This game was an early rental in my NES-owning childhood. And one my grandmother, not much of a "gamer" herself, got addicted to. So much so that when I later received this in an AMAZING package that also included Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, two Sansui Joycard controllers (they're great), AND Super Mario Bros. 3...it was pretty obvious, even to 9 year old me, that while "my" game, Dr. Mario was really HER game.
And she went on to prove this, by playing the ever-living shit out of it. She would legit play this shit for hours at a time sometimes, to the point where I would make fun of her for saying "just one more game" (to the tune of the in-game music even), which she would eventually get mad and snap at me about. Even over the years, after we got OTHER puzzle games she liked, such as Loopz and Yoshi (no idea why she never bought us a copy of Tetris), she would STILL come back to Dr. Mario, and play it for hours. She got so good at it, that she eventually beat the final stage, and I was able to see the game's little "ending".
But it must be said, while I personally prefer Tetris and Yoshi, Nintendo really struck gold with this game and its take on the Tetris-like puzzle formula. The idea of matching up colored pills to eliminate obnoxious viruses? It's genius. And it IS a very fun, simple, addicting game. Later iterations, like the SNES, N64, and Wii versions, were all good in their own right. But this NES original will always be the best "Dr.", to me.
And she went on to prove this, by playing the ever-living shit out of it. She would legit play this shit for hours at a time sometimes, to the point where I would make fun of her for saying "just one more game" (to the tune of the in-game music even), which she would eventually get mad and snap at me about. Even over the years, after we got OTHER puzzle games she liked, such as Loopz and Yoshi (no idea why she never bought us a copy of Tetris), she would STILL come back to Dr. Mario, and play it for hours. She got so good at it, that she eventually beat the final stage, and I was able to see the game's little "ending".
But it must be said, while I personally prefer Tetris and Yoshi, Nintendo really struck gold with this game and its take on the Tetris-like puzzle formula. The idea of matching up colored pills to eliminate obnoxious viruses? It's genius. And it IS a very fun, simple, addicting game. Later iterations, like the SNES, N64, and Wii versions, were all good in their own right. But this NES original will always be the best "Dr.", to me.