The next game should be Nurse Toad
There’s something to be said about preserving old games. As we move into the digital era and publishers start putting less and less emphasis on physical media, many classic games and pieces of hardware will cease to exist. For instance, it’s almost impossible to find a full Virtual Boy unit right now unless you’re willing to shell out a lot of cash and have the dedication of a collector.
While Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure is a digital-only release, it manages to capture most of what made the series special in the first place, and continue its legacy for a new generation of gamers.
Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure (3DS)
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
MRSP: $8.99
Release Date: June 11, 2015
Yep, this is pretty much the same Dr. Mario you know and love. Miracle Cure sports 10 training levels and 50 core stages for its “campaign,” and mixes the classic gameplay of Mario with the newly-minted sub-franchise of Dr. Luigi, allowing both playstyles as a separate option. If you’ve never played a game in the series before, you’re directing little pills on a screen, similar to Tetris, to eliminate viruses and clear the board.
Each virus and pill has a respective color (blue, red, or yellow), and matching up four of a kind will clear that link. Dr. Mario features a standard pill shape with up to two colors, and Dr. Luigi makes things a bit more difficult with an “L” shape pill. That’s the gist. Here in the newest 3D game there’s a new mechanic though called the “Miracle Cure,” which basically translates to “powerups.” Leave it to Nintendo to barely iterate on a formula and still make a fun game, right?
Said powerups include bombs, which blow up anything in their blast radius, and line-based explosions, which are more tactical in nature. For the most part, everything is the same as before, but the Miracle Cures do add a bit more nuance should you opt to turn them on. For instance, the pacing for individual levels is a bit faster since you can score a ton of bombs to blast out some mishaps you may have stacked up in a particular round. It’s not mind-blowing, but it doesn’t detract from the experience.
In addition to the aforementioned preset puzzles, you can also play a custom mode that allows endless play, as well as the option to play directly with a CPU, head-to-head, racing to clear your board first. This versus mode also extends to both online play and local play, the latter of which thankfully supports a download play option, so only one person needs a copy. Honestly, the online experience was one of the smoothest of any recent Nintendo game, as I didn’t have any lag of any kind playing a number of different people in Japan. It’s all matchmaking based, mind.
It also has this cool display method that shows your game on top and your opponent’s on the bottom, both of which have been lag-free based on my testing. For all of these modes you can also opt for Dr. Mario- or Dr. Luigi-based modes, as well as the option to turn off Miracle Cures if you wish. My suggestion? Play with Miracle Cures online. It can be a radically different experience, looking up, then quickly looking down and realizing that your opponent has blasted away half their viruses with powerups.
When all is said and done though, there really isn’t a whole lot to Miracle Cure if you aren’t going to play multiplayer with a friend who shares your passion. I really wish Nintendo showed a bit more effort when it comes to solo play, as the standard “missions” aren’t cutting it. I would kill to see a new storyline (like Dr. Mario 64) incorporated into the franchise, one that unites both Mario and Luigi against a common foe. For now, there’s only so much pill-dropping that I can take.
If you’re a Dr. Mario junkie, you can probably pull the trigger on Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure just to see what the fuss is about in regards to the power-ups. For everyone else, just stick with Dr. Luigi until Nintendo decides to overhaul the formula a bit more.
[This review is based on a retail build provided by the publisher.]
