Dr. Mario & Puzzle League - GBA

Also known as: Dr. Mario & Tetris Attack

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Viewed: 2D Static screen Genre:
Puzzle: Falling Blocks
Arcade origin:No
Developer: Nintendo Soft. Co.: Nintendo
Publishers: Nintendo (JP/US/GB)
Released: 2005 (JP)
25 Nov 2005 (GB)
5 Dec 2005 (US)
Ratings: PEGI 3+, ESRB Everyone
No Accessories: No Accessories

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Summary

Designed by a Soviet computer programmer and snapped up by an astute Nintendo, Tetris was an instant classic that couldn’t have come at a better time, coinciding with the launch of the first Game Boy.

It was a time of falling blocks games – Columns was packaged with the SEGA Game Gear – and as time passed Nintendo felt the urge to try its arm at a home grown effort. The result was Dr. Mario, a take on the ‘four-blocks-of-a-kind-together-vanish’ sub-genre. It cast our favourite plumber as a haphazard doctor, hurling random, two-coloured pills at germs and leaving it to you to match up germ with medicine.

It’s become traditional for handhelds to play host to puzzle games, and now Dr. Mario comes to the GBA. Use your GBA solo and eliminate the nasty bugs without bunging up the bottle with too many pills. The simple gameplay means that two player is child’s play for the GBA’s link-up cable, and you can play against your friends, or, if you have no friends, have the computer masquerade as one.

You might say that, addictive as it is, Dr. Mario is quite enough of a game to warrant a stand alone release on the GBA. Well, Nintendo thought you might say that, and in a pre-emptive strike has included Puzzle League. Puzzle League first cropped up as Pokemon Puzzle league on the N64. This version is just the same, only without Pikachu and friends wallpapered into the background. Again, you can play two player and the game also features a wealth of options to customise your puzzling experience. If you’ve got OCD, or simply like everything to be in its place, Dr. Mario & Puzzle League will give you a break from alphabetising your spoons drawer and colour coding your towel cupboard.