Dr. Mario World

Dr. Mario World
Looks like Nintendo got the microtransaction virus from NHN and Line.
Genre(s): Puzzle Platform(s): Android iOS Release Date: July 9, 2019 Discontinuation: November 1, 2021 (Permanently shut down) Engine: Unity Developer(s): Nintendo EPD Line Corporation NHN Entertainment Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan South Korea Series: Dr. Mario Predecessor: Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure

Dr. Mario World was a short-lived puzzle game and an entry in the Dr. Mario series for iOS and Android, co-developed by Nintendo EPD, Line Corporation, NHN Entertainment, and published by Nintendo on July 9, 2019. On November 1, 2021, the game has officially shut down due to it being both a financial and critical failure, however, a website, titled Dr. Mario World memories has been created around the same time, where any player could connect their Nintendo account to the game before January 31, 2022 to view their player data and stats on this website, and after that point, the game gives an "End of Service" error message upon opening it and kicks the player out of the game.

Plot

A virus outbreak spreads throughout the Mushroom Kingdom, leading to Dr. Mario to cure the patients. Shortly after, with the outbreak infecting Toads and even the Koopa Troopas, Peach and Bowser joins in with Mario to help stop the outbreak.

Bad Qualties That Were Never Cured

1. Unlike the past Nintendo mobile games, the microtransactions were cranked up to eleven here, to the point where it had the infamous inclusion of loot boxes.
   • On July 28, 2021, Nintendo removed the microtransactions from the game following the closure of the game that happened on November 1st 2021. Any purchased diamonds that were never used were not refunded, which means that anyone who spent their money on this game would have ended up wasting it as a result of the closure, as everyone lost their progress once it closed for good.
2. The game was only available in 38 countries, while better than Dragalia Lost's 11 countries, it falls short of the standard 90+ regions and global launches. Even Mario Kart Tour released in 90 countries for comparison.
3. Much like Mario Kart Tour, it was easy to get duplicates to the point that you’d only get something new once in a blue moon.
4. It felt mostly like a generic clone or rip-off of Bejeweled and various match-three games with Dr. Mario elements slapped onto it.
5. Much like Pokémon Shuffle and Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, there was a stamina system. It took two hours and thirty minutes (5 hours in the second half of the games' lifespan) to refill all the hearts when the player ran out, and due to the large amount of difficulty spikes during the game, it led to wasting a lot of time waiting for hearts to beat a level.
   • In fact, it was so rigged, that it would take a lot of hearts, and any amount of diamonds even, to complete a hard level. In fact, before the end of service announcement, it was rigged enough just to get people to buy more diamonds to continue playing a level, or even 5 hearts to an hour of unlimited attempts to keep playing the game itself without waiting up to 5 hours to regenerate all of the player's lives.
   • Due to the shutdown, this system made it very hard for players to ever beat the game. This is especially the case if a player had no diamonds on them to get continues or had wasted them on continues for a difficult level and still ended up losing, and also if they used their daily free continue (obtainable from 26th August 2021-end of service) and still lost.
6. Most character animations were ripped from previous Mario games, especially from Mario Party 10. Alongside, all characters had no lines.
7. Diamonds, the premium currency of the game, was mostly unobtainable outside of multiplayer loot boxes or by purchasing them with real money, which as of July 28, 2021, can no longer be bought, which made it pretty much impossible to gain any more of them (except for Nintendo giving 10 diamonds away each day for a fortnight every month until October 21st, and 50 more every Friday until October 29th).
   • If you were to waste a good chunk of them on a hard level via continues and still lose, you would've ended up wasting them for nothing, and you'd have to wait a while to get more to try again.
   • What's insulting is that they gave far more diamonds away during the shutdown event than they ever did before they took out the microtransactions.
8. Multiplayer often had problems with matchmaking and it was very hard to win on higher tiers without grinding for higher skill levels. Often, you would end up losing more points than winning them no matter how good at the game you were. Sometimes, there were even cheaters making it way harder for you to reach certain tiers.
9. Like with Mario Kart Tour, the game even had the audacity to add alts of characters, which included baby and fire versions of the Mario brothers, Wario, and all the princesses (except fire versions of Daisy and Wario, likely due to them being absent from Super Mario 3D World and its 2021 remaster), 8-bit Dr. Mario (to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original game), and Dry Bowser. Not only that, there were also a terrible choice of characters added into the game too, such as Dolphin, Piranha Plant, and Goomba Tower.
   • Dr. Rosalina's design is extremely lazy, literally just putting a white coat and stethoscope over her normal dress. In contrast, Dr. Peach and Dr. Daisy both got completely new outfits.
10. The Narrator's "Ready, Go" line was obnoxious.
11. Some of the worlds looked too similar to each other in terms of level select design.
12. Due to the game constantly requiring an internet connection to play the game, the game became completely unplayable as of November 1st, 2021, and is the second Mario game to be completely lost to time after Super Mario Bros. 35 on the Nintendo Switch, and during the same year alone at that. This doesn't really matter to many people anyway other than hardcore Super Mario fans, and people who preserve lost media given how bad it is.
13. They were so lazy with some of the stages that they asset flipped them, meaning that they often shared the same level design but with different objects in place of others.
    • With the final world, they didn't bother making Levels 31A-C timed stages, but rather regular stages with a capsule limit.
14. If you somehow managed to beat the game (which unless you got reasonably far in the game, or bought anything with real money just to be randomly given the unlimited lives, was literally nearly impossible), all you got was a picture containing all the characters (and their clones), and the ending was summarized into one sentence. Unlike the intro cutscenes, where there were illustrations of what's happening in the story.

Good Qualities That Were Cured

1. As with any other Nintendo game, the graphics and music still stayed true to the Mario standards.
   • On that note, the songs in this game's soundtrack were great remixes of the original Dr. Mario soundtrack.
2. The intro cutscene was decent.
3. Unlike other mobile games nowadays, this game had actual multiplayer when it first released.
4. Baby Wario made a return after several years of absence, despite being an alt.
5. Every once in a while, the game allowed players to unlock useful items, like 30 minutes of unlimited lives, staffing tickets, diamonds, coins, and even characters.
6. The level select menu backgrounds were pleasing to look at.
7. Fortunately, this game was shut down and is no longer in operation.
8. Due to the shutdown, players were given a whole range of items during the final 3 months of the game to make it easier for them to beat the game/unlock every character:
   • From the 26th of August 2021, all players were given one free continue per day until the game shuts down.
   • If you bought anything with real money before microtransactions were removed, you would be given unlimited lives from July 28 for the rest of the game's lifespan until it eventually shut down.
   • After the game shut down, there was a website called Dr. Mario World Memories, which you could view your player stats on even after the game is long gone as long as you connected your Nintendo account to the game before the end of January 2022 and have at least started playing the game by the time it closed.
   • Additionally, players were given a daily bonus of 10 diamonds a day, for 2 weeks straight. This happened every month until October 21st. What's more was that about every Friday until October 29, Nintendo gave users an additional 50 more diamonds regardless of whether they got the daily bonus of 10 diamonds or not.
     • With said diamonds, 100 of them could be used to instantly purchase a doctor they didn't have or wished to level up, making it much easier to obtain them. Back then, there used to be 2 at a time, now there was 15 of them at a given time, which allowed players to try and get every doctor that was ever released.
     • More diamonds were given during the 3 month shutdown promotion than they ever have in the 2 years that this game has been active.

Reception

Dr. Mario World was met with mostly mixed to negative reception from critics and negative reception from gamers. The game has a critic score of 58/100, and a user score of 3.4/10.

The failure of the game also resulted in the game getting discontinued on November 1, 2021 on July 27, 2021, only a mere 27 months since release.

Reverse Version

https://reversecrappygames.miraheze.org/wiki/Dr._Sonic_Land

Trivia

• This, along with the very short lived Super Mario Bros. 35 on the Nintendo Switch, are the only completely lost Mario games in the entire franchise to date, and are completely unplayable, providing the player with error screens if they tried to play either game after they closed.
• Baby Wario appeared in this game after 14 years, who hasn't made an appearance since his debut in Yoshi's Island DS.
• This is the second mobile game owned by Nintendo to shut down, after Pokémon Rumble Rush.
• This was the second mobile Super Mario game to have released, after Super Mario Run, and before Mario Kart Tour, both of which are the only Super Mario mobile games to still remain in operation.

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