The Verge has spent some hands-on time with Nintendo’s upcoming iOS and Android title, Dr. Mario World.
Not like the classic
The overall impression of the article isn’t entirely favourable. The game is free-to-play so it was to be expected that there would be microtractions, but the game is apparently littered with things such as timers, loot boxes, and paid currencies.
It is free-to-play and it could be a huge success for Nintendo. Here’s the link to The Verge’s writeup. Dr. Mario World will be available on 10th July.
The Verge’s verdict
Sadly, despite its name, Dr. Mario World — the upcoming mobile evolution of the original NES title — lacks the same pedigree, hewing closer to free-to-play mobile puzzlers like Candy Crush Saga.
There are timers, limiting how much players can play at one time, although they can spend paid currency in the game to play more. There’s a randomized gacha system for unlocking new characters, assistants, and for upgrading your existing rosters.
Players can either wait to accrue their earned in-game currency to pull the wheel or they can pay for premium currencies to try more often. Each character has different abilities (like clearing a random column or knocking out the top row of blocks), which can drastically change gameplay. Upgrading characters makes those abilities more powerful, but locking it behind a paid, random loot box system feels like shaking down players for real-world cash.
