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| PLATFORM: GAME BOY ADVANCE |
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 ’m not quite sick of Nintendo’s incessant re-releases of my favorite games. In fact, I liked the trend until this budget-friendly, but feature-lacking, double pack. Dr. Mario and Puzzle League is an unfair release to fans of these classic mindbenders. Less than a year ago the good doctor’s game hit shelves with wireless multiplayer support and, I don’t mean to speak for everyone, but Puzzle League could have never come back to retail and I would have been okay with that.
The Dr. Mario included here is, admittedly, different than the aforementioned classic series version. Whereas that release lets you play two players with one cart over wireless, this one makes you use a link cable. Oh yeah, and the N64’s Flash mode, in which your only required task is to off the blinking viruses, is also along for the ride.
Puzzle League is a similarly old release. Originally brought stateside as Tetris Attack and then modified slightly to become Pokémon Puzzle League, this game has players lining up like blocks as new pieces are pushed up from the bottom. Sure, it’s fun, but man, it’s ugly.
And yet, it’s not like either of these games aren’t a good time. They’re both classic and well-done puzzle titles, ripe with hours of increasingly difficult strategy to master. But, there is absolutely no reason for this double-pack to exist. Tetris Attack is readily available in a compatible format through multiple outlets and Dr. Mario has a handful of better versions already on shelves.
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These are perhaps two of my all-time favorite of puzzle games. In fact, both these games would make my own personal 100 greatest games of all time list. They are that good, and that timeless. Nintendo apparently agrees with me, as they are repackaged here for the umpteeth time. While neither game is all that great to look at, both offer hours upon hours of entertainment. I’ll have to disagree with Lisa on Puzzle League. It rocks, and getting it without annoying Pokémon involved is a bonus in my book. |
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7.5 |
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| CONCEPT: |
| Port two lovable, classic puzzlers in an entirely half-assed way |
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| GRAPHICS: |
| These are old puzzle games with practically non-existent updates, proving the idiom that you get what you pay for |
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| SOUND: |
| The Fever track on Dr. Mario still makes me very happy, but that’s just nostalgia talking |
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| PLAYABILITY: |
| A minute to learn, a lifetime to master |
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| ENTERTAINMENT: |
| If there weren’t such a better version of Dr. Mario available, I’d be recommending this much more forcefully |
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