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One of the most popular mobile games right now is Puzzle & Dragons.  In it, you match up symbols like in Bejeweled which turn into elemental attacks for fighting monsters.  So it has a bit of a Puzzle Quest vibe to it, too.  Puzzle & Dragons has many imitators, some of which I’ve even reviewed.  Anyway, the cool thing is that Nintendo is going to be releasing a version of Puzzle & Dragons soon on the 3DS called Puzzle & Dragons Z.  Best of all is it’ll also have a separate game: a version of Puzzle & Dragons starring Mario characters!  That got me to thinking about how many other puzzle games feature Mario & friends, so here’s a blog about it!

Dr. Mario

I think Dr. Mario was probably the first puzzle game to feature Mario. Back when Tetris came out, everyone had to have their own Tetris-like puzzler, even Nintendo!  So they made up a puzzle game where you match colored pills to clear out viruses in a bottle.  Speaking of Tetris, Mario appeared in a lot of Nintendo-published Tetris games, too.  He and Luigi were featured on the results screen in the two player link cable mode of Tetris on Game Boy; they were also in the NES game and were featured in the DS version of Tetris.  Bringing us back to Dr. Mario, Nintendo even combined Tetris & Dr. Mario in the SNES game of the same name!  You can find versions of Dr. Mario on nearly every Nintendo-made console imaginable, even on the N64!  It’s an all right game, but I don’t think it’s aged as well because it’s a bit slower paced, and there are much better Nintendo puzzlers out there.  However, Dr. Mario is one of my mom’s favorite games, so it can’t be all bad.

Dr. Luigi

Back in 2013 when it was Luigi’s anniversary, Nintendo did a “Year of Luigi” and featured many games starring the green other brother.  And the Wii U downloadable title Dr. Luigi was one of them.  It was pretty much the same as Dr. Mario, with some new virus graphics and different gameplay modes, like one where two pills fall at the same time in the shape of an L.  That mode actually made the game easier.  Anyway, I just thought it was funny that that is one of the games they made.  Also, in the first WarioWare title on the GBA, you can unlock a version of the NES Dr. Mario game called Dr. Wario!

Yoshi

Here’s another example of Nintendo jumping on the falling blocks in a well puzzler craze that hit after Tetris.  After Super Mario World came out, Nintendo went ga-ga putting Yoshi in any game they could think of.  They even put him in a Zelda game (Link’s Awakening), and even said in the game “he’s been appearing in a lot of games lately.”  So they put him a NES and GB only puzzle game, too.  Not sure why this wasn’t on the SNES as well, as it was already out by then.  Yoshi the game is all right, but there are a lot better puzzlers out there.  You flip plates on the bottom of the screen as Mario to match falling tiles with Mario enemies on them.  If you can sandwich a bunch between a top and bottom Yoshi egg, you’ll clear them all out and score a bunch of points.  And that’s all there is to it, really.

Yoshi’s Cookie

Now THIS is an awesome puzzle game!  And it was on the SNES, too, as well as the Game Boy and NES (at least I THINK it was on the Game Boy).  It was originally a game by Bullet Proof Software, who helped make some of the Tetris games for Nintendo.  Originally you just matched stones, but Nintendo liked it so much they had them change the stones to cookies and put Yoshi in it, too.  In the game you slide rows and columns of cookies to match up the same kinds of cookies in rows and columns to make them disappear.  I had the SNES version as a kid for a while and loved it.  I wish they’d bring it back on the 3DS or something because it would be perfect with touch screen controls.  Pokemon Trozei plays similarly to Yoshi’s Cookie, but I don’t like it as much.  Yoshi’s Cookie always made me hungry for cookies, though.  Wouldn’t it be cool if they made cookies like that, and you could buy them in stores?

Wario’s Woods

Here is another one of my favorites.  Even though it says Wario in the title, the game actually stars Toad as you control him to pick up and throw bombs and critters of the same color to make them disappear.  It has a bit of a learning curve, but oh man is this game fun.  My college roommate and his girlfriend (now wife) and I would play it all the time on the SNES when we were in college.  The NES version is on Virtual Console, I wish they’d put the SNES version on as well.  There is a kinda sorta version of it on the 3DS Brain Age game, but it doesn’t have Wario or Toad and you use the touch screen to play so it’s a lot easier.  But still fun. So yeah, don’t let people tell you that Captain Toad: Treasure Trackers is Toad’s first game.  It was Wario’s Woods! (Toad is my favorite Mario character, by the way)

Mario’s Picross

I never played this one.  It came out on the Game Boy and I didn’t like the idea of playing a number logic puzzle game on such a small screen.  Many years later, I did play the more generic Picross game on DS and it was kind of fun.  But the one I really liked was Picross 3-D.  It was made by HAL, so maybe that’s why I liked it so much.

Tetris Attack

Back on the SNES, Intelligent Systems made a puzzle game called Panel de Pon, which had a bunch of fairies as characters.  When they wanted to bring the game to the US, they thought the characters would be too girly for us, so they changed them to be ones from Yoshi’s Island, a popular game at the time.  Yeah, much more manly there, Nintendo.  They also re-named it Tetris Attack, even though it had nothing to do with Tetris at all.  Later versions of the game just named it Puzzle League or slapped Pokemon characters on it.  Tetris Attack was pretty fun; I rented it a few times back in the day.  But I think my favorite version of it is Pokemon Puzzle League on the N64.  I reviewed that one for The Dallas Morning News back in the day and it had tons more gameplay modes and I played it a lot.

Nintendo Puzzle Collection

Speaking of Panel de Pon, on the GameCube in Japan, Nintendo made a collection of puzzle games that had Dr. Mario, Yoshi’s Cookie, and Panel de Pon on one disc.  I think you could also download GBA versions of the games with the GBA link cable.  I really wanted the game to come out over here, but it never did.  Guess Nintendo still didn’t want Panel de Pon to come out over here, or they thought it was too much work to change it to Tetris Attack.  Some references to Panel de Pon can be found in the Smash Bros. games, though.  Man, there sure were a lot of games on the GameCube and SNES in Japan that I wished would come to the US!

Mario & Wario

Speaking of games in Japan that never made it to the US, here’s one on the SNES called Mario & Wario.  It used the SNES mouse and since I loved Mario Paint, I really wished this would’ve come out over here.  I think it even came out in EUROPE, just not the US.  I don’t see why, there was nothing to translate, it was all in English.  Anyway, about this time, Lemmings was a very popular game and just like when Tetris came out, everyone had to have their own version, even Nintendo.  In this one, Wario puts buckets over Mario and his friends’ heads, so they have to walk blindly to Luigi so he could take the buckets off.  In the game, you use the mouse to control a guardian angel fairy named Wanda who can create blocks for them to walk across, and tap the buckets to make them stop or turn around.  I’m surprised Nintendo hasn’t used Wanda in a Mario Kart or sports game yet.  I still hope they release this game on Virtual Console in the US. With two systems that use touch screens and motion controls, I don’t think it would be hard to put this one on there.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong Series

And speaking of Lemmings-style games, these originally started out as just the Game Boy Donkey Kong game, which I feel is still one of the best arcade updates to this day.  Even that game was kind of puzzle-ish, as most of the levels required you to figure out how to get a key to a door.  The sequel on the GBA was called Mario vs. Donkey Kong and it played similarly, but not near as good.  But this game introduced the Mini-Mario wind-up toys, and they would be the stars in future installments.  From them on, you were tasked in trying to get the Mini-Marios from point A to point B, similar to Lemmings.  In some you could use the stylus to slightly control the toys; in others you used the stylus to alter the environment.  One of them even had Pipe Dream elements to it.  I haven’t downloaded the new game: Tipping Stars, but I might here soon.

Mario’s FUNdamentals

This PC game doesn’t really count, but I put it in here anyway as you do play classic board and card games with Mario.  Around this time, Nintendo allowed some other companies to use their characters, so some crappy Mario games were made where you could learn classic board games, typing, or play something similar to Where in the World is Carmen San Diego.  None are worth mentioning, but I guess they were kind of like puzzle games.  One significant aspect of Mario’s FUNdamentals is that it was the first game to introduce Mario’s current voice by Charles Martinet.

Wrecking Crew

In this old NES game, it was kind of puzzle-ish as you had to figure out which blocks to break sometimes.  In Japan, there was a sequel on their Satelliteview online service called Wrecking Crew 98.  I’ve seen videos of it and while I can’t figure it out, it does look more puzzle-like.  I wish Nintendo could figure out how to release some of these titles on Virtual Console.  I had the original Wrecking Crew on the NES and really liked it.  I was happy to see the Wrecking Crew stage in Smash Bros. on Wii U.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

This one just came out late last year and I really liked it.  The game originally started out as mini-puzzle levels in Super Mario 3-D World, and I liked them so much that I posted on Miiverse that they should be their own game.  Maybe Nintendo listened to me?  Anyway, if you enjoyed those or like puzzle games such as Adventures of Lolo or Kickle Cubicle, you should check this one out, too.

Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition

And this is the newest one.  As of this writing, I haven’t played it yet.  But I will soon as I have the game reserved.  You can download a demo of it right now on the 3DS eShop, though.  I’m worried because it’s kind of hard to judge combos by moving the pieces around, but maybe I’ll figure it out better once I have the full game.  I’ve reviewed some imitators of Puzzle & Dragons on iPad in the past.  I’m definitely more interested in the Mario version of this game instead of the regular one!

Conclusions

And that’s all for now!  Let me know in the comments section if I forgot anything.  I don’t think I did.  And also let me know what YOUR favorite Mario puzzle games are!  Later!  --Cary