“Dr. Luigi” Review

Mentioning Dr. Mario these days will often draw parallels to his character in Super Smash Bros. that throws pills around instead of the fireballs that we’re used to with the plain old Mario.  There have been iterations of Dr. Mario…

Mentioning Dr. Mario these days will often draw parallels to his character in Super Smash Bros. that throws pills around instead of the fireballs that we’re used to with the plain old Mario.  There have been iterations of Dr. Mario ever since the game’s debut on the NES, but it’s never seen much change until now with Dr. Luigi.

What Is It?

The core gameplay of Dr. Luigi is exactly the same as Dr. Mario.  The point of this falling block puzzle game is to rid your screen (or bottle) of the blue, yellow, and red viruses by aligning capsules of the same color among them.  As long as three like-colored units are attached, they’ll pop.

Every Dr. Mario game prior to Dr. Luigi used two-unit pills that were either the same color or of two different colors, and players could see which pills were coming next based on the pill Dr. Mario is seen holding on the right side of the screen.

Chains are created by popping more than one group of pills at a time.

Why Should I Care?

But that’s all Dr. Mario.  Dr. Luigi changes things up.  Instead of the standard 2-color pills, you now have 3-by-2 L-shaped pills.  These L-shaped pills can either be of the same color, or the foot of the L will be of a different color.

Since the long side of the L-shaped pills are of one color, it allows players to immediately eradicate a single virus of the same color, but the effect of gravity after popping gives the game another dimension of thought.

What Makes It Worth My Time And Money?

Now if you’re not into L-shaped rules Operation L brings to the table, you’re more than welcome to play with traditional rules in the game’s Retro Remedy mode.  Both Operation L and Retro Remedy allow you to play in single player and the Virus Buster mode originally introduced in Dr. Mario Online Rx for the Wii, in which you can literally drag and drop the pills.  The Wii U mode, though, allows you to simply use your touch screen and stylus on the GamePad.

In addition to the classic and Virus Buster modes, both Operation L and Retro Remedy can be played both through local and online multiplayer.  Even though the game just came out, it was finding a match was rather quick, even though I ended losing 0-10.

Dr. Luigi brings back all the fun Dr. Mario did with a soundtrack both familiar and new.  The game looks as smooth as you can possibly expect in HD, and the music is just as catchy as it was over 20 years ago.  This all makes Dr. Luigi a worthy download for players with a Wii U looking for a puzzler.