Dr Mario review - Nintendo Gameboy

Popping pills is usually considered a bad thing - unless a certain lovable Italian plumber is handing out the capsules. That's the premise for this game; Mario has donned his white smock, called himself a doctor, and become the star of this Tetris variant.

The action takes place in a medicine bottle, infested with viruses. Mario tosses pills into the bottle, which must be matched up with the different-coloured viruses in order to eliminate them. It takes three blocks to destroy a single virus, or two to destroy two similar viruses stacked on top of each other.

The speed of the pills' appearance, the number of viruses and the background music can all be altered, changing the difficulty of the game.

What the Mean Machines staff thought

This is a good game - its playing style is very addictive and will have you coming back for more over quite a period of time. My biggest gripe is that if you've got Tetris (and virtually all Gameboy owners have), this holds very little extra in comparison. It's also not as good as the Soviet wonder, so if you want another great puzzle game on the Gameboy to supplement your Tetris, get Pipe Dream instead.

This is a perfect Gameboy title, and is a brilliant puzzle game in its own right - it's sold over a million units in America! There's just the right amount of annoyance and addiction, and there's a huge amount of levels to keep up a constant challenge. I think it's different enough from Tetris to warrant purchasing, and it's easily the most enjoyable addictive Gameboy game I've played in months. Don't miss it.