Dr. Mario Express

Developer Arika had previously developed the WiiWare title Dr. Mario Online Rx. Mario Express features the general gameplay of earlier Dr. Mario puzzle games, which focus on eliminating colored viruses from the playing field by matching them with colored capsules. Mario Express received generally positive reviews, but was criticized for offering fewer playable game modes than earlier Dr.

Dr. Mario Express is a falling block tile-matching video game. The player is given a playing field, seen in the Nintendo DSi's bottom screen, populated with viruses of three colors: red, blue, and yellow. Mario, who has assumed the role of a doctor, drops two-colored medicinal capsules into the playing field. The player manipulates these capsules as they fall, moving them left or right and rotating them such that they become aligned alongside viruses of matching colors. When four capsule halves and viruses of matching color are joined together in a straight line, they are removed from play. The main objective of the game therefore is to remove all the viruses from the playing field without letting the capsules themselves pile up and obstruct the opening into the field. Successive levels increase the initial number of viruses to clear. The player is scored based on the viruses cleared in conjunction with the current game speed. Dr. Mario Express also keeps track of the player's current high score. While the game lacks multiplayer support, Dr. Mario Express offers a "VS CPU" mode in which the player plays against a computer-controlled player, which has its own playing field visible in the DSi top screen. The player's goal is to clear their playing field of all the viruses before the computer player does. The player will win the game upon eliminating all the viruses or if the other playing field fills up with capsules.