Dr. Mario (series)

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Box art of Dr. Mario for the NES.

The Dr. Mario series (Dr. マリオ Dokutā Mario) is a series of puzzle video games made by Nintendo, beginning with Dr. Mario that first appeared on the NES.

Dr. Mario games feature a grid that starts out partially filled with viruses of three colors (red, yellow and blue) that Dr. Mario must destroy with pills called Megavitamins of the same color.

The game's speed and level of difficulty can be adjusted before the game, but each will increase as the game progresses. A 2-player competitive game is also available, in which the first player to clear all of his or her viruses before their opponent does wins.

During versus play, against another player or the CPU, when Dr. Mario eliminates two or more rows of four viruses or pills with one megavitamin, a corresponding number (two, three, or a maximum of four) of random pills then drop onto the opponent's screen. This is most frustrating because the other opponent must wait for the pills to slowly land before he/she can continue. Nintendo Power awarded this act the most rewarding/frustrating play in a Nintendo game of all time.^{[citation needed]}

The music for the series was composed by Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka.

1 Games

[edit] Games

[edit] Main games

Dr. Mario (Famicom/NES and Game Boy - 1990)

Dr. Mario 64 (Nintendo 64 - 2001)

[edit] Remakes

Tetris & Dr. Mario (Super Famicom/Super NES - 1994)
Nintendo GameCube Preview Disc (Game Boy Advance - 2003) (A full version of Dr. Mario (NES) could be transferred to the GBA from this readily-available demo disc.)

Nintendo Puzzle Collection (Nintendo GameCube) - 2003 (Japan only. There was also an option to play a port of the Famicom version on the GBA.)

Dr. Mario (Game Boy Advance) - 2004 (Re-released as part of the Classic NES Series.)

Dr. Mario & Puzzle League (Game Boy Advance - 2005)

Dr. Mario is scheduled to be re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console.

[edit] Spin-off

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (Game Boy Advance) (2003) A Wario-ized version of Dr. Mario was included as a secret minigame. The only significant differences were that Wario takes Mario's place, that the viruses have different faces and limited music selection.

[edit] Other

Unlockable variation of Mario, Dr. Mario in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Super Smash Bros. Melee (Nintendo GameCube) - (2001) Dr. Mario appeared as an unlockable character with a similar moveset as Mario. Dr. Mario is heavier and slower than Mario, with a shorter reach and slightly more powerful smash attacks. Dr. Mario is also not equipped with a Meteor Smash, and throws pills instead of Mario's fireballs. In addition, his Cape attack does not gain as much altitude in the air as Mario's. A trophy of the Viruses is also obtainable in Super Smash Bros. Melee. It is unknown whether Dr. Mario will appear in the upcoming sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

In Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (GameBoy Advance)-(2003) The viruses from Dr. Mario are prominent enemies on Woohoo Hooniversity.

A comic book adaptation of Dr. Mario, entitled "The Doctor Is In... Over His Head", was released by Valiant Comics when the company was still printing issues of Nintendo Comics System.

Near the end of "King Scoopa Koopa", an episode of Super Mario World animated series, Mario utters the sentence "go home and eat some vegetables - Dr. Mario's orders!", apparently making reference to Dr. Mario, which was released a year before this episode first aired.