Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure

Genre: Match-4 Falling Block Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Wireless, Online)

.

Review:

While multiple Dr. Mario games are playable on the Nintendo 3DS via various means, Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure is the only game in Nintendo’s classic Match-4 Falling Block Puzzle Game series designed specifically for Nintendo’s 3D handheld, although even that statement may be misleading as most of this game’s visual style and unique mechanics have been copied over from the 2013 Wii U game, Dr. Luigi. However, that’s not to say that there’s nothing new in this release.

It bears mention that Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2015, comes in the wake of the mechanically-sound but horrendously feature-poor DSiWare game Dr. Mario Express, and the Virtual Console release of the original monochrome Game Boy Dr. Mario game. As such, despite the recycled elements from Dr. Luigi, it’s still welcome on Nintendo’s 3D handheld as both games are among the best in the entire franchise.

Like in Dr. Luigi, The presentation here is good, with bright colorful visuals, nice little animations in the gameplay, and good 3D models for Mario and Luigi. This is backed by remixes of the classic Dr. Mario themes. Overall, this looks quite nice, although of course there’s nothing truly jaw-dropping going on here.

The core gameplay here is still the same classic Dr. Mario Match-4 gameplay you’ve likely played in some form by this point. However, Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure infuses variety into this formula by occasionally giving players bonus pieces that allow them to clear all pill pieces of one color or blast away a small area. This makes the gameplay more chaotic and less strategic, but I would also argue that it adds in a sense of fun that I don’t normally get with this franchise.

In addition to this, traditional Dr. Mario stages are mixed in with Dr. Luigi stages which have players dropping L-shaped pairings of pills. This makes for some good additional variety to shake up the gameplay. Another game mode brought over from the Wii U Dr. Luigi game is Virus Buster, the touchscreen-focused game mode which would later be the apparent inspiration for the mobile game Dr. Mario World.

All of this is in a game that lets players play through stages, play in a Vs. CPU mode, play through various challenge levels, or play against other players via local wireless or online play. However, don’t expect to find any opponents online – the online lobbies are largely abandoned at this point.

I suppose I could complain that while this game has a fair amount of different game modes, its actual amount of content in its challenge mode could stand to be greater than the 50 or so challenges you’re given. However, for a price of $9, what’s here seems pretty sufficient.

I have to admit, Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure surprised me. I’m not normally the biggest fan of the Dr. Mario series, but this game builds on Dr. Luigi and gives players enough variety and has enough clever mechanics to keep things interesting far longer than prior games in the series, and its healthy array of options is a far sight better than either of the other ways to play Dr. Mario on your Nintendo 3DS. If you’re looking for the best version of Dr. Mario to play on the go, this may very well be the game you’re looking for.

tl;dr – Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure is a version of Nintendo’s classic Match-4 Falling Block Puzzle Game that takes the already-excellent Dr. Luigi and adds multiple different game modes and elements to make for one of the best versions of that formula ever made. It’s still a bit content-poor, but for $9 it’s well worth adding to your Nintendo 3DS game collection, especially if you’re a Puzzle Game fan.

Grade: B+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Andy Miller, Exlene, Johannes, Ilya Zverev, Connor Armstrong, Eli Goodman, K.H., Kristoffer Wulff, Stov, and Gabriel Coronado-Medina. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}