idk why everyone keeps asking if I’m red-pilled or blue-pilled when yellow is clearly the superior of the three smh

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Dr Mario is a strange little game in the grand scheme of the Mario series; it’s both one of the first proper Mario spinoff series and a franchise that’s practically instantly recognisable to those in the general gaming space….while also being a game you rarely see people actually discuss outside of the occasional ‘yep that’s a Dr Mario game alright’ when you bring it up. However, after playing through some of the games on NSO again, I’ve gotten in the mood to chat about the one that started it all for a bit. So put on your lab coat and grab your (definitely legally obtained) PhD as we take a visit to the clinic of Mr. Mario himself.

The general conceit of Dr Mario is a decidedly simple one: you’re given a randomised layout of coloured viruses (red, blue and yellow) which you have to match with the colour of one of your pills. Match four of the same colour together and you clear a row; clear all the viruses and you beat the stage. It’s the same tried-and-true gameplay loop of many puzzle games from the 80’s/90’s (think Tetris, Puyo Puyo, etc.), albeit with a bit more of random element as the pills generated can be either entirely one colour or half one colour, half another. In much the same way the text on a doctor’s clipboard reads like complete gobbledygook on first inspection, the gameplay of DM sounds a hell of a lot more complicated than it actually is as, when you’re actually playing it, you start to fall into that classic sense of focused zen that competitive-minded puzzle games from this era manage to achieve so well. This is helped doubly by the excellent music which accompanies the action; from the infectiously catchy melody of Fever to the tense yet relaxed vibe of Chill, it does a great job at pushing you to hone your skills as the pills pile up in front of you.

Now while all this certainly sets DM apart from the crowd (even to this day), it does come with an unfortunate side effect that its contemporaries managed to evade: downtime. A frustratingly common occurrence in DM are situations where you’ll be down to about 1-2 viruses remaining where you just need one more colour to finish the stage off….only for the RNG to give you every colour but the one you need, resulting in you having to awkwardly push it to the side of the board and wasting far more time than is necessary. Dr Mario is also much more punishing than Tetris or Puyo Puyo in terms of making mistakes; while you can reasonably recover from a misplaced piece drop in the latter examples, an accidental colour placement in DM can pretty much doom a run from the moment it happens unless you’re REALLY deep into a stage, an issue that gets exacerbated to an obscene degree in some of the last stages where the viruses can spawn on the screen as high as the game will allow. The save states/rewind present in the modern VC/NSO releases can mitigate this issue somewhat but it’s still a massive pain regardless.

For a final diagnosis, Dr Mario is very much like real-life medicine: it can be exactly what you need if you’re feeling under the weather, but too much of it in a short time frame can just as easily make you feel even worse. Overall then, I’d prescribe a small dosage of the NES original every now and then for when you’re ‘sick’ of other puzzle games and want something just a little bit different.

Mega Man rose from the dead, again! Again! Capcom's premiere lemon-blaster was brought back to us all in 2018, with all the bells and whistles one would expect of a new entry in a classic series, plus a new mechanic or two to spice things up! And it's... fine, it's fine. It's okay. I'm a little mad about it.

Mega Man 11 is a game of two halves. Getting going in the starting half is an exercise in gaining ground in inches, or was for me at least. For half the robot masters the process was to repeatedly smash my face into a wall to no avail, eating shit against some of the cheaper levels in the whole series, slowly building bolts until I could buy a few items and blow through the robot master itself. From there we have the other half of those levels, easier, goofier, more fun fare like Bounce Man's stage, which I adored, but that only provided a temporary respite, as if I was following weapon order they were in between the harsh levels. The back half of the game, though, is where things change. The second Fortress stage has a conveyor belt screen where it just feeds you those little yellow endlessly spawning fellas, and literally slides the loot from their bodies down towards Mega Man. A grinding spot! Suddenly all items are available, and the game becomes a gag through to the end, an end that also features the easiest Wily ever.

If you'll excuse me indulging myself in some wankery, this slide from annoying difficulty into annoying ease represents a poor use of flow (as in the state brought about when high skill meets high challenge to the perfect degree) within the game. You aren't skilled enough early on to make the best use of the gear system and progress smoothly, and you need very little skill whatsoever to deal with the lack of challenge found in the end run. There's no flow state to achieve, and so that magic feeling of 'great video game' can't be found here, for me at least.

There's still a lot to love. Robot Master powers now come with a proper costume change, somewhat reminiscent of Mighty No.9, but good. The powers themselves are pretty fun, and can be modified with the power gear for greater utility. The power and speed gears are a good lark, even with the timer feeling a touch restrictive. Rush gets unique buttons for Jet and Coil, rather than needing to specifically select them! I get to enjoy having the slide again! But more than anything I just felt irritable. The new powers are good but it's not always clear when you NEED to be using them to proceed smoothly. The gears are fun, but Mega Man himself feels kind of clunky compared to his 8-bit best. Rush Jet is simultaneously the worse version of itself and still too OP for skipping whole sections of game. Everything is held back by something else.

Despite all the negatives at play here, and the gameplay feeling rough, it's still Mega Man. The core is here. Even the anime-adjacent storytelling is here, for the people who like that. Fully voice-acted, too. Even in the shop. Repeating the same phrase over and over. As I buy 9 e tanks. One. At. A. Time. Roll, please. Please, just be quiet for a second.

I lost my train of thought. My point is that even with annoyances, it doesn't feel like a tribute act. Inafune isn't here and wasn't needed. The creative team understand Mega Man. It makes me hopeful for the future, even with a gap this large and with no sign of a Mega Man 12. Hopefully they get together for it whenever it does happen. Failing that, I've just finished 17 Mega Man games and am finally free of this curse. Three stars, for fun, for potential, and for ending so I can move on! Good game! I need to not play a Mega Man for a bit!

What an absolutely delightful experience.

I played during a Friday commute into the city. I thoroughly enjoyed the bright and colorful aesthetic, charming characters, and silly story.

I wish the game was a bit longer but absolutely worth a spin

Such a charming little game!

I've enjoyed unraveling the mysteries of Fuji no Hana and its inhabitants and you can tell this game was Boku no Natsuyasumi's designer doing, Kai Ayabe.

The care they've pour into shaping the town is beautiful for such a short game. You can almost feel like our protagonist, a newcomer into the town with everything to discover, (almost) nothing to fear and building new friendships along the way.

The plot about family, friendship and childhood. We tend to fixate on epic tales, great action and dramatic events unfolding in video games, but this is quite the opposite. And with just the right amount of "supernatural" things going on masked with the imagination of child playing around. Honestly, I would be like them if I were to live in the same town as my fav show gets recorded!

And the classic sound of summer and cicadas, the warning sound of a train passing by or just the wind gently shaking nature.

It just radiates calm.

I do feel insecure when I play an absolute classic and I'm not completely enamoured by it. A lot of my love for Mario comes from Galaxy onward. I do really like the original Super Mario Bros. and I love playing all the styles in Mario Maker but SMB3, Super Mario 64 and now Super Mario World don't fill me with the adoration they probably deserve. As dramatic as all that sounds, I still did enjoy the game. It is very fun. The level design is great and the influence it has had on gaming is undeniable. It is remarkable how many secrets there are in the level. There are so many secret exits to levels that in some ways, I found exhausting but it does add a lot of depth to it. I did find myself getting frustrated with the game which I can admit was a skill issue. I never fully grasped the movement options with the cape. It doesn't control like Mario Maker which was hard to get used to. I tried not to use save states but there definitely were some of the later levels that I gave into the temptation. The platforming is great though and having some challenge is nice after coming from Wonder. I wish I could appreciate it more but I can still see it is a fantastic game.