Dr. Mario World Review (Mobile)



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Dr. Mario World Review - Screen Capture 1 of 5

It's a well kept secret that the WiiWare version of Dr. Mario is one of the largest online multiplayer games ever released on a Nintendo system. The series may have been launched on the NES in 1990, but it is this release of Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (ALIAS Dr. Mario Online Dx) on the Wii that absolutely I arrived there.

Since then, we hope a continuation to give a boost to the situation. Dr. Mario's subsequent games on Wii U and 3DS also included similar online multiplayer modes, but far fewer people were playing. It was as reliable to get regular games as to get blood from a block of prisoners of war.

So, here we have now Dr. Mario World, Nintendo's attempt to take its 'other' puzzle game – one that has always been in the shadow of Tetris – and see how it goes on mobile phones. And while most critics are primarily interested in single-player mode and the fact that it behaves more like a "typical" mobile game than any other Nintendo game to date, this is the online multiplayer mode that will quietly take over the top. life.

Dr. Mario World Review - Screen Capture 2 out of 5

Let's first see this solo mode. Anyone familiar with the tastes of Candy Crush Saga We will at least recognize the general structure here: the goal is to go over 200 steps, completing the (usually simple) task of each, collecting various treats along the way. In this case, it is usually about coins, which can be spent for other heroes and secondary characters.

The gameplay is not enough the same as other Dr. Mario games you may be used to. In fact, it looks more like the Virus Buster mode (seen in more recent versions of the game), where you use the touch screen to drag the pills. The pace here is deliberately slow: rather than constantly throwing you pills and forcing you to change them as they fall, you show your next pill and you basically have the time to analyze the situation and decide on the best place for you. drag it.

You can even "break" pieces beyond walls and other obstacles, leaving you with much more freedom than you would normally expect in a block game. This also extends to spare parts; each time you make a match of three or more, any additional blocks that begin to fall can also be grabbed and moved as you wish. This can lead to satisfying combinations in which you erase completely different sections of the playing area in one go.

Dr. Mario World Review - Screen Capture 3 out of 5

Although the standard goal is to remove all viruses on a screen, there is a handful of scattered variants to mix things up a bit. You may be asked to collect all the pieces on a stage by making a clearance just next to blocks of Mario style bricks; some of these pieces contain multiple pieces, so you need to find a way to hit many times without using too much of your limited stock of pills. Other steps give you a time limit, which puts all the mantra of "take your time" in the sea and rubs you frantically on the screen like a painter in the hand who has just woken up and who is trying to realize his brilliant dream before forgetting it. Which is a comparison, we are sure you can all To refer to. Ahem.

Initially, as Dr. Mario, it will not take you long to choose to stay with him or move on to Dr. Bowser or Dr. Peach (you will have the option to unlock others later). Each doctor has his own special gesture that triggers when you fill a gauge; Peach, for example, chooses a random column and eliminates everything in it. Plus, you can spend your coins in a "recruiting" screen, which allows you to unlock more doctors or (more likely) auxiliary characters; you can apply up to two of them to gain extra bonuses by playing.

These doctors and characters all have the same probability of being found (about 2.8%). So there are no "rare" – at least not yet. Although this is essentially an object vault system and you can get duplicates, they reinforce your existing character to strengthen their abilities. Once the character has reached the maximum level, he is removed from the group of possible characters in the chests. To Nintendo's credit, this means (to a certain extent) that you will not be in a situation where a loot box provides a really useless character, and apparently (full disclosure: we have not been able to verify this ourselves). & # 39; have unlocked each character and maximized them, the trunk option is dimmed and can no longer be used (at least until Nintendo adds more characters in an update)

Dr. Mario World Review - Screen Capture 4 out of 5

And so we arrive at the elephant at the hospital: microtransactions. Nintendo has already tried to follow the noble path of mobile telephony with Super Mario Run's The structure 'pay $ 9.99 and get it all', but as it has not performed as well as it hoped, Nintendo's subsequent cell phone games use more common free gaming mechanisms that you are probably used to it. They are also about the size of a biscuit. its premium currency are diamonds, which can be purchased with real money and used to buy coins (which give you new characters), hearts (which give you energy to continue to play) and other general bonuses, such as additional tricks in a scene and the ability to clear all your pills of one level.

You have to pay real money about as much as in Candy Crush Saga. Your five hearts basically act like five lives: Beat a step for the first time and you will be rewarded with a heart over your other bonuses, which means as long as you continue to progress in the steps you can keep. play freely. When you reach level 30 or 40, you start having enough trouble losing your life, and that's where you can feel a little frustrated that once your five hearts are exhausted, they need half -to rebuild. Of course, for 30 diamonds (around £ 3) you can buy the opportunity to play with infinite hearts for an hour – but please do not do this. This is stupid.

How it affects you depends on how you play your mobile games. If (and forgive us for being so direct), you are really a mobile toilet-based player and plan to play only in small bursts of 5 to 10 minutes. In this case, you will probably never be affected by the energy situation. If you take your time and play strategically – which is recommended if you really want to clear a level – each step may take a few minutes to clear or lose (when you no longer have any allowance of pills). However, if you are one to enjoy one-hour passes on your phone when the TV is on or off, you may be frustrated by the constant situation. This is purely hypothetical, but we wonder how many people would have participated in a Super Mario Run and paid $ 9.99 for unlimited access to the single player mode here.

Dr. Mario World Review - Screen Capture 5 out of 5

However, there is one thing to cover: the online multiplayer mode. This is really the secret weapon of Dr. Mario World, and the place to lead when your lives are exhausted. You have to face other players in real time because you are both trying to eliminate as many viruses as possible. Every time you clear a number, you force more and more viruses on your opponent's screen. The faster and more precise you are, the more difficulty you will have. It is obvious that this is a concept as simple as possible, but since a player's mode is composed only of precious stones, hearts, coins and bonuses, exactly what we are looking for here.

Better still, the online multiplayer mode has no energy system, which means you can play it forever without having to spend money. Each win also earns you a few coins (but not much), which means you can always make your way to unlock more characters. In fact, the only thing that prevents you in this mode can be the battery of your phone.

This may differ depending on your model, but our Pixel 2 XL lost about 50% of its battery in an hour of play and became warmer than a grandparent's hug (if it was also on fire). If you are planning a long multiplayer session, plan to hook up your phone and even watch its temperature. The reason the battery is exhausted on some models is not entirely clear. This is Dr. Mario, Condemn – but I hope that future updates will be able to identify and fix it.

Conclusion

Dr. Mario World is really a game of two halves. Solo mode is fun in short bursts and short bursts: longer sessions are impossible without regularly losing real money on them. Meanwhile, the multiplayer mode is a boundless pleasure and the constant stream of players available means that it could become your next obsession. More importantly, both modes are built around a legitimately entertaining screen twist on Dr. Mario's standard game that brings many modifications, but intelligent solutions taking into account the mobile format. It's not correct Dr. Mario, then, but – assuming you can keep your wallet in your pocket – what's the point? is is not half bad.

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