Dr. Mario Online RX

Overview

Dr. Mario is back in this new WiiWare titles which hit the WiiWare store on May 26, 2008 for 1000 Nintendo Points. When it released it became an instant classic, using the same simple game mechanics as the previous versions of the series, line up the two sided pills to wipe out the viruses on screen, only this time you can use your Mii as your character. This is the first Dr. Mario to include online play and even includes a way to send a demo to a friend on WiiWare to play against with only one version of the game.

Game Modes

There are two game modes in Dr. Mario RX:

Classic Dr. Mario

This version is just classic Dr. Mario, lining up the pills and viruses with the D-pad, trying to avoid letting the pills build up. The way this mode stands our is with it's online modes. You can choose either regular or flash mode, in flash mode you only need to line up the blinking viruses to add a bit more strategy to the game. There are random matches with rankings which start at 5000 and fluctuate depending on your wins or losses, and you can also send a demo to a friend to play head to head against each other with one game copy. Unfortunately the online is only two-players, which is surprising as four-players have been used in past Dr. Mario games. All in all however, this is a quality online mode and is great fun if you're a fan of Dr. Mario.

Virus Buster

Virus Buster Mode is an all new mode to Dr. Mario, taking the Wii Mote concept and applying it to falling pills, allowing to control the pills movement speed and direction with your motions instead of the D-pad. Another difference to the mode is that multiple pills can fall at once from the top which almost requires you to have another player beside you, there is no online co-op for this mode, but there is local co-op, which seems to be a dying breed in today's games. You cannot move the pill upwards, but you are free to move it in any other direction. In this mode you can have any Mii on your system walking by on the screen against a group of viruses, as you clear the board the viruses fall, and your Miis are left standing and dance when you completely clear the board.

All in all this is classic Dr. Mario with a few modern spins to make it feel more like a Wii game.