Currently Playing: Dr Pills

Dr Pills is a fun little match three game based on Dr Mario. The doctor throws coloured pills into the container of viruses, and you have to match three or more colours to destroy the different coloured viruses. As the levels progress there are more viruses to destroy, in increasingly complicated patterns. You control the pills with the cursor keys and can rotate them and speed up their descent to the bottom of the playing area.

To add a little extra challenge to the game there are several power-ups (or power-downs depending on your luck) to mix things up a bit. Firstly there is a medicine dropper that will have one of the colours in it. This remains still at the top of the screen and you can move it left or right, before dropping the medicine inside. This will destroy any single virus that it falls on. The second power-up is a syringe of coloured medicine. Again this remains motionless at the top of the screen and you can move it left or right. Once you use it the medicine destroys all matching colours in a circle radius from the area it hits. The third power-up is a stick of dynamite that free falls and you can move left and right. When it hits something it destroys all blocks around it. The last power-up is a big black bomb. You have left and right control over this but it falls automatically. When the bomb hits it rearranges the entire playing area. Sometimes this is good and frees up buried viruses that you couldn't get to before, and sometimes it buries them even deeper. The power-downs I mentioned are a bag of more coloured blocks that explode across the playing area and a big X virus in a tube that releases more viruses to destroy.

This game is entertaining and enjoyable to play, and I played it right through to the end. To make the whole game feel more involving there is a story about how the Doc accidentally lets the viruses out and tries to clean them up. This is all revealed in a comic book style in between levels. It adds a little more depth to the game and makes it stand out a little more from all the other clones in this genre.

Graphically the game lives up to its cartoony feel. The graphics are clear and colourful, and the doctor is delightfully wacky looking. There is definitely more than a distinct likeness to Dr Mario but nonetheless this is a wonderful homage rather than a poor rip-off.

Overall I have to rate this game highly. It's not going to last a long time as there's no real incentive to play it again after you have completed it, although the levels do have an element of randomness to them, so if you really want to go again it won't look exactly the same. The graphics, sound and gameplay are all cute and quirky, but don't distract at all from the easy to play nature of the game. This game is easily suitable for kids and adults of all ages and skill levels.

Dr Pills is a commercially licensed game although the developer seems to currently have no links to it on their website. However it appears possible to download it via some trial and freeplay sites such as Hero Turko. Just Google 'Dr Pills' and you'll find the places it's available from. Alternatively keep your eyes on Gambana's website or in stores near you.