askgaming

Dr. Mario. Never really clicked with me back in the day, I was more into Puyo Puyo, Panel de Pon, and Meteos.

But when 64 came to NSO, someone I knew kept talking it up as the best in the series, so I gave it another shot.

It's interesting because it plays out so differently from any other puzzle game I've played. Dr. Mario was the first puzzle game to have a proper* versus mode (Tetris doesn't count because garbage on the bottom means there is no true interaction with the opponent, don't @ me), and it experimented with a different style of garbage from what was seen a year later in Puyo Puyo, and then every game influenced by Puyo Puyo.

In Dr. Mario, no matter how big your chain is, garbage is hard capped at four little pebbles. Building anything bigger than a four-chain actually wastes material since you can't deal more damage. So your attacks aren't able to take much space from the opponent, and almost never threaten to kill.

However, Dr. Mario's garbage has a rather unusual property: the comically slow animation that the opponent has to sit through before they can act again. Rather than attacking space, you attack time. Back-to-back-to-back two-chains can keep the opponent stunlocked for extended periods, it's okizeme in a puzzle game.

The name of the game is efficiency, rather than building up one strong attack you're trying to convert your board into as many two-chains as possible. It's a really cool style that I wish more games had explored, no matter how much I love Puyo Puyo's big dopamine chains I also love seeing more variety in the genre, and this is a design space that feels underexplored.

After months of grinding, I finally 1CC'd V-Hard earlier this month.