Overview and Gameplay
Mario trades platforming for laboratory puzzle work in Dr. Mario, a celebrated NES color-matching game. Two-color vitamin capsules fall into a bottle filled with red, blue, and yellow viruses. Arrange four or more matching pieces horizontally or vertically to clear them, eliminate every virus, and advance.
Players choose a Virus Level, Low, Med, or Hi speed, and either Fever, Chill, or no music. Unsupported capsule halves fall after a clear, creating useful cascades. The falling speed also increases as more capsules enter the bottle.
Controls And Mechanics
- Use the directional pad to move capsules left or right and press down to accelerate their fall.
- Press A to rotate clockwise and B to rotate counterclockwise. Start begins play and pauses or resumes a game.
- In simultaneous two-player versus mode, each player uses a separate bottle. Clearing multiple lines can send loose capsule pieces into the opponent’s field. The first player to earn three crowns wins the match.
Version Notes
This version uses the later PRG1 program revision, commonly called Revision A or Rev 1. Its known changes focus on initialization, display handling, pause behavior, and saved music-selection stability rather than altering the rules, scoring, stages, or multiplayer.
Release And Credits
- U.S. release: October 1990
- Developer: Nintendo R&D1
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Music and sound: Hirokazu Tanaka
- Original platform: Famicom and NES
