time.
Personally I would say that Dr Mario is the vastly superior vs human game compared to Tetris. The levels of strategy required in high level vs Dr Mario is leagues above the rather mundane "who can make a tetris first" strategy of Tetris.
Considering the presence of the Ranma 1/2 Baka song, next time is a Ranma 1/2 game?
I usually love your analysis of games but on this one I think you don't understand how to play the game well enough to really understand the magic and complexity it holds. When you learn to set up combos that kill 10 to 15 viruses in a single move it's more complex than Tetris. Hell I tend to glitch and freeze the game almost daily by setting up combos so big the hardware doesn't understand how to deal with it.
I get it, I just don't think that sort of slow/meticulous design makes for a fun approach to puzzlers.
This version is getting released on Nintendo Switch Online on March 12, 2024. Personally I'm excited. I've already put over fifty hours into the NES version on Switch and would like the variety.
7:47 - "We have to pray just to make it today. We have to pray just to make it today. . ."
For some reason, I always thought this was one of those games where the GB version was superior to the NES version (ala Tetris). However, I never actually played this version... Your video has shown me the error of my decades old thoughts, Jeremy. Thanks! (For real.) I love Game Boy World and Good Nintentions! Keep up the fantastic work!
This was my first exposure to Game Boy World, and I'm now hooked. Please keep my wallet in your thoughts as I buy both books in color as black and white.
'...stick with Tetris', you could pretty much say that for any puzzle game on the Game Boy. Tetris is that good.
Hmm, definitely going to agree to disagree on this one. I concede that it's nowhere near as good as Tetris, but despite that, it's simplicity lends itself to that addictive quality by virtue of being so simplistic, as to be easy to pick up, easy to grasp, and then difficult to master as you advance in levels and the game gets faster. Granted, it's a much more stripped down experience, but like Columns, it can be addictive in its own right. It's also one of the few Game Boy games I had the ability to experience in 2-player mode, as at least 2 of my friends also had this game, and we played it together on multiple occasions. So while I fully admit that nostalgia is a factor, I think the game is perhaps a bit better than you give it credit for. Either way, you're spot-on with the soundtrack. It's so catchy, and those songs get stuck in your head and can be recalled at the craziest times.
I think there was a demand at the time for more games like Tetris so that players could have some variety and Dr. Mario was a lot of fun even if it lacked the depth of Tetris. Even though Dr. Mario for Game Boy wasn't a perfect port, I think it still felt like less of a downgrade from its NES counterpart than when a lot of franchises in other genres such as platforming tried to go portable.
"If you have to pick a Game Boy puzzler to play, stick with Tetris." ...Or Tetris Attack, the best puzzle game in my opinion. Too bad the Game Boy version suffers from the same problems Dr. Mario does, namely that there's no real color. Pokémon Puzzle Challenge for the GBC came out a few years later though, and it's easily one of the best versions of the game. It's portable, it can save without passwords, and it has a soul unlike the later releases of "Puzzle League" for the GBA and DS.
The difficulty in the later stages of Pokémon Puzzle Challenge is no joke either. Too bad the 3DS Virtual Console version doesn't allow for a two-player mode, but its a very good game anyway.
SNES Tetris Attack is still the definitive version of the game for me. Pokémon Puzzle League on N64 is great too, unfortunately the 64's d-pad doesn't quite allow for the high levels of play that were possible on SNES.
The SNES version is a close second for me. Sure, it looks and sounds better, but the GBC version is portable, can save, and has tons of unlockables. It even has a hidden Panel de Pon GB beta in it! It's not that useful or anything because it's basically the same game with less options, but you can supposedly still play that one even if you put the cartridge in a Game Boy or Super Game Boy, because as we know, the normal game won't start on those systems.
I'm not a big fan of Pokémon Puzzle League, however. Sure, the gameplay is the same, which is great, but the anime theme and the midi 2BA Master soundtrack make it seem really cheap to me. It doesn't help either that the default block patterns are not the usual Tetris Attack ones, but at least you can change that. I think it's also the only Pokémon game that never came out in Japan.
Kristóf Muzsik Good points, but the two-player mode in SNES Tetris Attack puts it over any other version for me. There's nothing like two top players going at each other with all they've got and the game barely keeping up with the speed and intensity.
luisguillermojg Yeah, you're right on that... Too bad none of my friends are that good at the game, so I never really got any intense action from the multiplayer. But it's still fun.
Okay fuck off. Puzzle league is a million times more charming than you give it credit for.
Interesting how the gameplay of Dr. Mario would go on to further inspire PC- and Sega-adjacent puzzlers, as this is a very clear inspiration for Compile's later Nazo Puyo (which, in fact, got added to the 8-bit localizations of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine for Game Gear and Master System)
Netflix and Chill? How bout Fever and Chill instead. ;)
i have the japanese version because they were selling it at the local games store and its so addictive dude
In my experience people really like Dr. Mario, probably the closest that any of the Tetris-likes ever came to Tetris.
I think you hit it on the money. Dr. Mario is well designed and addictive, but it feels somehow lesser than other falling block games. For what its worth though, I'd rather play this over Tetris Blast any day of the week.
See me in Quarth though--
Nah bro, I don't agree.. I like Dr. Mario more than Tetris. I by 33.000 views with only 691 likes, I think I'm not the only one.
I never played Dr. Mario in the 90s. I played it 2019 for the first time, and since then its the most played game. Even my last two girlfriends loved it. It aged very well (in contrast to flat chested ex girlfriend)
What is the song playing at the end of this video?!!
Fever > Chills
What!? No!
Jeremy Parish
M. Bison: Yes! Yes! Yes!
Get this classless heathen out of here. ;)
1:08 an accurate description of western medicine/big pharma, sir.
I totally understand that Dr. Mario hovers just above mediocrity but I feel I owe it something. It helped get me out of a serious funk in my 20's. Something about keeping my stack organized and defeating viruses helped set my thoughts straight. Or something like that. Good show as usual.
It's a good version. 😀👍🎮👨⚕️
The Game Boy version is superior to the NES version solely because of the NES version having an incomplete version of the Fever song.
Oh man, I gotta disagree with this one. IMO, Dr. Mario is definitely better than Tetris or Puyo Puyo, and the reason why has a lot to do with the game's take on gravity. In short, Tetris has not enough gravity, Puyo Puyo too much. In Tetris blocks simply have no gravity once placed. Chain reactions are completely impossible, which is boring. And you're basically always focused on the top of the playfield, not the whole playfield (since leaving holes is bad). Puyo Puyo meanwhile has gravity and chain reactions... but gravity applies to individual blocks rather than to block pairs, meaning that there are no holes; the playfield never takes on an interesting shape. And it's just so free with how you can match four! Meanwhile, Dr. Mario unlike Tetris applies gravity, but unlike Puyo-Puyo does so on a per-pill basis (and exempts viruses from it entirely); this allows for the playfield to take on interesting structures that aren't possible in Puyo Puyo (and would be disastrous in Tetris), while also allowing for exciting chain reactions (but because the four have to be in a line, doing so requires more spatial awareness than Puyo Puyo does). I really think Dr. Mario is the best of the three and so much of it is because of the gravity. Sure, there's fewer pieces, but their interaction is more complex. It is, IMO, a more *spatial* game. (Alos, as other commenters have mentioned, breaking the game into discrete levels with specific goals also helps.)
Dr.Mario is just the better version of Tetris
Great episode!
Dr mario and also dr klax in my opinion don’t belong on gameboy because they both require colors to make objects distingible from each other and turning those colors into
Over the years, I've come to realize that Dr. Mario isn't a great game, a truth that saddens my inner child. It's just so slow, and the skill ceiling is too low. That said, I have learned that excelling in versus mode requires much more thought than I ever knew.
I agree that the gameboy version of this is the weakest, the N64 version is freakin fantastic
There is literally no difference in the shades of gray in your own video. You've misrepresented the game here. A first.
There is literally a difference in the shades of gray in his own video. You've misrepresented the video here. Probably not a first.