Review: Dr. Mario World

Microtransactions of Dr. Feelgood

Plus I heard about Dr. Mario World the more I wanted in. The idea of ​​several characters from the MarioThe doctor's outfits beyond the frame of Mario and Luigi were a sight to behold: I mean Bowser in a coat helping to heal the realm of viruses ?! It's so absurd that it works.

The reasons they omitted details about the monetization strategy leading up to launch are also obvious.

Dr. Mario World (Android, iOS [reviewed]
Developer: Nintendo, LINE, NHN Development
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: July 10, 2019
MSRP: Free-to-Play w / microtransactions

There are two elements on foot in Dr. Mario World: the quest to a player directly linked to multiple microtransactions (bonus and energy, where you can pay money or use Facebook / LINE connect chicanery to play), and the multiplayer element devoid of more of that. Let's start with the old one.

The idea of ​​a level Dr. Mario The game is easy to accept, especially since the series has evolved beyond the concept of "match" to become more deliberate puzzles over time. In WorldYou get a number of pills to "solve" each puzzle, which have defined the locations and colors of the viruses. By combining the pills with viruses (literally by three), you erase them: as long as you do not miss your pills, you are good and you are rewarded for your economy with a classic three-star mobile. system.

The pills drift, unlike most Tetris-Likes, and the game allows you to manipulate several pills to form your own combos. It's a joy to reach your Matrix Moment and "set and forget" several pills you guess a perfect solution, and the game gives you a ton of control with the touch system based on precision; which is much better than you think. When you start adding unique items, such as shells, into the mix (exploding entire lines) and character-specific specialties (deleting rows / columns, etc.), it becomes exciting. Time-sensitive acerbic challenge levels also do very good things with the Dr. Mario formula that I would like to see more in a real version (if we get one again)

This loop is fun at first. This is perhaps because you have not really noticed the energy / heart counter at the top left of the screen and hoped that Nintendo did not put it implemented. No, it starts after the first 20 levels, which serve as a tutorial: after that, it becomes a matter of "wait and play" or "play to play" when you sacrifice hearts at some of the most challenging levels later. The heart timer has a duration of 30 minutes and it costs 30 gems to get an "unlimited" session of 60 minutes. Gemstones come in intervals of 20 and 50 (then 100, 200, and so on up to $ 69.99), so you can not buy hearts for 30 gems. By using the purchase of the lowest currency as a constant, it costs three dollars per hour for unlimited play.

"Daily bonus" style incentives for freemium (gold) currency are also present, as well as "you failed, but you can pay money to try again at the end with upgrade transactions" . If, at any time, you pause the application, you will need to spend 5 to 10 seconds reconnecting to the online servers to read it. Oh, and they launched a gacha system just for the sake of doing it (for random character and "support" rewards) with sorting for a large amount of freemium currency (4000 coins) or gems premium (40, about $ 4 per draw).

I play mobile games regularly since Flight control in 2009; so you can say that I've had many encounters with energy systems, and so on. The situation is clearly case-by-case, nuanced and, depending on the game, the juice may be worth it. But see cute Mario The characters reduced to this, with all the psychological stuff of the book, are depressing. Just energy, just "you can finish this difficult level if you pay," or just gacha would have been a lot like he is.

However, there is an advantage: when you reach level 20, you can play multiplayer, which is a separate mode. Apparently afraid of being accused of a payment mechanism to win (even though they may just as well go away with the above), Dr. Mario World is usually devoid of microtransaction influence, outside the list of characters you can import from the campaign.

There is a live game and online games, and you can play as much as you want (imagine that). It's funny! Of course, the problem is that after a while, you will want to play with other characters and let yourself be drawn into the vast world of payment methods, but I'm quite happy to be playing with Bowser for the moment and to click insistently on the "match" button.

It is unfortunate that Nintendo is embarking on microtransaction after a misstep – the first, no less – in the mobile phone market. Super Mario RunThe concept "buy all the game" would probably have worked at a different price, or maybe it was worth it to experiment more instead of tying his wagon to one of the many runners in an already inflated market. Instead, we now have energy meters and gacha games in almost all mobile versions; an extreme 180 compared to the original strategy. Dr. Mario World There was a lot of potential to add to my list of classic mobile games, but I literally can not play it as often as I would like.

_{[This review is based on a retail version of the free-to-play game.]}

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Dr. Mario World commented by Chris Carter