Over the years, Nintendo has ported many immortal NES and SNES classics to the GBA. People expect it at this point. Making classic 2D games available to put in our pocket only makes sense, doesn’t it? Sometimes their ports turn out extremely well, and sometimes they bomb, but fortunately for us, this little package is more in the excellent direction. Let’s analyze both Dr. Mario and Panel de Pon on their own merits and see if they are worth your purchase when they are released together later this year in North America and Europe.



Since its release in late 1987, Dr. Mario has started quite a legacy. It was the first true Mario spin-off title, and has been ported to just about every major Nintendo platform under the sun throughout the years. Dr. Mario also was Nintendo’s first original puzzle game other than Tetris, which they licensed, rather than created. Dr. Mario was created by the late, great Gunpei Yokoi and his R&D team that we know today as Intelligent Systems, creators of Wario Land and the Advance Wars series. It has held up remarkably over the years, which is outstanding and a true testament to Nintendo’s talent in game design. A lot of reviews and websites in the past seem to have cited Dr. Mario as a ripoff of Tetris which is completely unfair. The games are completely dissimilar in almost all ways except their genre. The goal, physics, and system of clearing on-screen debris are very different from each other. In fact, Dr. Mario's system of play was actually partially copied in 1994's Tetris 2 (known as Tetris Flash in Japan) down to the color of the blocks with some significant modifications made to the system to differentiate the two. Dr. Mario itself was created in response to the success of Tetris, but the game was never a copy. Now that that rant is out of the way, on with the review.

Facts and Features:

• Two immortal puzzle games on one cartridge
  
• 1-2 players via dual cart multiplayer
  
• Fully customizable options, game physics, and CPU opponents
  
• Developed by Intelligent Systems
  
• Published by Nintendo

The version contained on this cartridge is a fresh build, but is based on two different versions. From a gameplay perspective, the available options fall somewhere between those available in 1994's Tetris & Dr. Mario and 2001’s US exclusive, Dr. Mario 64 for the N64. You get 1-Player, 2-Player, Versus Computer mode, and the often forgotten for greatly welcomed Flash Mode where you clear the three flashing viruses scattered throughout the jar to complete a stage. The single player mode has pretty much been the same in every version of the game available, but this is the first portable adaptation to include the ability to play against the CPU. Visually, it’s easily comparable to the graphics we saw in Dr. Mario 64. Basically, that means the sprites are vibrantly animated, and colorfully hand-drawn. It’s a treat to look at, that’s for sure.

The sound quality is going to be a matter of opinion on this one. The voice samples from the N64 version have been removed (along with the game’s story mode where Dr. Mario tried to get the stolen Megavitamins back from Wario). All of the selectable music from the N64 version has been included, though the quality is of course noticeably poorer than that of the N64 due to the GBA’s audio shortcomings. Still, it’s really not that big of a difference. The real problem that some people may have is that the two classic songs Fever & Chill have been slightly arranged, and the arrangements are rather different from the original versions. Some may like the change, some may not. Either way, it’s worth mentioning.


For the first time, Versus CPU and Flash mode are available in portable Dr. Mario

There are only two definite shortcomings that should be mentioned. First and foremost, Nitnendo released the Classic NES edition of Dr. Mario last year. The deal with that version was that it was simply an emulation of the NES game on GBA hardware. With that, you got 1987 quality visuals, and 8-bit sound, and you lost the Versus Computer modes. The compensation for the poor graphics and audio on that older version was that you could have 2-Player matches off of one cartridge because the game was small enough to dump into the GBA’s 1 Meg of Ram. That is not the case here. Since this port’s visuals and sound are GBA quality, you must have 2 cartridges to have multiplayer matches. It’s the price that has to be paid to get GBA quality presentation, but the extra eye candy is definately worth it. It gives the game more life and flair. If you already own the Classic NES version, it's definately worth it to upgrade to this enhanced version. The second problem is that there are not as many viruses available in the playfield as there were in the original NES, SNES, or N64 versions. When you started at level 20 in the past console versions of the game, you had a starting number of 84 viruses in the bottle to clear. Here, at level 20, you only start at 68. That was done to make the game easier to play because the viruses are rather small, and because the GBA has a small screen, this makes it far easier to see all the viruses clearly. It was also likely done to make more room for the hand drawn animations of Dr. Mario himself and the viruses. Whether the trade off is worth it or not is up to the player, but you will have a far easier time seeing and playing the game. Also of note, Intelligent Systems added a “ghost” image of your pills to show you where they will drop to help those with bad aim, or just the new or inexperienced. It can be turned off if it is found distracting to old masters.


Hand Drawn sprites adorn the screen


Overall, this is obviously the best portable version of Dr. Mario made to date, and definitely worth the purchase. It’s an immortal game, with endless replay value (just like any puzzle game should have) and comes very highly recomended. But, if you’re not a Dr. Mario fan, then it’s not the only game available on this cartridge.