作者彙整: Ben Reeves

Tetris gets the most love of all the Game Boy puzzle games, but when Dr. Mario released on Nintendo’s portable system in 1990, it chewed through its fair share of batteries. Nintendo has revisited its virus-crushing puzzle game several times over the years, but now that the series has migrated to mobile devices, Nintendo has flipped the concept on its head. Now pills slowly float toward the top of the screen, but this is only the first of many new features that make Dr. Mario World one of the most notable entries in the series.

Like previous incarnations of Dr. Mario, you eliminate all viruses on a board by matching them to rows of multi-colored pills. In World, you get to choose how many pills to toss out and when, and you can hold onto pills after you’ve thrown them to prevent them from moving. I appreciated this new slower pace, which allows plenty of time to plan an attack. At the same time, Dr. Mario World still offers frantic moments; after making a match, you can move any free-floating pill pieces and use them to make new matches, and the resulting scrambles are exhilarating as you work fast to make the most out of your limited stock.

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Dr. Mario World currently contains five worlds and more than 200 total levels, and I was pleasantly surprised at how the action evolves. In some stages, viruses are frozen in ice and require a couple of hits before they disappear, while other viruses are locked in cages and can’t be destroyed until you break the lock on another area of the screen. A few stages even shift your focus away from the viruses and ask you to smash blocks to find hidden coins. As Nintendo mixes and matches all these elements, Dr. Mario World begins to feel less like a puzzle game and more like a strategy game, but that isn’t a bad thing. I loved calculating which viruses or objects I needed to attack first and then setting up combos as I crossed my fingers and waited with baited breath for the right colored pill to come my way.

While Dr. Mario remains the title character, he’s now joined by a bigger cast of doctors and assistants. Every doctor has their own unique abilities. For example, Dr. Mario can eradicate the lowest row of viruses on the board, while Dr. Toad eliminates both virus and pills at 10 random locations. Assistants provide smaller buffs, such as boosting your score or giving you a small percentage chance of eliminating a few viruses at the start of a stage. You can bring one doctor and two assistants into any stage; their abilities are incredibly useful, and making good use of them means the difference between victory and defeat.

Unfortunately, like a real infection, some of the additions to this mobile version aren’t welcome. Dr. Mario World is a free-to-play game, which means the monetization is baked into the gameplay. Hearts are a currency you must spend to play a level. If you beat the level, you get that heart back. Otherwise, they replenish at the rate of one every 30 minutes. If you’re playing well, you can continue without consequence. But if you get hung up on a level or have a string of bad plays, you are forced to stop and wait for your hearts to refresh. Of course, you are encouraged to refill those hearts by spending real money on gems, which earn you more hearts. They can also be used to give you more time or pills on harder levels, or redeemed for new doctors and assistants. I’m disappointed that even Dr. Mario isn’t hearty enough to stave off this kind of microtransaction infection, but I only ran out of hearts a handful of times, and I never felt like the pay mechanics were too aggressive.

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Even if you do run out of hearts, you can always play in Versus mode and pit your virus-crunching skills against other players online. This mode features all the same color matching mechanics from single player, but as you match viruses you have the opportunity to attack your opponent by throwing viruses onto their screen. This mode is a nice diversion, and I was happy to be able to play the game when I’d run out of hearts, but I spent most of my time in the single-players worlds.  

Despite the monetization method, Dr. Mario World is a fun puzzle game, and the World moniker signifies that this is more than just another Dr. Mario remix. This is the most dramatic reinvention of Dr. Mario since the series’ inception, and I often had trouble putting my phone down before the battery ran dry. Nintendo plans to update this game with new levels down the road, so this is one flu season I look forward to revisiting.

Score: 8.75

Summary: Dr. Mario World is one of the most notable entries in the series to date.

Concept: Reimagine Mario’s pill-focused puzzler by turning it on its head and adding a host of creative new mechanics

Graphics: The art is cutesy and simple, but it gets the job done

Sound: Most of the music is catchy, but the new stuff is nowhere near as memorable as the classics Fever and Chill, which have been remixed here

Playability: Dr. Mario has always been simple to pick up and play, but this mobile incarnation makes it even easier to drag pills around the screen with only a finger

Entertainment: Dr. Mario World’s new mechanics add a lot of strategic elements to the classic formula, but the series remains as engaging as ever

Replay: High

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The middle ages were harsh. Deadly plagues ravaged entire villages, bandits laid in wait to pillage weary travelers, and those who survived even common illnesses could be undone by the era’s insane medical practices. But the version of the 14th century in A Plague Tale is even deadlier. After the murder of their parents, two kids discover how sacrifices must be made to survive in the wild. Sadly, A Plague Tale manages to be both a harrowing journey and a bit of a slog.

Asobo’s recreation of France circa 1349 is visually breathtaking, and its heartbreaking survival tale about two young orphans was so compelling I couldn’t look away. Amicia de Rune is a 15-year-old girl entrusted with the care of her kid brother Hugo. Meanwhile, Hugo is a sheltered, wide-eyed child stricken with a debilitating illness. Their journey forces both kids to wade through rivers of black, flesh-eating rats while dodging bands of patrolling Inquisition soldiers. Aside from a few awkward dialogue moments, A Plague Tale’s narrative is emotionally driven and earnest, and I was quickly absorbed by the political conspiracy that consumes these two kids.

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As Amicia, you spend a fair amount of time holding Hugo’s hand, helping him climb over ledges, and shielding him from environmental dangers. I never felt burdened by Hugo’s presence; on the contrary, I felt something close to a sibling bond as I sheltered him from trouble, and I grew nervous every time I sent him off on his own into small crawlspace to unlock a door or fetch a torch. Hugo is an adorable and innocent child, and the relationship between these two kids is genuinely touching.

While A Plague Tale’s narrative had me racing towards the credits, the basic gameplay is full of speedbumps. One of the biggest threats to the de Rune children’s safety is a plague of black rats that scurry through the shadows and threaten to overwhelm any living creature. The rats are terrified of light, and most environmental puzzles involve finding fire and using it to create a safe path. A simplified crafting system allows you to create consumables such as explosives or rat bait, and I liked being able to control fire, but I rarely felt a need to scour the environment for crafting materials, because you often find the necessary components only a few feet from every puzzle. Also, most puzzles usually have an obvious solution, so instead of feeling like I was cleverly engineering my way out of a jam, I felt like I was just going through the motions.

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When you’re not dealing with rats, you’re dodging Inquisition soldiers who have orders to separate you from your brother and drop your corpse in a rat nest. Amicia is equipped with a sling and can hurl rocks like bullets at enemy temples, and the generous auto-aim helps compensate for its clumsy controls. You’re generally better off running and hiding from a fight, but the stealth mechanics are weak. While I never grew tired of extinguishing an enemy’s torch and watching the rats swarm them, most stealth sequences tested my patience more than my wits. Enemies have basic patrol routes and the environments are so small that you often only have one route to your destination. As a result, throwing rocks to distract enemies has all the tension and pacing of hitting the button at a crosswalk.

A Plague Tale is a double tragedy. On one hand, Amicia and Hugo’s tear-filled journey through rural France is marked by adversity, but the bigger misfortune is how this powerful story of sibling love is soured by simple puzzles and clunky stealth mechanics. A Plague Tale is a forgettable game wrapped around a memorable adventure.

Score: 7.5

Summary: A Plague Tale excels in its narrative and setting, but the moment-to-moment action is uninspired

Concept: A group of battle-hardened children struggle to survive a plague-ridden world during the middle ages

Graphics: This recreation of 14th-Century France is vibrant and detailed. The rat swarms are appropriately creepy, but sometimes struggle to accurately navigate the environment

Sound: This voice acting is impressive for a cast full of kids, and the score helps drive home the tension at the right moments

Playability: Combat is a bit clumsy but functional. Sadly, the stealth sequences are boring

Entertainment: A Plague Tale excels in its narrative and setting, but the moment-to-moment action is uninspired

Replay: MoModerately Low

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