Reviews// Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure

Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure takes the old rules and gives them a slight twist. A bit like changing medication just enough to combat a new virus in the real world, the game's challenges have grown in complexity. No longer do we just have the easy to swallow standard pills made of two tiles, now we have L-shaped tiles... Which would be bloody hard to swallow if Mario was a real doctor.

As with the past Dr. Mario games, here you are presented with a medical bottle containing a representation of a virus in the form of coloured tiles, your goal is to drop in pills and try to match up four coloured tiles - especially the viral tiles - to clear them from the bottle. Once the virus has been obliterated by your match four capabilities the patient is saved and you can move on to the next challenge.

There are sixty total premade challenges. 10 of those are considered training, and they range from insultingly simple to hair-pullingly difficult. As it stands I am just over half way through the advanced tab and I am about ready to shave off my remaining hair and call it a day. There is also the Custom Clinic mode, which I initially hoped was a build-your-own-virus-and-share-it type thing. It isn't. What you get is either a vs. CPU version of the online (or local) multiplayer or a bottle with infinitely spawning viruses and you have to keep going as long as you can.

This 'Endless' mode is where I see the most replay coming from, in the same way I spent whole car journeys playing Tetris on my Gameboy as a child, this mode could quite easily swallow the daily commute.

There are various aids to use during each game - power-ups that slow time and other things - although I've only really used the slow-down feature during some of the harder advanced challenges. One thing I advise is turning the music off as soon as you can - it is horrendous.

Overall the enjoyment you'll get out of this will depend on you and not the game, but this is the same for all tile matching games. I you enjoy Tetris, Columns and especially the older Dr. Mario then this is for you. If you don't have the patience or attention span for this type of game then steer well clear.

Pros:
+ Solid, easy to grasp mechanics
+ Plenty of premade challenges
+Endless mode will keep most hooked

Cons:
- Horrid music
- Disappointed that I can't make my own challenges to share.

SPOnG Score: 8/10