Dr. Mario (NES)

Dr. Mario

Platform: NES Year: 1990 Developer: Nintendo R&D1 Buy: Amazon

Dr. Mario is a reflexive puzzle game in the same class as Tetris where you're trying to make lines of colored pills in order to kill bacteria in a jar. It features cartoon graphics of Mario and the bugs to make it look appealing. You can play at 20 different difficulty levels with three different speed settings each. While the game never reached the popularity of Tetris, is has developed quite a following, and many people have played the game enough to beat it on its hardest difficulty level. You can also play with an opponent in two-player mode which allows you to send random pill pieces over to your opponent when you get multiple lines in a row.

Screenshots

The title screen. Two-player head-to-head. Normal single-player game. Pills here!!! I just don't know what went wrong. That's a lot of viruses.

Music

VGMPF Album Art

Due to Dr. Mario's popularity, the music has also become quite popular. The two main tracks for game play, Fever and Chill, are the best-sounding and most intricate tracks in the game, but some of the other tunes are fun to listen to. Hirokazu Tanaka, the game's composer, had been making music for Nintendo for 10 years by the time he composed music for this game. While most of the music flows nicely, some of the tracks seem to have a stutter in them. Perhaps Tanaka was trying something different with the sound.

Track 13, formerly listed as 'Unknown', is played when clearing Level 20 on speed Low. Most of the track titles come from the Famicom 20th Anniversary Vol. 3 album.

Most of the game's soundtrack was adapted to the Game Boy version, also by Tanaka.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Length	Listen	Download
01	Title BGM	Hirokazu Tanaka	2:05		Download
02	Select	Hirokazu Tanaka	0:48		Download
03	Fever	Hirokazu Tanaka	2:21		Download
04	Chill	Hirokazu Tanaka	4:01		Download
05	Fever Clear	Hirokazu Tanaka	0:22		Download
06	Chill Clear	Hirokazu Tanaka	0:21		Download
07	Game Over	Hirokazu Tanaka	0:23		Download
08	VS Game Over	Hirokazu Tanaka	1:54		Download
09	Player 1 Multiple	Hirokazu Tanaka	0:01		Download
10	Player 2 Multiple	Hirokazu Tanaka	0:01		Download
11	Level 20 HI Clear (UFO)	Hirokazu Tanaka	1:01		Download
12	Ending	Hirokazu Tanaka	1:18		Download
13	Unknown	Hirokazu Tanaka	1:56		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Gigandes
• Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
• Game Credits:
  • Not Credited Composer: Hirokazu Tanaka

(Source: Official soundtrack liner notes, verification from composer; game lacks credits)

Because the game was developed at an early time when credits were uncommon, it's no surprise this game doesn't have any. However, the game's composer, Hirokazu Tanaka has verified in various interviews that he is the composer, and has listed the game in his works. He also composed the Game Boy version.

Albums

Famicom 20th Anniversary - Original Sound Tracks, Vol.3 2004-04-21 Famicom Sound History Series - Mario the Music 2004-07-22

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

Ripping NES music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.

Releases

Japan Title: ドクターマリオ (Dr. Mario) Platform: Famicom Released: 1990-07-27 Publisher: Nintendo Co., Ltd.     USA Title: Dr. Mario Platform: NES Released: 1990-10-?? Publisher: Nintendo of America Inc.     Germany Title: Dr. Mario Platform: NES Released: 1991-06-27 Publisher: Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/nes/dr-mario - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.com/nes/587241-dr-mario - GameFAQs.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Mario_(video_game) - Wikipedia.
• w.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/1119.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese).