If you don’t know by now that I rate it from zero to four stars in each category, then you probably don’t know what my favorite football team is. Anyway...
Graphics: *1/2
This was the NES, of course, but I still wasn’t too impressed with the graphics. Compare it to the Mario game made right before it (Super Mario Bros. 3), and you’ll see the difference. The viruses are basically a bunch of dots put together. That’s nothing compared to some of those Mario 3 characters. The viruses that circle around are very nice, though.
Sound: ****
The best Mario
music ever, the Chill music, and one of the top ten Mario tunes ever, the
Fever music, is in
this game. Both
of them. Plus, the music at the start, during the choosing of levels, and
the music after
winning a two-player
match is great too. This game may have had the best music for a NES game
ever, and beats Paper Mario’s music by a long shot. The sound effects were
great. “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk” can be heard when those vitamin pieces fall.
In Dr. Mario 64, you’ll get even better music, but for the time being,
this was the best ever.
Difficulty: *
This game isn’t too hard once you get the hang of it. Sure, if you put it on medium or high speed, you’ll have some trouble, but only on high will you actually be unable to finish certain higher levels. If you want a hard game, then you’ll have to put it on high.
Characters: no stars
Just like the N64 version, there ain’t too many good ones. Mario is in it, and that’s all. Princess Toadstool was in the instruction manual, if you want to consider that.
Gameplay: ****
No problem here. The point of the game, if you read the N64 review I wrote, is to put four (or more) vitamin pieces/viruses in a row or a column to clear them. You may rotate the vitamins in mid-air, and move them back and forth. That means three on a virus to clear it, or two on a double virus to clear them. Also, putting four (or more) vitamin pieces together clears them, so you can fix a mistake. By clearing all the viruses, you clear the level, but by making the vitamins hit the top, you lose. The gameplay is absolutely perfect.
Controls: ***1/2
The controls are
almost-perfect. If the game would have a counter-clockwise rotation of
the vitamin, just
like the N64
version has, then it would make tight squeezes a little easier so you only
have to turn the
vitamin once,
not three times.
Two-player Mode: ***
Basically a race to clear the level first, the two-player mode lets two live opponents go head-to-head. If yours hits the top first, then you lose, even if you have less viruses remaining than your opponent. The biggest problem is smaller screens, which make you have to squint a little bit to see your viruses.
Replayability: 1/2
The only reason to replay this game is if you want to just play it again! There’s no goal, and nothing to unlock, and nothing new the second time you play it, or any following time. Most of the time, it’s a time-waster or a competition with a friend, or just to listen to the music, if you don’t have the N64 version!
Fun Factor!: *1/2
Fun? The only real “fun” is beating someone else. There may be some in winning by yourself, but not really that much. This game is missing a mode against the computer, and, from the N64 version, a lot more that would give it more depth, and more fun.
OVERALL: **
If you like puzzle
games or like good background music, then this game is for you. Mario fans,
if you want a Mario game, this one doesn’t have much to the Mario legacy,
so it’s okay to skip this one. The game lacks depth, which its sequel on
the N64 has much more. For a NES game, it’s not bad, but nothing more than
a puzzle game with good background music, with not much to do with Mario.