(Break out the stethoscope)
Manual Molestation - Doctor Mario
(Break out the stethoscope)
Doctor Mario thinks he's so damn smart, just because he's a doctor. Hell, I'm a doctor. Yeah. You heard me right. I've got a PHD in stupidity. I'm a dork doctor. Anyway, if there's one thing I can do, it's kick butt at Dr. Mario. In the instruction manual for Dr. Mario, there are little blurbs at the bottom of almost every page, where Mario gives you hints. What I'm simply going to do is give you my take on what he says. From here on out, I'll quote Dr. Mario in navy blue, and I'll be talking in magenta. Okay? Everything in navy blueis directly from the manual.
Introduction:
Hi everybody! I'm Mario. How's it going? Over the last few years, I've been involved in some pretty wild adventures. Now, believe it or not, I work in the virus lab at the Mushroom Kingdom Hospital. Today I'm about to begin my research as usual.
Mario, you fool! Your stupid
bumbling has resulted in something
terrible!
What's wrong, nurse Toadstool?
I'm not Toadstool, you fat italian bastard!
You're experiments have resulted in 8-bit virus mayhem! Either that, or Nintendo
is trying to play off of the popularity of
Tetris.
Oh No! We've got to do something! I have just developed a new vitamin that
should be able to take care of it. I sure hope this stuff works!
How
convenient.
Advice from Dr. Mario:
This is what we call continuous capsule elimination. It doesn't
just have to be two rows or two columns. You can eliminate three, four, or
even more! This is a very important tactic in the 2 PLAYER game.
Thanks for the tip, Mario. I usually just called it 'getting rid of 2 rows', but now I know it's true name! Capsule continual... somethingorother. Anyway, I think that I already knew how to do this. It's quite simple, actually. Even some of the kids in the 'special' room at school can do it. As a matter of fact, most of my inept monkey friends can do it too.
Watch the title screen for a while. It will show you a demonstration game that will help you get the hang of the game play.
I usually find the best way to get the hang of the game play in this, or any, game is to pick up the controller and actually play the damn thing. No one got good at Ninja Gaiden watching the demonstration game.
You will see something special each time you clear level 5, 10, 15, or 20 at the MED or HI level.
You mean those viruses sitting in a tree? That's special? I thought it was a programming error.
When starting out, you will do much better if you try to lay the vitamin capsules flat rather than on their ends.
Damn!
That's what I've been doing wrong!
If you eliminate two or more rows or columns at once (in 2 player mode), some random pieces will fall down on your opponents screen. One piece will fall for every row or column you eliminate (from two to four). The maximum drop is four pieces, even if you drop more rows or columns.
Amazing! If I drop more than 4 columns, only 4 pieces will drop! I suppose if I had only dropped one column, 4 pieces would still drop. After all, there are 4 pieces in a column, right Mario? Right? Mario?!