389 · Dr. Mario

• The prescription is fun!
• General Overview
• Developed by Nintendo R&D1, published by Nintendo.
• Released: October 1990
• A puzzle game starring Mario in a lab coat—not a platformer, but a Tetris-adjacent virus-matching game.
• Game was released during the puzzle game craze, post-Tetris.
• Notably composed by Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka—incredible music.
• Opening Bit Suggestion:
  “The only time Mario saved lives with capsules instead of mushrooms.”
• Story & Objective
• Mario has apparently received his medical license. No details provided.
• Objective: Eradicate viruses from a medicine bottle using colored capsules.
• Viruses come in red, blue, and yellow. Match four of the same color in a row (including capsule pieces) to eliminate them.
• Notably, the viruses are animated and expressive, with little bouncing idle motions.
• Gameplay Mechanics
• Falling block-style gameplay (Tetris comparison inevitable, but different strategy).
• Rotate and position two-color capsules to line up with viruses.
• Strategic depth: Must think in color and orientation; capsule fragments remain after clearing, creating chaos or opportunities.
• Speed and difficulty increase with each level; virus count rises.
• Two game modes: Single-player and Vs. Mode (competitive split-screen).
• Graphics & Sound
• Clean and readable playfield. Bold colors on a simple black background.
• Mario watches you from the top-right corner like a weirdly smug lab supervisor.
• Iconic music: “Fever” and “Chill” themes are beloved 8-bit earworms.
  • “Fever” is one of the most iconic NES tracks of all time.
• Legacy & Reception
• 1. Dr. Mario (NES/Game Boy, 1990)
  The original! Introduced the color-matching, virus-killing capsule gameplay and the iconic “Fever” and “Chill” themes.
• 2. Dr. Mario (Super Nintendo, 1991 – “Tetris & Dr. Mario”)
  Bundled with Tetris; added a Vs. CPU mode and updated visuals, but core gameplay remained intact.
• 3. Dr. Mario 64 (Nintendo 64, 2001)
  Expanded multiplayer with 4-player battles, story mode featuring Wario and Mad Scienstein, and a handful of new modes.
• 4. Dr. Mario Express (DSiWare, 2008)
  A stripped-down, single-player version for handheld digital download—no multiplayer, but perfect for quick play.
• 5. Dr. Mario Online Rx (WiiWare, 2008)
  Brought online multiplayer to the series for the first time, plus included the “Virus Buster” mode (played with pointer control).
• 6. Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure (3DS, 2015)
  Introduced “Miracle Cure” power-ups that add randomness and speed—attempted to modernize gameplay for handhelds.
• 7. Dr. Mario World (iOS/Android, 2019–2021)
  Free-to-play mobile entry with stamina system, gacha elements, and dozens of doctors (Dr. Bowser, Dr. Peach, etc.); shut down in 2021.
• Other Appearances & Spin-Offs
• – Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)
  Dr. Mario debuts as a playable character—similar to Mario, but with a stronger punch and the “Megavitamin” projectile.
• – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)
  Returns with a tweaked moveset and distinct character slot; his own music and virus stage included.
• – NES Remix (Wii U/3DS)
  Features Dr. Mario mini-challenges, often with remixed difficulty or visual effects.
• – WarioWare Series (Multiple entries)
  Various microgames spoof Dr. Mario, often involving pill-dropping or virus-zapping in a few seconds.
• – Puzzle League Games (Panel de Pon)
  Dr. Mario sometimes appears as a theme or cameo (especially in Puzzle League DS or Nintendo Puzzle Collection).
• Podcast Questions
• Who actually gave Mario a doctorate? Is Luigi the malpractice lawyer?
• Is this better than Tetris, or just different?
• Does the two-color capsule mechanic allow more strategic depth than Tetris?
• Did you ever get mad at the leftover half of a capsule ruining your stack?
• Segments & Gags
• “NES Side Hustles”: Ranking all the odd jobs Mario has had—plumber, referee, doctor, typing teacher...
• 1. Plumber
  🛠 Super Mario Bros. (1985), Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3
  His "day job"—jumping through pipes and fixing the Mushroom Kingdom one Goomba at a time.
• 2. Referee
  👊 Punch-Out!! (1987)
  Watches from the ring and counts you out—Mario wears a bow tie and makes it official.
• 3. Golfer
  ⛳ Golf (1985)
  Not named explicitly, but the mustached man on the box and in-game is widely considered to be Mario.
• 4. Construction Worker
  🔨 Wrecking Crew (1985)
  Mario ditches the plumber gig to demolish walls and avoid eggplant men.
• 5. Demolition Specialist (with a Hammer)
  🔧 Donkey Kong (1981, via Donkey Kong Classics)
  Not officially a plumber yet—he's "Jumpman," climbing steel beams to rescue Pauline.
• 6. Carpenter
  🪚 Donkey Kong Jr. (1982, via Donkey Kong Classics)
  Still rocking the overalls, but now a bit more sinister—he's the one who cages Donkey Kong!
• 7. Doctor
  💊 Dr. Mario (1990)
  Licensed (?) medical professional dispensing color-coded capsules with alarming speed.
• 8. Host & Referee
  🎲 NES Open Tournament Golf (1991, Japan-only on Famicom but NES-adjacent)
  Appears in more of a hosting capacity with Peach and Luigi in caddy roles.
• 9. Cement Factory Worker
  🏭 Mario's Cement Factory (1983, Game & Watch — not on NES, but sometimes confused due to the era and style)

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Dr. Mario, the prescription is fun!

00:20 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Sean. Yeah, you have to do the end. Yeah, yeah. In honor of Joe. Joe's not here. I can't lead everyone on to make them expect another voice. And it's what we've all been waiting for, another Mario game. The Mario game that I always was like, that can't be a Mario game. Dr. Mario, right? Like, just write to doctor? Did he go to school? Did they give him an honorary PhD for saving the Mushroom Kingdom?

01:01 It's kind of strange that this is like the first thing that he tries to do after Plummer. Well, here's the real question. Is Dr. Mario a different Mario? No, it's Mario. I think it is because if you go into the manual, the first page- You think it's a different Mario? No, no, I'm saying just following Smash Brothers logic. Like, you know, there's Mario and then there's Dr. Mario. And like, Dr. Mario would just be a skin then, right? Like, you would just be a selectable costume for Mario, but he's a totally different character.

01:33 However, the manual for this game, first page says, My name is Dr. Mario. Hi, everybody. I'm Mario. How's it going? Over the last few years, I've been involved in some pretty wild adventures. Now, believe it or not, I work in the virus research lab at the Mushroom Kingdom Hospital. Like, what a weird premise to start this game. Wuhan Hospital? Is that what he said? He said the Mushroom Kingdom Hospital, but- Oh. Yeah, yeah.

02:02 They even have like a little like, little like dialogue between him and not Princess, but Nurse Toadstool. Dr. Mario, something terrible has happened. What's wrong, Nurse Toadstool? One of the experiments has gone out of control. The viruses are spreading quickly. Oh, no. We've got to do something. I have just developed a new vitamin that should be able to take care of it. I sure hope this stuff works. It's like, what's happening? None of this is like exposition nobody needed, right? Well, I'm just glad. It doesn't actually say much.

02:34 It does. It teaches you that as long as you take vitamins, you won't have anything to worry about. But we knew that from Hulk Hogan. Oh, yeah. Hulk Hogan always told us to take our vitamins. But he never made claims about like, you know, this will explicitly cure this virus. Yeah. All right. I understand. Dr. Mario developed by Nintendo R&D 1. Do you know any other Nintendo R&D 1 games?

03:05 Aren't like all the... That's like... They're the big dogs. They're the big dogs in like what way? Like that's the... Isn't that like... You know, if you make it to like the alpha team, then you're a big dog. And this isn't me just kind of not remembering a specific game that they may have made. They're not the Mario people? No, no. So Super Mario Brothers, that's R&D... And Legend of Zelda. That's R&D 4. Those guys... Oh. Those guys just make perfect games. In fact, in our developer breakdown, we have... Let's see. R&D 1 made 26 total NES games so far that we've played. 15 skip-its. 8 play-its. 3 essentials. What are the essentials?

03:58 Let's see. Metroid. Okay. Let's see if I can pull up another one real fast. Duck Hunt. Ah, yes. And Balloon Fight. Okay, so I mean, they're still... Still doing bangers. Yeah, they're still doing good stuff. I guess I already knew this at some point. And have forgotten because those are all old games. At least to us. Right, yeah. What was like the most recent R&D 1 game? Shouldn't surprise you, though. Okay. It was Tetris. Oh, wow. All right. So they're like, yeah, we have an engine and everything. We know how to make these puzzle games. Let's just make our own version of a puzzle game featuring a Nintendo character because the licensing on that Russian IP might be a little sketchy.

04:46 I guess, yeah, there is still a Soviet Union at this point. And I'm sure that they're pretty tough with, you know, their... You say they're a litigious group? I would imagine. You know what? Now I don't really think I know if they could because, you know what? This is a rabbit hole. It's not worth going down.

05:11 Yes. Dr. Mario, a puzzle game starring Mario in a lab coat. But I have to ask you this question. Are you playing as Mario? Yeah. I mean, you're... Or maybe, like, you're playing as all of the pills. Or, like, he actually just put a bunch of, like, Mexican jumping beans in the pills. And you're the jumping bean. Yeah. You can clearly see Dr. Mario on the screen. And you can clearly see him holding what's going to be the next vitamin. But he does throw it in, too.

05:43 But then you control, like, where the vitamin lands and, like, turning it and everything. But you could assume that just like how you're playing as, you know, LeBron James in NBA 2K25 or whatever they're called these days. You could assume that, like, you don't just go from playing LeBron to playing as the basketball once the ball has left to hand. No. That's some... That's only some...

06:07 That only you would say. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. No, no. I'm not arguing it. I'm saying that I think I'm agreeing that you do play as Dr. Mario in this game. Probably not the way people wanted to play as Mario in a puzzle game, right? You probably wanted to do something with jumping or platforming. But in a way, you're building platforms here. So there's some element of that. But it's not... It's Mario like we've never seen him before. Because Mario will have more puzzle games. But this is his first, like, puzzle game on the NES. Other stuff has been, you know, either arcade-y or as a side-scrolling platformer.

06:50 So to have Dr. Mario here, it's kind of like, you know, the Mickey Mouse thing for Disney where you're just like, yeah, well, we have a company mascot and he's just going to go do the thing now. Like, it's kind of surprising that they didn't also put him in some of these other Nintendo games like Barker Bill's trick shooting, right? It could have been Mario's trick shooting. I think they were doing really well not falling into that. That kind of sounds like a crutch to me. They're like, oh, let's just put our mascot in everything. And I think they've been doing pretty good staying away from that pattern.

07:26 But I guess I have to imagine that if this wasn't Mario marketed, that this wasn't going to do very well. Like, what else? Like, how else was this going to, like, get players? It's a good question. Here's another Mario question for you. So you throw vitamins and you have to stack a four of the same color in order to clear. Should it have been vitamins? Like, isn't, like, mushrooms are what Mario eats to, like, get bigger and stronger. Should it have been, like, little mushrooms of different colors? I think that would be a very different kind of doctor.

08:07 And maybe they'd have to give it a different name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like also mushrooms, while they are simple enough, would be a little too busy of, like, a sprite for that to work here. I think that the pills are just, you know, it's just two squares. So, as we've said, Mario has apparently received his medical license. No details provided on that, even in the manual. Just, I'm a doctor now. Like, literally just says that.

08:41 The objective is to eradicate the viruses from, it's actually cute, the screen. It looks like it's just another one of those Tetris rectangle things, but it is a medicine bottle, like, shape, right? So, you're kind of, like, building out the entire, you're filling up the bottle that the person will then drink, right? Like, first you're getting rid of the virus, and then you're giving the bottle to that person. You following my lead here?

09:07 I suppose. I think, you know, the bottle is a little strange if it's actually interacting with the viruses on the side, you know? Sure, yeah, yeah. I guess they put the, maybe it's like a, you know, like a lab thing, and they're just putting the viruses in there, and then they're clearing them out, and then no one's actually going to drink it or anything. It's just like, this was the cure for this specific virus, because it's made up of three different kinds of virus colors.

09:33 There are red, blue, and yellow viruses. You'll know them because they appear to have, like, under a microscope, they're like characters with personalities, and they make silly faces and things. But also, inside the bottle, where you're throwing the vitamins into, you'll see little versions of them with just their faces, just kind of in one continuous, like, two-frame animation loop. You know, I guess, like, chipping at the player or whatever.

10:02 So, you have to match four of the same color in a row against those viruses in order to clear them. You can also just clear your own vitamins four in a row, but that's not necessarily helpful, because the only way to get to the next stage is to clear all of the viruses. So, if a virus is blue, you need to stack three of the blue vitamins on top of it or to the side of it in order to clear it. This is all very true. I'm only speaking facts here. That is the way you play the game.

10:38 How did you feel, you know, obviously the thing that they're playing off of here, Tetris, like, it's actually very different, as opposed to what I thought, walking into it, seeing, like, people play it in the past, like, is like, oh, this is just Tetris with less shapes.

11:04 Did you have to, like, rewire your brain to do this? It's interesting, because, yeah, it matches the same falling block style gameplay, but because of the match four thing, it winds up being a little more like those Puyo Puyo games, which have now merged with Tetris. There's Puyo Puyo Tetris games. And the one thing I learned about that was that, like, my brain can't necessarily handle the, you know, like, the stacking nature.

11:33 Like, oh, I'm going to purposefully make connections that don't connect, because once I drop in this one, it's going to make everything else fall and complete rows and rows of different colors that I had set up previously. And I'm sure it's actually, like, a pretty simple-to-gather, like, you know, setup that you need to do of, like, okay, you want to put down three of this and then one of this other one and then three more of this one on this side.

12:00 Granted, they would have to fall in that order for it to work, so it's easier said than done. You'd have to deal with what the game gives you. But I still just can never wrap my brain around that. So what I wind up doing instead is what I imagine a lot of, at least the kids at the time were doing, if not most people who still play Dr. Mario, is, you know, you just wind up saying, like, okay, well, how do I get, like, four in front of this virus? And then everything else can just kind of go over to the side, you know, where the viruses are and are. I guess I kind of do that. But if you play long enough, like, you'll be able to internalize those patterns more.

12:38 But, yeah, no, I'm a pretty basic person when it comes to these kinds of games. I'm also very bad at Tetris. So I think it's just, like, if you put me under, like, a time, like, a very short, like, several second time limit and try to make patterns with blocks, I'm just not your guy. But that's basically what I did.

12:58 Yeah. And you have to remember, too, the reason why I was saying about the once you clear a row, you can have a chain reaction is because any of the vitamins comes in blocks of two. And it doesn't necessarily guarantee that it's going to be two of the same color. So you might have a yellow and blue vitamin or a yellow, yellow vitamin or a red and blue vitamin.

13:21 And you always know at least what's coming next as the one that's falling is being prepared to be placed. But you're always just basically playing in the sense of eventually there's going to be capsule fragments after you clear stuff. And those remain. So a yellow-blue vitamin that connects to three other blues, only the blue part of that vitamin goes away. And the yellow either continues to fall down the puzzle or stays right where it was if there's nothing holding below it.

13:52 So there becomes this, like, you know, you do have to, especially in the later levels where they stack a lot of viruses inside the bottle screen. You have to think about where these things are going to fall, and that's always going to be my downfall. Tetris is a game of shapes, you know, so at least I know what the shapes look like.

14:13 These, because of them just being always two of them, it's a different kind. It's like how Puyo Puyo, I think, is always either. It's either always two or always three of them. It's the same thing where, like, you have to think about how you're placing these things because the ones that you're not creating matches for are permanently there now. Like, you're eventually going to have to either clear them or you've made a part of the puzzle that you have essentially, like, locked yourself out of. It's not good.

14:43 I remember several times playing this that you could just feel the extra time that you just caused yourself by closing off a line of three with a color that you didn't mean to. And now you're going to have to go through several more rotations before you can even get to that part of the puzzle again. And then hopefully it lines up.

15:06 I think, like, part of what really got me on this was with Tetris, you know, you kind of start with a blank slate and then any problems that may occur are kind of your fault. But in this game, in the beginning, it's not too bad. They give you, like, three or four viruses to clear out. But in later levels, like, it's like most of the screen are viruses in whatever pattern. And so you've got to very quickly start thinking about how you want to, even if you can think about how you can combo in the beginning because you already have very little space to work with. Yeah. And even if it was a, you know, like a skill issue for us, right? And like, oh, well, actually, it's very satisfying if you know what you're doing.

15:56 I don't disagree. I think, like, people who can create these chain reactions, that's a very, you know, not only is it a very important part of the game for winning, but it's the most satisfying thing about it is if it happens to you even on accident, you just play it off like, yeah, I always meant to do that. You know? Yeah, just like I wrote it up.

16:16 Exactly. But that's, like, the most fun part because otherwise, as you continue to clear through these levels, we've talked about that they add more viruses into the screen, but also the speed increases. The whole time Mario's up there in the top right, just kind of like some weirdly smug lab supervisor watching over you like, I wouldn't have done that.

16:38 And the only saving grace is that the music tracks are awesome. So they're, you know, they're, one of them is the one that I always think of when I think of Dr. Mario, but the other one I just think of as, like, an NES track, and it's great, too. They are, like, right there with Tetris. Again, so you have, like, this unique puzzle game thing, right, where it's, like, you need to, just like Tetris, right, you need to know what you're doing in order to, like, be good at the game. You can't just stack blocks anywhere. But then also, like, the music in Tetris was great. The music here is great.

17:12 So I don't think Nintendo, like, just made a Tetris clone and called it a day. You know, I don't even think of comparing this to Tetris, much other than the fact that it's a falling block game. Do you agree? No, I don't. I think that any falling block game is, at its core, a Tetris clone. I think that it wouldn't have been made had Tetris not been.

17:34 So, yeah. I agree with you that this is definitely because of the Tetris mania, because this is also a Game Boy game, similar to how, like, Tetris was also a Game Boy game. So, like, they clearly were thinking about this from a, like, portability replay system seller thing. And the NES one is just kind of like, yeah, well, we could also release it there, too.

17:57 But I think it's just, like, at the end of the day, it is just, like, a different kind of game. Like, it doesn't scratch the same itch for me as Tetris. Tetris is more like, I don't want to say simpler, because it's not. It can get even more intense. But it's way more simpler to understand and grasp the concept of than this game that adds these viruses onto the screen. Tetris has levels in, maybe in other versions of the release, where they do add those junk blocks as well. Yeah. But, like, you know, I don't, I still think, like, the concept of what Tetris is is just like, okay, well, now, instead of me making those junk blocks, they put them on the screen.

18:41 This is a different thing. This is, like, the goal isn't to get a certain score or do a clear a certain amount of lines. It's we've put these, like, viruses, you know, like, these bosses in the level, and you have to defeat them all in order to move on. So it does still, like, have that Mario philosophy behind it, even if it is a totally different genre. Yeah, I guess I can see that.

19:06 Yeah. It's more tearing down than, I guess, in Tetris, you're building up to tear down. But I don't know. Yeah. They're still very similar in my brain. And does the two-color capsule mechanic create, like, more strategic depth than doing the shapes thing? Like, could you imagine instead if the game was, you know, the same kind of, like, Tetris-style blocks of the L shape and the square shape? Does it help that they're always just two blocks falling at a time? I don't know if I would use the word help. I think it was kind of, it threw me off that I thought that this was going to be a very simple game. Like, oh, four colors, two blocks at a time.

19:54 Only, like, four orientations with that. Like, this game's going to be, like, Tetris baby mode. And then I immediately got, like, very confused. And it was like, oh, wait, maybe I have to, like, offset this so it's kind of hanging off of this column now. And so you're basically, you just have to use a different part of your brain. And I wasn't ready for that. So I would say that it definitely threw me off.

20:31 Thank you.

21:14 And should there have been anything else to this game other than just this puzzle element? Like, you know, you're just playing, basically, this new Dr. Mario game they created. And once you clear the virus of, you know, of the stage or whatever, then you move on to the next stage. And then there's 20 levels of that. And once you clear the 20 levels, you beat the game. Should there have been anything else offered here? Is that enough of a game? I think so. I think it's got just as much, like, strategic depth as, like, a Tetris. As much as you wouldn't think that on first, or at least as much as I wouldn't have thought that on first glance.

21:58 Yeah. And I think, like, a lot of this game, too, especially for the NES version, although it's present in the Game Boy version as well, is the multiplayer aspect of it, too. Like, there's not really a story mode here. It's just kind of you playing against yourself. But, ideally, you know, you want to, like, bring over your friends and, you know, trick them before they have any idea what kind of game this is that you've already figured out everything. And you can just whoop their butts. But, like, I think that's probably where most of the replay value goes. It's not in playing by yourself. It's playing against people.

22:30 And it's literally you're just playing side by side. And it's kind of like I can do this third. Who got the higher score? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The simplest form of multiplayer, I guess. Yeah. So Mario has been a plumber. He's a referee. Yes. A golfer.

22:50 Yes. Well, yeah. Construction worker. Wrecking crew. True. Demolition specialist. Is that what's going on with Donkey Kong? I guess what I'm seeing, not to cut you off, but all these jobs that we've listed aside from this one, they're all kind of like side gigs. You know, like, I mean, he likes to golf. So that's just his hobby.

23:17 But reffing, I would say that maybe that's just something that he does on Sundays for, you know, beer leagues. Yeah, those are all like blue collar jobs. Yeah. But now he's joined the elite. Yeah. He's joined the elite. And like in a totally different way, too. Because, again, I'm not saying that Dr. Mario should have been a game like Operation where you're like doing surgery or something.

23:41 Maybe it could have been like Trauma Center 20 years early. But the other games, you know, besides, you know, referee or I'm trying to think. No, referee is the only one that comes to mind for that. But like, you know, he's just a bystander. He's just like a participant, fun little cameo thing.

23:58 The other games where it's like it's actually his job to be these things, plumber, construction worker, cement factory worker. It's not an NES game, but there was a Game & Watch game, Mario Cement Factory. Those are all like jobs that he has to do and you have to do them as him. And, yes, they're nowhere near like simulation level. But like they introduced the job as like a fun thing to control Mario for. I didn't feel like I was controlling Mario or that I was doing anything that like was Mario specific in this game.

24:31 Yeah, I mean, that's why I was voting for the mushrooms, you know, like, no, I just I'm literally just saying that I don't think that there's enough here to warrant the Mario in the title. This is a Nintendo made game. So, sure, I guess they can get away with it, but like it feels weird that there's not even like Koopas or, you know, like even the cut scenes, right? If they like involve the Mushroom Kingdom a little more or you had like a little like fun thing where you were in the hospital and Mario had to like, you know, do some side scrolling platforming to run to the next room or whatever. Like, I think that there could have been something else here to add Mario to it. Instead, it's just like you're playing as a doctor.

25:15 Basically, yeah, I think what you just said about like having some Pac-Man style cut scenes, but just be a little bit more involved. Like it's kind of it's more like a contagion style story where if you don't do super well in the beginning, like you're going to get higher death tolls for the viruses that you're trying to solve or to cure. And like you're you've got that rival.

25:44 Bowser is actually also a doctor now. And his his team is going to come up with a vaccine before you can. And then maybe there's some like some corporate espionage happening. I think that I think maybe that would do it. And Dr. Mario will evolve as a franchise like we have just this the first game. But there is Tetris and Dr. Mario on the Super Nintendo, which at the same time.

26:11 I know you get both games in one and it adds a versus against the computer now. So you don't need a friend at all. You can you can say goodbye to all your friends. Just play Dr. Mario against the computer. Dr. Mario 64, which now, you know, the whole thing with the N64 was that it had four controller slots built into the console. So, of course, there's going to be four player multiplayer. And there's also a story mode where like I guess like what I just said happens. Well, Wario instead of Bowser. Oh, OK. But yeah.

26:46 Then there's Dr. Mario Express on DSiWare, which like I know what that is, but like I'm not going to bother to explain it here. But it was like a weird thing where Nintendo had the DS and then they released the DSi, which basically had the ability to play like downloaded games from the Internet. And this is one of them. You still have to pay for them. So it was just like, oh, Nintendo figured out about digital games and a digital game store.

27:10 So it was just like there's nothing notable about that. It was on that platform. Nothing new. And then Dr. Mario Online RX. Now, that's a pretty cool title. I like that they put the RX in there, even though I don't know what that stands for in pharmacy terms. I genuinely don't either. Yeah. But that brought obviously because it's Dr. Mario Online, it brought online multiplayer. So that's pretty cool. They just keep figuring out new ways to take away and then add your friends back in.

27:43 OK. What was the last time? OK, let's say before Smash Brothers. Had you thought about Dr. Mario at all since you were a child? No. Dr. Mario before Smash Brothers was just that he was one of the Dr. Mario 64 was one of the games you could play at McDonald's. You know how McDonald's had those N64s like hooked up? I remember them being in Blockbuster. I don't remember the McDonald's. Oh, they were in McDonald's and it was pretty cool. But like the problem was is that you had to play Dr. Mario 64. Like you wanted to play Mario Kart 64. Why wouldn't they give you that? Right. Mm hmm. Because they need people to be eating burgers.

28:27 Come for the N64. Stay for the burger. Have more burgers. Now, we were ragging a little bit there about Dr. Mario. But remember, we're not judging this game based on how Mario it is. We have to judge it based on, you know, if it's still a video game worth playing today. And so we'll do that in our next segment, the Essential Games List.

28:51 Yeah. So if you take the Mario out of it all, what you have here as a puzzle game is actually the same exact puzzle game. That's how little Mario there is to it. And I don't think anything of value is lost. I think that this is definitely different enough from Tetris that like if you enjoy Tetris, you should try this because it's a totally different kind of game. It's not like, oh, the Mario skin for Tetris. I don't know how I feel about the game from like my own time with it because I didn't really enjoy it. But it's a totally competent game.

29:25 Competency isn't really like what we aim for here, though. And I'm kind of surprised that like Dr. Mario like is still around and like regarded. Because I don't think that this comes anywhere near the levels of replayability that Tetris has or even certain other puzzle games that I enjoy. I think there's something like where it's just the two blocks always being a constant makes the gameplay like turn off your brain a little bit. And then by the time you need to turn your brain on to really think about this stuff, I'd rather be playing something else. So it's not essential for me. What about you, Sean? Yeah, it's it's you were kind of getting at something that I was thinking about just sort of how this is a very like popular game.

30:17 And yet I feel like this episode, at least in how we approached it, it was kind of anticlimactic for something with Mario in the name and in the marketing and with with the pedigree that it has.

30:34 I didn't dislike the game. In fact, like I could see myself coming back to this whenever I get into a Tetris kind of mood. But for some reason, maybe I don't want to play Tetris.

30:47 I I think it offers some of the same kinds of things that the whole like Zen state you can find yourself in. I have there were a couple moments before it got too fast, which is very early in the game for me that I was like, oh, I'm getting into a groove here.

31:05 But I don't have it doesn't feel like the killer app that Wikipedia sold it to me as or just like Nintendo history in general sold it to me as. So it's definitely a play it, but not essential for me. And I think you brought up a good point there, Sean, about just like remember Super Mario Brothers 2 on the box had like that little red ribbon at the bottom that was like Mario Mania, you know, or Mario Madness. And it's like that was a thing that was definitely happening and probably still happening in the same year that Super Mario Brothers 3 releases. Right. It's like everybody's clamoring for more Mario. So we're like removed from the mania aspect of it. But like we have Mega Man 3 coming up.

31:54 Is Mega Man 3 actually just like like a life sin? Right, right. That's what I'm saying. We know it's going to be a real Mega Man game, thankfully. But like we will probably treat that one as a bigger deal than we did this. I think that's that's like part of the charm, if I dare say so, about the podcast, though, is that we're removed from all like we're we don't know. We don't know what's supposed to be a big deal and what's not supposed to be. I bolded Dr. Mario for us so that we knew it was like a bigger game.

32:23 But once I played it, I didn't feel like I needed to treat it like a big deal now. I think at the time, if you're comparing it against Tetris, it's kind of weird that it came out so soon after. Like I get that I get that like you're riding off the mania.

32:41 But like was disposable income for video games like that frequent back then that you would own like Tetris and then be like, well, I have to I have to go buy another game right now. And I might as well buy another puzzle game. Right. Like you'd probably buy like a sports game instead. Right. Or an action game. Like switch it up a little bit. I don't think you would like double down in the same, you know, in the same year. But like the Game Boy version is where this whole thing like probably actually lies. And this NES version is just because it's like, yeah, well, we can release it there, too. So we might as well double up.

33:11 One thing that we didn't talk about that I like to talk about from time to time is the box art. Because the box art, even though I've never seen the box in person, I'm familiar with this box art. Yeah. And like that's the most we get of Mario. And still, it just it kind of shows how weird the viruses are that they're just like three new characters that don't look like they belong in the Mushroom Kingdom at all.

33:39 Right. Like those guys don't look like anything I've seen in the last three Super Mario Brothers games. And they're they're scary. But like they're also like the blue one, especially is like rabbit like a little bit like that.

33:52 They're like furry animal ish things that I don't I don't want to. I don't like it. I don't want to see them again. I don't even know if maybe if maybe if they just remove the viruses and made this a game where you're just stacking pills on top of each other. And you and then like that makes something right. Then like fights the. No, no, I think they just needed the design. The design the design just needed to be more more Mario. Like they have that they had to just make it look a bit more like a Koopa or something. I had to shoot my show. I always have to change the game if possible.

34:27 Yeah. Dr. What's with the X on Dr. Rx Mario. Dr. X Mario. You supposed to say it like that. I think that's just the that's just the same. Wait. So there's Dr. Mario something something Rx. And then there's. Yeah, there is that. Yeah. But like no. But like the Rx thing like do you is the X silent.

34:50 I got to figure out what is what's Rx mean? What Rx mean? So the symbol Rx. It's it's said to stand for the Latin word recipe meaning to take. It is customarily part of the superscription of a prescription. That makes no sense. Yeah. I don't like any of this. But also I guess I just don't understand. Like we don't do that for doctors. We don't put the X. No, no. That's just them like mashing up a bunch of like drug stuff. Yeah.