Dr. Mario
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release Date(s)	1990 (NES/GB)
Platform(s)	NES, Arcade, Game Boy, SNES, N64, GameCube (Japan only), GBA, Wii, DSi, 3DS
Gameplay Info
Next pieces	1-3
Playfield dimensions	8w x 11-16h
Hold piece	No
Hard drop	No. Generally 1/2G
Rotation system	TGM-like domino system
Has 180 rotation	{{{180}}}
Adjustable tuning	{{{tuning}}}
Garbage attack type	{{{garbage}}}
Garbage blocking type	{{{blocking}}}
Website	{{{website}}}

Dr. Mario is a non-tetromino puzzle game franchise developed by Nintendo and released on its systems.

The battle is 8 blocks wide by 11 to 16 blocks high (depending on version) and starts out partially full of "viruses", or fixed blocks of the color red, yellow, or blue.

Pieces in Dr. Mario are vitamin pills with two halves (making them dominoes), with each half colored red, yellow, or blue. The player can move or rotate them as they fall into the bottom. Once a pill locks, if four or more blocks of a color are aligned horizontally or vertically, they are removed, and the pill segments above them (but not viruses) fall in a cascade. In 2-player, cascades cause garbage pill segments to drop into the opponent's playfield. Anything that falls falls slowly, at a rate of 4 rows per second, due to the design of the playfield refresh logic. Modern versions allow players to speed up the fall rate of these cascades in single-player, but not in multiplayer, where the time lost waiting for garbage segments to fall is often more damaging than the segments themselves.

Dr. Mario Online Rx for Wii shows three next pills: one in Mario's hand and two rising out of his bag. Earlier games show only the one in Mario's hand. Multiplayer on consoles shows one piece directly above the bottle, as in TGM, and (in the Wii version) some to the right side of the bottle.

Players who like Dr. Mario may also like Columns, Klax, and Puyo Puyo. The game Tetris 2 can be thought of as Dr. Mario with tetrominoes.

Rotation system

Ordinarily, the pills rotate within a 2x2 box whose bottom left corner is always filled. Clockwise rotation looks like this:

Wall kicks on Dr. Mario (NES), WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$ (GBA), Dr. Mario & Puzzle League (GBA), and Dr. Mario Online Rx (Wii) resemble TGM rotation in principle. Examples are as follows:

Horizontal to vertical:

	No kick here

Vertical to horizontal:

	Kick left
	No kick here

Tetris & Dr. Mario has some additional wall kicks from horizontal to vertical:

	Kick right
	Kick down
	Kick down+right
	Fail

External links

• Dr. Mario (series) at Super Mario Wiki
• Dr. Mario at StrategyWiki

See also

Tetris and other puzzle games published by Nintendo {{}}
Console: Tetris (NES, Nintendo) | Tetris 2 | Tetris & Dr. Mario | 3D Tetris | The New Tetris | Tetris 99
Handheld: Tetris (Game Boy) | Tetris Blast | Tetris DX | Pokémon Tetris | Tetris DS | Tetris Axis
Topics: Nintendo Rotation System | Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

Other block games: Dr. Luigi | Dr. Mario | Kirby's Avalanche | Kirby's Star Stacker | Tetris Attack | Tetrisphere | Wario's Woods | Yoshi | Yoshi's Cookie

Tetris and other puzzle games by Arika {{}}
Arcade releases: Tetris The Grand Master | Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 | Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 PLUS | Tetris The Grand Master 3 Terror-Instinct | Tetris The Grand Master 4 The Masters of Round
Console releases: Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura Eternal Heart | Tetris The Grand Master Ace | Dr. Mario Online Rx | Dr. Mario Express | Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure | Dr. Luigi | Jewelry Master Twinkle | Jewelry Master Twinkle Light | Tetris 99
PC releases: Jewelry Master
Topics: Arika (TGM) Rotation System