(Mobile) Dr Mario World for Android

How Many Hearts Must I Pay to Say, “Hasta luego! No tango el dinero por los perros peresozos a Nintendo corporate.”? Then I realized that I actually like dogs and most aren’t lazy. Never had a dog try to file a DCMA claim against me, either.

Nintendo typically has the most seemingly unique titles to me, as someone who is primarily a PC gamer first. I even keep copies of OS/2 Warp, BeOS 4.5, MS-DOS 5 & 6.22, Windows 3.1, and an assortment of random other stuff. Sure — emulation might be the way to go — but having the OS installed on a period-appropriate system seems to add a bit to the experience. Enough rambling! Dr. Mario World, if it was nothing more Dr. Mario with a coat of paint, would likely be praised already. It’s not and it seems the vultures already started picking at the bones of this one despite it’s official closure not taking place until November 1st, 2021.

Presentation, User Interface, & Multimedia Design

Dr. Mario World has the presentation and UI of a moderately-sized indie studio. A good UI and initial presentation if designed by one if the team members who back in college was "pretty good at that stuff" when developing for class projects. For Nintendo, I expect a bit more. The
music repeats a lot but isn’t terrible and the playfield and map graphics are coherent, consistent, and not bad. Overall, it’s a serviceable appearance that neither adds to not subtracts from enjoyment. Game just had to have average gameplay based on Dr Mario to be a recommend.

Cash Shop, Social & Gameplay

Whether or not you’ll even get to play this game is based on how much you are willing to spend. I was locked out of playing without obtaining more hearts from my friends after only a short period (less than 15 minutes,). I couldn’t add LINE or Facebook because of the game closing soon, or at least I assume that’s why. Not really a good way to make friends on this title either. So, it’s a title essentially requiring friends or money if you don’t want to be time-gated and has both features turned off at the moment, rendering it nearly unplayable.

Was the gameplay in the many, many interrupted bursts any good? Not really. It was a very basic Dr. Mario-inspired puzzle game that lacked the twitch reaction time and planning of the original, replacing it with a cash shop.

The only puzzle here is who at Nintendo thought this was a good game. Not much of a puzzle though once you discover how much these titles generate.

For those who enjoy this title, sorry this happened to you. Nintendo cares very little about game preservation and much like Apple, is gradually shifting from being the choice of somewhat snobbish folk wanting a quality experience to being a cash grabby company targeting the children of rich parents and fanboys.

I was going to do Mario Kart mobile next but why bother? I’ll cover a game by an Indie dev instead.