Dr. Mario

ドクターマリオ

Year: 1990
Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: FC / NES
Hardware: Family Computer (8-bit)
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1-2 players (versus)
Controls: D-pad + A (rotate) / B (rotate) / Start (drop)
Series: Mario puzzle games

⬇ Coming soon

Gameplay Screenshots

About This Game

Dr. Mario is Nintendo's falling-block puzzle game with a medical twist. Mario, in a lab coat, throws two-coloured vitamin capsules into a bottle infested with red, yellow and blue viruses; a capsule segment and a virus of the same colour eliminate each other when four or more of that colour line up horizontally or vertically.

The scoring and structure are pure arcade: clear every virus on the bottle to advance, with 20 levels of increasing virus counts and falling speeds (levels above 20 in some versions continue to ramp). The two-player versus mode — race to clear your bottle while cleared rows send garbage capsules across — is the reason it still gets played head-to-head today.

Three-colour capsule matching against viruses in a bottle
20 speed levels with rising virus counts
Two-player versus mode with garbage-capsule attacks
Simple rules, deep chain and setup play

Version History

Famicom (Japan)1990-07-27
Original release as Dr. Mario.
NES (North America)1990-10
The version this page's screenshots come from.
Virtual Console / NES Switch Online2007 / 2019
Official re-releases keeping the original versus mode intact.

Tips & Strategy

Clear from the top down

Viruses sitting on the bottle floor are the hardest to reach without leaving gaps. Work the upper layers first so the stack stays short and you always have a landing spot for awkward capsule colour pairs.

Build 'shelves' on purpose

When two viruses of the same colour sit diagonally, a horizontal line above one and a vertical drop onto the other can clear both in one capsule. Setting up a shared row above two same-colour viruses is the core skill of high-level play.

In versus mode, dump garbage early

Cleared lines send capsule pieces to your opponent's bottle. Sending them while their stack is still short rarely matters; waiting until they are tall makes the garbage actually block their clear. Bank your clears for their busy moments.

Download Resources

Resource packs for this game are provided through the button below.