Use the time to look at what the next capsule will be, and figure out where it will fit. Although you can make the currently falling capsule fall faster by pushing down on the directional pad, you should probably just let it drop at its own pace. One key to shaping your strategy is to keep an eye on the upper right corner of the screen, where you can see the next vitamin Dr. Mario is one of those games with simple rules that can be learned in a few minutes - but, like Tetris or Othello, it actually involves numerous, complex strategies. Therefore, it's possible to make life more difficult for your opponent, even though you can't affect his screen directly. Although their colors and positions are random, they always seem to fall in the places that are most annoying to your opponent. The number of pieces that fall is equal to the number of lines you cleared (up to four). Two-player games are contests of pure skill.Īnother feature that makes two-player games more competitive is that when you clear two or more lines simultaneously (whether or not they include viruses), some random, unconnected pieces of vitamin capsules will fall onto your opponent's screen. This gives both players a totally equal chance of clearing the screen and completely eliminates luck as a factor. Furthermore, Mario will toss the same color vitamins in the same order into each player's jar. If both players start at the same level, they'll begin each round with equal numbers of viruses in identical positions. This provides two players of unequal skill with a good means of "handicapping." Perhaps the best feature of the two-player mode is that each player can select his or her own level and speed. The first player to win three rounds wins the game. If you succeed in clearing out all of your viruses (or if your opponent allows his vitamins to pile up to the top of the bottle), you win the round. Vitamin capsules are thrown into both jars simultaneously, and the goal is to eliminate your viruses before your opponent does. The main difference in a two-player game is that two jars fit side-by-side on the screen. You can also select a two-player mode that lets you square off against another person. You can select which level to start on (1 through 20) the speed at which Mario will toss in the vitamins (low, medium, or high) and even two different kinds of music ("Fever," "Chill," or no music at all). Mario lets you choose from several options.
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The first few levels have only a few viruses, but pretty soon the jar gets so full of viruses that there's barely enough room for any vitamins.ĭr. Mario (like Tetris) is basically a simple game, it's very difficult to master. If you succeed in getting rid of all the viruses, you advance to the next level, which is even more contaminated with viruses.Īlthough Dr. Play continues until either all the viruses are eliminated from the jar, or the jar gets so full of capsules that there's no room for another one. If one or more of the pieces were viruses, you get points. When that happens, all of the ma tching pieces disappear from the screen. By "pieces," we mean a whole capsule, or half of a capsule, or a virus.
The idea is to line up four or more pieces of the same color, either horizontally or vertically. Most capsules are two of these colors, but some capsules are all the same color.
The capsules, you'll notice, also come in red, yellow, and blue. The viruses come in three strains: red, yellow, and blue. Mario is to eliminate the viruses that live in the jar. The major difference is that instead of trying to eliminate horizontal layers, as you do in Tetris, your object in Dr. As in Tetris, your goal is to stack them up in just the right way. Using the controller, you can steer the capsules left or right and rotate them to various positions. (It also bears some similarities to Columns, a new game for the Sega Genesis.) As Mario tosses the different-colored vitamin capsules into the laboratory bottle, they gradually fall from the top of the screen.
A Tetris Clone?ĭr Mario is a fast-moving puzzle game that looks and plays a lot like Tetris. In desperation, Mario began throwing vitamins into the laboratory bottle, trying to get enough of the right ones to the viruses they could kill. The vitamins worked, but each one was effective only against a specific virus, and only when enough of the vitamins were used. Fortunately, Mario had just developed a new set of vitamins that should have been able to kill the viruses.