PixlBit

I sure hope those aren't the same gloves used to unclog sinks...

As one of the final games released for the system, Dr. Mario 64 was a budget-priced title. Introducing a couple new game modes and a 4-player option, it was the definitive version of Dr. Mario for the time and remains a solid entry in the series.

Most people are probably familiar with Nintendo's answer to Tetris, but just in case anyone isn't, Dr. Mario is an action-puzzle game with the goal of eliminating all viruses inside of a rectangular bottle using falling pills. The viruses are stationary on the playfield, and the player controls the falling pills to line them up around the viruses. They come in three different colours, and when four or more viruses and/or pills of the same color are lined up horizontally or vertically, they are removed form the bottle. When all viruses are cleared then the stage is complete and the next one begins, which contains even more viruses. The falling speed of the pills increases over time, but resets once a stage is cleared.

In addition to the standard Classic mode, there are a few other modes on offer. The Score Attack mode involves eliminating all the viruses in the jar within three minutes. This would be a more interesting mode if there were options to change the amount of viruses or length of time, as it's too limited to have any lasting appeal. The Marathon mode takes a cue from the Puzzle League series and pushes up viruses from the bottom at set intervals. Getting combos in this mode slows down their speed of advancement, so they become a necessity when the speed eventually picks up. It's a decent twist, but it doesn't feel very different from a regular game of Dr. Mario.

The Flash mode takes a cue from Tetris 2, which was essentially a ripoff of Dr. Mario anyway, so I guess it's okay. In this mode, there are three viruses, one of each color, that are flashing, and the goal is to eliminate just these three flashers. Their spots are random, so they may be easy to reach right on top, or completely buried under everything. This one puts a nice spin on the formula, but unfortunately, there's no one-player, high-score version of it, it is for multiplayer/vs. computer competition only.

The Story mode is basically a series of vs. computer matches that get progressively harder as they come along. The story itself is a simple one, and revolves around Wario and Rudy both wanting to get ahold of Dr. Mario's Megavitamins due to their awesome curing powers, which should fetch a tidy sum if they were to be sold. It's possible to play the story mode as either Dr. Mario or Wario, each with the slightly different version of the story, but the opponents remain largely the same. The name “Rudy” probably doesn't sound familiar, as he is the main villain in Wario Land 3. The other characters met along the way as opponents are also all from Wario Land 3; sometimes it's a bit strange as to where Nintendo decide to pull characters.

The best new inclusion is that multiplayer can now support up to four players instead of two, though only Classic and Flash are available. Although there isn't much interaction, racing to see who can clear their jar the fastest is still quite enjoyable. The color used when starting a combo determines which player gets the garbage, so a specific player can be targeted by using the proper color. There is also a two-on-two team battle, though since only one player on a team needs to clear their jar for their team to win, it doesn't change much. If the garbage created from a combo would be sent to the player's teammate, it is instead stored in a “bank” and used later when another combo is cleared, which can allow a  team to store up and unleash a large amount of garbage at once. Each player can set their speed and virus amount individually, so the more skilled players can handicap themselves to create a more level playing field. Computer players can also fill in, which use the same characters from the story mode, and their difficulty depends on the character selected.

Dr. Mario 64 is one game I remember fondly, as it is one of the very few games that I was able to play with my mother. She was decent at the game, a little slow with the pill-moving, but she placed them well. The team mode was appreciated, so that we could play together against the CPU. Since I was faster with the pills then I would finish first if we had the same virus level, so I always set mine a few levels higher so that we could both clear some. We played some four-player also with other family members, but it's the team battles that I remember the most. Busting out the ol' Nintendo 64 and this game was a nice way to reconnect and catch up.

As a budget title, it's largely understandable that the graphics would be pretty simplistic. They are entirely two-dimensional, utilizing sprites on 2D backdrops. In the story mode, characters look like cardboard cutouts, with the backgrounds resembling a storybook; this is actually a decent style for the game, and probably does the “paper” concept better than the likes of Paper Mario. The sound, however, should have had more attention paid to it. The quality of the music and effects isn't very well done, and the instrumentation of the melodies leaves something to be desired, using too high-pitched and/or downright strange sound samples. Since there are only four tracks and no way to switch them during a game, a track can play for over an hour during a good run, so it really needed to be better than what's here. The two new music pieces for the game, Cube and Que Que, follow the same style of crazy/calm as the two originals, but feel a little lacking for reasons I can't quite figure out.

Music aside, Dr. Mario 64 is a solid entry in the series. It retains the classic action-puzzle gameplay that's so addicting while also introducing some nice new modes and features. It's a shame that the four-player mode has yet to return in a newer version, as it's a lot of crazy fun. Sadly, this game isn't even available on the Wii or Wii U Virtual Console, which makes getting a four-player game going largely impractical. Memories are nice, but reliving them would be more nice...