Dr. Mario 64
Nintendo’s 2001 Nintendo 64 puzzle game — the first Dr. Mario with a story mode and four-player matches, with Wario and a cast from Wario Land 3.
Game Facts
On this page
Overview
It’s a new outbreak of Dr. Mario madness! Dr. Mario 64 takes the virus-busting puzzle game from the NES and Game Boy and adds the things the series had never had before: a Story mode, a full cast of characters, and matches for up to four players, including two-on-two Team Battles. It was released for the Nintendo 64 in North America on 9 April 2001, late in the console’s life.
The rules are the classic ones. Two-coloured vitamin capsules drop into a bottle full of red, blue and yellow viruses — Fever, Chill and Weird — and lining up four or more of one colour, including the virus, clears them. Clear every virus to win the stage; let the capsules reach the neck of the bottle and it’s game over. Clearing several lines at once sends garbage capsules to your opponents.
Apart from Dr. Mario, Metal Mario and the viruses, every character — Wario, Mad Scienstein, Rudy and nine other creatures — comes from the Game Boy Color’s Wario Land 3, and Metal Mario from Super Mario 64 can be unlocked. The game never came out on the N64 in Japan; Japanese players got it on GameCube in 2003 as part of Nintendo Puzzle Collection.
Story: Dr. Mario and the Cold Caper
Flu season has struck, and Dr. Mario is busy curing patients with his Megavitamins. Two onlookers want them for themselves: Wario, who plans to get rich, and Mad Scienstein, who is working for a hidden figure. While Dr. Mario is out, Mad Scienstein steals the vitamins; Wario gives chase, and when Dr. Mario returns to find his medicine gone, he blames Wario.
The story can be played as Dr. Mario or as Wario. Both chase Mad Scienstein past enemies from Wario Land 3 — Spearhead, Webber and others — and the guardian Hammer-Bot, to a castle where the hidden figure, Rudy, is waiting. There are eight stages on Easy, Normal, Hard and a hidden S-Hard difficulty. Beat all eight on Normal or higher without losing a stage and a secret ninth stage appears: Dr. Mario faces Vampire Wario, while Wario faces Metal Mario.
Game modes
Dr. Mario 64 has six single-player modes and a set of two- and four-player modes. Capsule speed is Low, Med or Hi, and the score for each virus depends on it: 100, 200 or 300 points, doubling for each extra virus cleared in the same move up to the sixth.
One player
| Mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| Classic | The original Dr. Mario: clear every virus to move on to the next level, which adds four more viruses (up to 96). |
| Story | Dr. Mario and the Cold Caper, played as Dr. Mario or Wario. |
| Vs. Computer | Clear your bottle before a CPU opponent, or bury them in garbage. |
| Flash | Race to clear the three flashing viruses, one of each colour. |
| Marathon | Viruses keep rising from the bottom of the bottle; survive as long as you can. |
| Score Attack | Clear the bottle within three minutes; leftover time becomes bonus points. |
Two to four players
| Mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| 2-Player Vs. | Head-to-head versus. |
| 2-Player Flash and Score Attack | Two-player versions of the Flash race and the three-minute score challenge (no garbage in Score Attack). |
| 4P Vs. | Four bottles at once; empty slots are filled by CPU players. |
| Team Battle | Players 1 and 2 against players 3 and 4. A team wins when one of its players clears their bottle, or when both opponents top out. |
| 4P Flash | The flashing-virus race for four. |
In four-player games, garbage is aimed by colour: clearing a blue line first hits the player one place to your right, yellow two places and red three places. In Team Battle, garbage that would land on your teammate is stored and added to your next attack instead.
Characters
Vs. and multiplayer modes let you pick from 15 characters: 13 from the start, plus Metal Mario and Vampire Wario, who are unlocked by beating them in Story mode’s secret ninth stage (as Wario and Dr. Mario respectively). Each character can only be picked once per match. Stars show how tough each one is as a CPU opponent; holding L while pressing A or B raises every CPU by one or two stars.
In-game sprites. Names are as in the English version; CPU ratings as listed by Super Mario Wiki.
Music & controls
Alongside remixes of the original Fever and Chill themes, Dr. Mario 64 adds two new tracks, Cube and Que Que, which later games renamed Cough and Sneeze. Any of them can be chosen outside Story mode.
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| D-Pad left / right | Move the capsule |
| D-Pad down | Drop the capsule faster |
| A | Rotate clockwise |
| B | Rotate anticlockwise |
| C buttons | Show or hide the landing guide |
| L / R | Raise more viruses in Marathon |
| Start | Pause |
Releases & re-releases
- 9 April 2001
Nintendo 64 release in North America (June 2001 in Brazil). It was also offered on the LodgeNet hotel service from 16 April 2001, with the two- and four-player modes disabled. - 7 February 2003
Nintendo Puzzle Collection for GameCube (Japan only) includes the game, renamed simply Dr. Mario, alongside Panel de Pon and Yoshi’s Cookie. The bundled Game Boy Advance link cable let players send the original Famicom Dr. Mario to a GBA. - 18 November 2003
Released in China on the iQue Player. - 2005
Dr. Mario & Puzzle League on Game Boy Advance borrows most of its Dr. Mario look and sound from Dr. Mario 64. - 25–26 October 2021
A launch title for Nintendo 64 – Nintendo Classics on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, and its first release in Europe, Australia and South Korea.
Reception
Reviews were mostly positive, with the four-player modes the main draw. Metacritic lists a score of 71, and GameRankings had it at 70%.
| Publication | Score | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| GameSpot (Gerald Villoria) | 7/10 | A satisfying, four-player-focused package, helped by Nintendo’s $29.95 budget price. |
| IGN (Fran Mirabella III) | 5/10 | Few upgrades beyond the four-player modes; worth it mainly for multiplayer. |
It was voted #76 in a Top 100 Games of All Time poll published by Game Informer in August 2001.
Dr. Mario through the years
The Dr. Mario games covered on Super Luigi Bros, with the year each first came out. The SNES remake in Tetris & Dr. Mario (1994) is covered on the Dr. Mario series page.
Gallery
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More Dr. Mario 64 on SLB
Trivia
- Dr. Mario 64 is the first game in the series with a story mode and with matches for more than two players.
- Super Mario 64 shows up in a few places: Metal Mario comes from it, Power Stars mark each match won, and Dr. Mario’s victory spin and peace sign copy Mario’s Power Star pose.
- Apart from Dr. Mario, Metal Mario and the viruses, every character comes from Wario Land 3. Rudy is the main villain of both games; he is only “a hidden figure” in Wario Land 3, and Dr. Mario 64’s English version is where he first got the name Rudy.
- Mad Scienstein (Arewo Shitain-hakase in Japan) is older than Wario Land 3: he first appeared in the 1992 Japanese Game Boy game Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru.
- Dr. Mario 64 alongside Yoshi’s Cookie and Panel de Pon was re-released in Japan in Nintendo Puzzle Collection for GameCube in 2003, where it is called simply Dr. Mario.
- Hitoshi Yamagami, who co-directed the original Dr. Mario, co-directed Dr. Mario 64. Gunpei Yokoi and Takahiro Harada are credited for the original concept.
- Charles Martinet voices Dr. Mario, Wario, Metal Mario and Vampire Wario.
- Its many graphic designers and character artists were professional anime animators with little or no other video-game work, according to Super Mario Wiki.
Sources
- Super Mario Wiki: Dr. Mario 64
- Super Mario Wiki: List of Dr. Mario 64 staff
- Super Mario Wiki: Nintendo Puzzle Collection
- Super Mario Wiki: Rudy
- Super Mario Wiki: Mad Scienstein
- GameSpot: Dr. Mario 64 Review (Gerald Villoria)
- IGN: Dr. Mario 64 review (Fran Mirabella III, 17 Apr 2001)
- Metacritic: Dr. Mario 64