Dr. Mario World

Dr. Mario World is a puzzle game in the Dr. Mario series for and  smartphones. The game was originally set to release on July 10, 2019, but ended up being released a day earlier on July 9. It is a free to download game with in-app purchases that was co-developed by Nintendo, LINE, and, and was available initially in 59 countries/regions including Japan and the United States. The game supports multiple languages including Japanese and English. Dr. Mario World is the second Mario game for mobile devices, following Super Mario Run, though it is the first free-to-play mobile game featuring microtransactions and gacha mechanics in the Mario series. Pre-registration for the game opened on July 1.

Dr. Mario World takes advantage of the touchscreen controls of the smartphone, where players can drag pills with the touchscreen to eliminate viruses, though the core gameplay is slightly tweaked in the single player as opposed to prior Dr. Mario titles in that players solve puzzles with a limited number of capsules rather than infinite capsules against a time limit. New gameplay elements include four introduced colors of viruses: green, purple, light-blue, and pink viruses, which occur mixed in the regular red, blue, and yellow viruses later in the game. Dr. Mario World features the debut of playable Mario characters as doctors than prior Dr. Mario games. These doctors have special abilities which help clear levels more easily. In addition, doctors can be paired with a wide variety of assistants, which constitute primarily of generic Mario enemies. As well as having a single player mode, Dr. Mario World introduces a competitive Versus mode, where players battle against opponents online in a gameplay style similar to the traditional Dr. Mario games.

Story
A virus outbreak has occurred in the Mushroom Kingdom, infecting Koopa Troopas, Toads, and Shy Guys, where Dr. Mario hunts down viruses to save the locals. Dr. Toad instructs Dr. Mario on how to eliminate viruses in the first demo level, featuring only red viruses. By the 11th level, Princess Peach notices that the Toads need her help while Bowser wants to take care of the viruses affecting his minions himself, so they join Dr. Mario as playable characters.

Gameplay
As with previous Dr. Mario games, the player's objective is to eliminate all of the viruses on the screen by connecting capsules of the same color to each of them, although instead of the capsules descending, the game's gravity is directed upwards with the viruses positioned towards the top of the screen. The player first drags a capsule from the bottom of the screen onto the field to use it, and can drag it again to move it or increase its "falling" speed, or tap it to rotate it horizontally or vertically. Viruses are eliminated if three (as opposed to four) or more of the same color are matched. The classic red, blue, and yellow viruses return, while new green, purple, light-blue, and pink viruses make their debut.

Depending on the level, various obstacles may appear on the field, including Empty Blocks and Brick Blocks. Different-colored shells and bombs can also appear among the viruses which, when matched with capsules of the same color, clear out viruses on the same row and eliminate surrounding viruses, respectively. Some viruses are encased in bubbles, which shield them from capsules once before they disappear; or trapped in cages, only being released after clearing a lock on the field.

Levels are grouped into worlds, beginning with five – which are in order grass-, desert-, beach-, ghost-, and sky-themed – with more to be added in the future.

In order to play a level, the player needs to have at least one heart. Hearts are gained automatically as time passes, although players can purchase hearts with diamonds. Diamonds can also be used to obtain items and to continue a level should a player fail an attempt (although only one continue is allowed per attempt). Diamonds can be purchased through the app with real money.

Unlike prior Dr. Mario games, players are limited to a certain amount of capsules per level.

Doctors
Each playable character offers a unique special skill that can be activated during gameplay. Players start with Dr. Mario when they first play the game and unlock Dr. Bowser and Dr. Peach when they reach the 11th level. Players can purchase new doctors with coins and diamonds, although the doctors are obtained randomly and duplicates can occur.

More doctors are planned to be added via software updates.

Assistants
Assistants, like the doctors, have unique skills that aid the player. Up to two assistants can be selected at once.

More assistants are planned to be added via software updates.

Viruses
While the red, blue, and yellow viruses return from previous Dr. Mario titles, Dr. Mario World introduces four more colors of viruses: purple, green, pink, and light-blue.

Virus Vid


To promote Dr. Mario World, Nintendo released a series of short videos on social media featuring the viruses performing various activities, beginning on June 18, 2019 and ending on July 10, 2019, on a daily basis.

Updates
The following is a list of updates the game has received since launch.

Ver. 1.0.2
Release date: July 10th 2019
 * Implemented bug fixes

Ver. 1.0.3
Release date: July 13th 2019
 * Implemented bug fixes
 * We have included balance adjustments

Critical reception
At launch, Dr. Mario World received generally mixed to somewhat negative reviews. Critics were somewhat divided but leaned positively on its puzzle aspect and its multiplayer mode, but near unanimously criticized its overabundance of microtransactions and its online requirement. It currently holds a score of 66 on Metacritic based on eleven reviews and a score of 62.92% on GameRankings based on six reviews.

Chris Carter of Destructoid gave the game a 6/10, praising the accessibility and puzzles the game has to offer, but criticized the microtransactions, claiming "I've been playing mobile games consistently since Flight Control in 2009; so you could say I've had many encounters with energy systems and the like. The situation is definitely case-by-case, nuanced, and depending on the game the juice can absolutely be worth the squeeze. But seeing cute Mario characters reduced to this, with all of the psychological tricks in the book thrown in, is depressing. Just energy, just "you can finish this hard level if you pay," or just gacha would have been a lot as it is." In a review without a score, Ben Bertoli of IGN expressed skepticism over the change in gameplay compared to previous entries in the series, and was slightly more critical of the microtransactions, stating "While it doesn't make it unplayable, to be sure, it makes it very clear from the get-go where this Dr. Mario's priorities lie." He concluded that it was still a fairly decent game to play for those who enjoy puzzle games. In an even more negative review, Glen Fox of Gamezebo gave the game a 2/5, criticizing practically everything about the game; he called the puzzles "artificial difficulty" and "uninspired", and raised a larger furor over the microtransactions, stating that he never expected Nintendo to engage in such predatory practices.

In stark contrast to other critics, Chris Scullion of Nintendo Life gave the game an 8/10, and praised mainly the multiplayer mode. While he agreed with other critics that the single-player mode was muddled with excessive microtransactions, he believed that the gameplay was fitting for a mobile device, and believed the multiplayer mode would be the game's highlight.

References to other games

 * Super Mario series: This game's five worlds are commonly featured across the Super Mario platformers.
 * Tetris & Dr. Mario: The music heard during Dr. Toad's first gameplay tutorial is an arrangement of Music 1 from the Mixed Match mode from this game.
 * Super Mario Odyssey: Dr. Bowser's attire is similar to his normal self's wedding attire in this game.

Pre-release and unused content
Graphics for unused doctors have been extracted from the game; this includes Daisy, Wario, Waluigi, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Rosalina, Luma, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, and Baby Daisy. Graphics for unused assistants have also been extracted as well, including Boomerang Bro, Chain Chomp, Dolphin, Fly Guy, Fuzzy, King Boo, Mechakoopa, Monty Mole, and Thwomp.