What I'm Playing (Volume 153): Dr. Mario 64

Dr. Mario 64 is a puzzle game released for the N64 in 2001. Developed by Nintendo, it is an enhanced remake of Dr. Mario, one of my all-time favorite NES games (I ranked it 8th on my list of top ten NES games). So, what does this one add, compared to it's classic progenitor?

First, most importantly, and by far best, Dr. Mario 64 uses the native four controller ports on the N64 (a greatly underappreciated feature) to allow four players to play Dr. Mario at once. In a day and age where we can now have 99 players playing Tetris against each other, this could seem pretty underwhelming. But in 2001, the opportunity to play a really good puzzle game with several players is awesome, and we still use this version in my house today. It used to be the case that we'd have entire mornings of playing Dr. Mario on the NES in my house, but with only two players, there's a lot of downtime and controller passing involved. This game allows you to have four at once, which is a really nice feature.

Other than that, it's pretty much just Dr. Mario (nothing wrong with that). There are some new music tracks, new backgrounds for your play field, and characters you can pick from (these are entirely aesthetic). There's a story mode that will be familiar to those of you who have played the story mode in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, in which you play a series of games against increasingly challenging AI opponents. There's a tiny story here, but for the most part, it simply lets you feel a sense of progression and challenge against tougher opponents, and an endorphin rush when you beat the game. There are a few other ways you can play Dr. Mario as well, but for the most part these are gimmicks that will distract you for a round or two, only to return to the classic action.

The music is really good, featuring arrangements of the songs from the original as well as some original tracks. The arrangements are nice, although you'll probably, like me, end up listening to "Fever" over and over again. You can't really improve on it that much!

The graphics are nice, and are a good adaptation of the classic game. There's some Paper Mario-ish character illustrations of the main characters that will react when you do good plays, win, or lose, but this is, again, just garnish on the original game.

This is a game that would be very thin as a single player experience, and is absolutely geared towards party fun. It has all of the advantages of the original Dr. Mario, including the opportunity to handicap players according to their ability, and it's a great time with multiple players. I can't help but feel that I should have gotten more out of this, but I'm also grateful for the chance to play Dr. Mario with my wife and two of my many, many kids. I'll give this game an 8.8/10. If you like Dr. Mario, and have several people with whom you like to play, this is a must-buy.

Up next is a game I'd been looking forward to for a long time, and have already finished. Check back soon (?) for a review!

-TRO