Dr. Mario is a very addictive puzzle game, right up there with Tetris as an enjoyable time-passer. I first played Dr. Mario when my sister and I went to the Nintendo World Championships at the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey in 1990 with our dad. They had kiosks of their upcoming games, and Dr. Mario is the only one that I remember. It was so much fun that I had a hard time pulling myself away.

When I finally got the game though, it was my mom that became the Dr. Mario addict. She would play the game way into the wee hours of the morning, beating the game on the “hi” setting, playing it after the ending until she lost, and then beating it again.

I became quite addicted to it as well, but not quite to the level of my mom. I’ll play the game on “hi”, and beat it, and usually I’ll set the game aside for another day. My favorite song out of the two is “fever”. It’s a fast, upbeat song, and for some reason faster songs get me in the groove when I’m playing puzzle games. My mom prefers “chill”, as “fever” makes her nervous.

We’ve played the 2 player game quite a bit, and it’s quite fun to throw blocks down on the other players game when you make combos. It’s quite nerve wracking when you are the one who receives the blocks. The jingle that plays when the blocks are coming sends out a ton of “oh no!”’s from all of my family who’s played it.

The cutscenes in the game are odd, but I love them (I seem to love a lot of odd things :) ). They have everything from flying pigs, to witches, to weird things like flying books (I wonder if the flying books in Super Mario 64 came from this game). The final cutscene at the end of level 20 on “hi” is by far the weirdest scene in the whole game. Needless to say, it’s also my favorite. :D