Playing with Power: The doctor is in

“Now you’re playing with power!”

Nintendo always pushed the idea of its Nintendo Entertainment System as a powerful game system. At the time it was cutting edge technology, but compared to now, even the laziest mobile phone game couldn’t fit on a grey Nintendo cartridge. It’s funny to think that more than 30 years after the NES was released, the system’s entire game library, as well as the game library for the later Super NES, could fit on a tiny thumb drive now.

When I bought one of Nintendo’s NES Classic Editions, I wasn’t only looking for a way to enjoy some games I haven’t played since I was in elementary school, I was seeking something I think has been missing from video games, an actual game without worrying about patching software or buying downloadable content to extend the game’s life.

As I make my way through the Classic Edition’s 30-game collection, I’ve had fun reminiscing about games from an era when people had to rush to the video store Friday afternoon to get a shot at renting the newest releases.

Dr. Mario

“Tetris” is probably the only example of what a perfect video game is. It’s easy to learn, somewhat addictive and incredibly tough to master. The game will continue speeding up as the player creates more and more lines with the falling blocks until the inevitable mistake ends the game. The story of how “Tetris” came to be and its eventual move to the U.S. from the Soviet Union is fascinating itself, involving the Soviet government, corporate intrigue and a huge lawsuit between Nintendo of America and the Atari Corporation.

For awhile, Nintendo was the only company licensed produce “Tetris” for portable game systems and home game consoles, blocking their competitors like Sega and Atari. “Tetris” wasn’t included in the set of games loaded on the NES Mini, which likely is due to the Tetris Company having sole rights to the game now and while it may seem odd to write about “Tetris” in a column focused on “Dr. Mario,” without “Tetris” other puzzle games wouldn’t have followed suit.

Somehow between saving princesses, refereeing sporting events and antagonizing giant gorillas, Nintendo’s mascot found the time to earn a medical degree and started working on a series powerful vitamins to rid the Mushroom Kingdom of three particularly ugly viruses.

“Dr. Mario” is fairly straightforward itself. The playing field is shaped like a medicine bottle and players guide and shift colored pills to match with the colored viruses in the bottle.

Lining up four of the same color vertically or horizontally causes the pills and viruses to disappear and the viruses under the magnifying glass at the left of the screen fall over and throw a tantrum until getting back up or disappearing completely.

The difficulty curve was also a bit more steep than what “Tetris” offered as the pills falling speed increases the longer it takes to finish a stage and as players reached higher levels, they had to contend with more and more viruses.

At Level 20, more than two-thirds of the bottle is filled with viruses and I think Dr. Mario would be better off just soaking it in a vat of bleach.

More than 30 years later, it’s one of the few games from that time still holding up as far as offering an engaging experience.

The two-player mode is still a blast as well, minus the inevitable slug to the shoulder a person gets when they rain pill pieces in their opponent’s bottle.