Sees a Dr. Mario topic, felt needed to respond
Going through most Dr. Mario made me appreciate certain games over others. But I have to say that Dr. Mario 64 represented a time when Dr. Mario was still seen as a big puzzle game and gets treated like one, because this is the last time a Dr. Mario game properly gets a suite of new features. Things like a Story Mode, 4-player competitive, and new tunes! Most games didn't move the needle a lot, being content with minimal improvements and scaling down (so much that it's digital only).
One Dr. Mario game that I thought would be a solid entry was Dr. Mario Miracle Cure. On the surface it seems like it would be a solid package. Things like: having pre-designed stages! New Miracle Cure to clear stuff! But it felt gutted in some ways. For some reason that game can't let you select the music, or worse: limited levels (e.g.: In Classic, you can't move past level 20, and level 1 is the min level when 0 is normally the lowest level). So yeah, Miracle Cure is solid but it's far from the most definitive entry, meaning that Dr. Mario 64 still reigns over it.
I also find it funny how Dr. Mario 64 is also kind of a Wario Land 3 spinoff too, so it's the spinoff for both Wario Land and Dr. Mario. I wonder if they did this because not only was Wario Land 3 brand-new, but also Dr. Mario needed something to create a story out of and they decided on Wario for some reason. Sensibly the Super Mario series would make more sense to make a story out of, but nope, it's Wario Land that gets spotlighted.
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Oh yeah, I see the praise of Dr. Mario World, and I can't help but agree with it. What is unusual about that game is, because of how conservative Dr. Mario is, Dr. Mario World ended up being so revolutionary in a way that neither Super Mario Run or Mario Kart Tour are from their respective Mario spinoffs. What I mean is that for both of those games, their respective series iterate the games so the innovations are natural (e.g.: Mario Kart Tour has gliding, a feature introduced in Mario Kart 7). So playing those entries is like an extension of the familiar gameplay of the original series.
Dr. Mario World, on the other hand, introduced so much new stuff it feels unreal. For one, it is the first one to introduce the entire Mario cast so Mario (and Luigi) aren't the only ones being doctors. And then it also has a variety of elements that would not be out of place for how Super Mario added new elements to make the game more interesting (like bombs and shells, which are things that Dr. Mario World also have). I daresay that its VS is the highlight. There is a character balance in that mode, and it's also fast paced in a way that traditional Dr. Mario VS is not (it's generally kind of slow).
I also wish that Dr. Mario World would return in some form, but if it can't, at least carry over the positives from that game, like the selection of playable familiar Mario characters, new viruses colours, and the extra elements introduced in World.
Thank you for reading.