judyonthenet

I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Dr. Mario (Online Rx)

June 25, 2008 By: Judy Category: Reviews, Video Games

I bought Dr. Mario Online Rx at the end of the May, right when it came out on WiiWare. It’s my first (and currently only) WiiWare game and probably my last download for a while until Nintendo comes up with a decent storage solution. (My Wii truly is full. I can’t even download the update for Dr. Mario Online Rx, whatever it does.) I paid 1000 Wii Points for it, which is equivalent to $10. Considering how simple the game is and how little it’s changed over the years, I’d prefer cheaper. However, considering the amount of time I’ve spent playing this game the last few weeks, I’d have to say I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth already.

Kelvin playing some guy named Moose.

If you don’t know what Dr. Mario is or have never played it, well, it’s simple. REALLY simple. Basically, there’s three colors of viruses (blocks) all over your screen, and you get rid of them by lining up blocks of four of the same color with dropped pills (combos of two colored blocks). The goal is to get rid of all the viruses. So yeah, simple. This game is so simple it appeals to everybody, even mommies. (I didn’t have Dr. Mario as a kid, so my mom preferred Tetris. Kelvin’s mom liked Dr. Mario tho.) When you’re playing against opponents to be the first to remove your viruses, multiple lines removed will lead to random blocks dropped on your opponents, often times messing up their block setups and screwing up their flow by making them wait for blocks to fall.

A couple other gameplay modes have been added to the game. “Classic” mode is where you aim to get rid of all the viruses on your screen, while the new “Flash” has you aiming for 3 specific viruses amidst other viruses. In single player, you can play for high score, or you can play against the computer in Versus. The computer is surprisingly good… or maybe I just surprisingly suck. I thought I was okay at Dr. Mario, but the computer kicked my ass on friggin’ Normal! I don’t even want to talk about Hard.

They’ve also added a new spin on the Dr. Mario game called Virus Blasters. Jessica tells me this game is already available in the DS game Brain Age 2. This is where there is one screen of viruses, and any player with a Wiimote grabs a falling pill by pointing their Wiimote and dragging down the pill. One thing that’s slightly different (outside of the control scheme) is that, when only half of a pill attaches to something, you can drag the leftover half elsewhere. Usually if the pill falls on something, the whole pill is stuck. Virus Busters is interesting in that multiple players share the same screen, and up to 4 players can play together, which makes it a viable party game. I don’t know how fun it is with 4 people since I haven’t tried it; it’s not bad with two, but I’m still partial to Classic mode.

Me and some buddies chasing some viruses in Virus Buster

In fact, most of the time I play this game, it’s against Kelvin in versus. We’re not too far apart in skill level, so it’s not unbalanced towards one person. Even if it was, there’s options to change the number of viruses and speed of the pills falling for each player, so you can assign handicaps. Actually, messing with these options lead to radically different games. Maxing out the viruses leaves a tiny empty space at the top, allowing little room for error, making it a race to do the first combo to mess up what little space your opponent has left and likely eliminate them from the getgo. Putting the least amount of viruses leaves you with a handful of viruses in a lot of empty space, making it an all out speed contest to eliminate the viruses, with combos hurting your opponent through falling time. The real difficulty changes with the speed option, as time to rotate your pill and decide where to place them is crucial. The virus level seems more to make the game longer or shorter. Right now, Kelvin and I are enjoying the max-out on virii with speed on slow setting.

This match was really close. Of course, I messed up placing the last yellow-blue
pill. Tho Kelvin had just messed up before I messed that up. But as you can tell,
my mess-up from way earlier really jacked me to the end.

If you don’t have roommates, family, or a significant other living with you to be your Dr. Mario rival, it’s cool. The developers have made the (obvious) addition of online play. Of course, this is Nintendo we’re talking about, so you’ve got lame-o friend codes, and you can’t customize the things you say or pick strangers to play with. Nintendo does all the player matching for you, and there’s a set list of 8 phrases you can in between matches. I don’t mind this too much, as the idea of playing with complete strangers intimidates me, so their limited speech kind of makes me feel better when they kick my ass. (I’m telling you, there’s some Dr. Mario fiends on there. And I’m sure it comes as a surprise to no one that the top ranked players are all Japanese.) You can’t customize the game settings for random online play, either. You can play with your friends with friend codes, but I haven’t had a chance to try this out, as neither of my two Dr. Mario friends are ever online at the same time as me. (It’s kinda annoying how their names won’t show up until they’re on the same time as you, so my list is currently just a list of numbers.) The game also keeps track of some ranking score thing, but I’m indifferent to it. Unlike local battles, the game keeps track of your win-loss record overall, along with the score of the current opponent you’re fighting. (I really wish they had this for local.) I feel that multiplayer is the real fun of Dr. Mario, so online play was definitely a necessary addition.

In depth conversation on Dr. Mario.

That said, why don’t they have 4-player Dr. Mario?!? This omission really pieves me, as 4-player multiplayer was available in the N64/Gamecube versions of Dr. Mario. Do you know how many hours I spent playing Dr. Mario with Rodney and Jamie in college? A lot! It was hella fun! Now I spend $10 for a new spiffy version of the game that is minus a feature? Lame! I’m not asking for 4-player online, just local. It’s a great party game. I hope one day there will be an update to put this feature back in. Also, you can’t play Virus Busters online, which I thought was strange since it does have local 4-player.

I have no friends :(

I really dig the new, clean look of the game. The old versions of Dr. Mario have always been pretty dark, while in Online Rx everything is very white and sterile looking, much like anything else Wii-related. In single player you are still Dr. Mario tossing pills; in multiplayer you play your Mii. Miis show up chasing viruses in Virus Busters, and in single player Dr. Mario they jump around and cheer for you when you win. I know some people aren’t fans of Miis, but I love them. Anything integrating Miis is always a plus for me.

(These images were yoinked from IGN.)

On NES

On N64

On Wii

Anyway, I dig this new Dr. Mario. I haven’t played anything else on WiiWare, but I’m willing to go out there and say this is the best thing offered on WiiWare at the moment. If you’re not willing to spend the $10, you can download a demo that only allows online play with friends for free. It’s available through the Nintendo Channel on the Wii, or you can get a friend who owns the game to send you the demo.

Oh yeah, and be my Dr. Mario friend please. 5652+7731+9520

(If I ever figure it out, the following summary will go in a spiffy little box.)

In a nutshell: Dr. Mario has a new coat and goes online.

The good: Dr. Mario will always be good. ALWAYS. Even then, three different modes, handicap options, and online versus provide an incredible variety of play. Clean looking graphics, Miis in doctor’s coats look super-cute.

The bad: No 4-player for Dr. Mario! WHY? No online for Virus Busters, and zero options for online play with strangers.

8.7 outta 10

New thing I learned today: “Viruses” is the proper way of spelling the plural of “virus”. “Virii” was made up teh interwebz.

I originally wrote “virii” all over this review, thinking it was an actual word. I’m stupid. I corrected myself, but I left one or two in for good measure :P