Tetris & Dr. Mario
Graphics
The graphics don't seem that much different in this remake. It's possible that there have been some minor enhancements made on Tetris, but it's very difficult for me to tell, since I haven't played the NES versions in a while. Dr. Mario looks pretty much exactly the same to me here as it did on the NES, but again, I could be mistaken. Both Tetris and Dr. Mario are setup in very similar ways, because Dr. Mario seems to have based itself on Tetris. In Tetris, the graphics consists of the play area, and variously shaped blocks that fall from the top of the screen. The colors of the blocks vary as you play. It doesn't really get all that much simpler than this. Dr. Mario has nicer graphics, in my opinion, but they're still very simple. The graphics consist of the play area, Mario on the upper right throwing the vitamins into the play area, a magnifying glass showing the reactions of the viruses on the bottom left, and the level information and your score on the bottom right. There are three different colored viruses, and pills made up of combinations of these colors. That pretty much describes it all.
Gameplay
These two games are considered classics because of the gameplay. While these games seem simple at first and are easy to learn, it really takes a lot of experience, thought, and quick reflexes to excel at them. In Tetris, the object of the game is to fit the different blocks together to form rows of blocks. Once you form one row, that row disappears and you get points. The more rows you can form simultaneously the better. The most that can be formed at any time is four, and this is called a Tetris. If you let the blocks fill up the entire play area, you lose. This is much more likely to happen as the blocks start to fall faster and faster...
There are two ways to play Tetris. One way, in which you have to form a certain number of lines to beat a level, and then start the next level from scratch. The other version is like one long level, in which the blocks fall faster and faster when you get a certain number of rows.
Dr. Mario's gameplay was what I enjoyed the most of the two games. The object of this game is to stack vitamins on top of viruses to destroy them. The color of the vitamin must match the color of the virus for this to work. If you put the wrong color on, you will have to work on destroying that vitamin using other vitamins of the same color before you can again try to destroy the virus. Sounds extremely complicated, doesn't it? That's because it's very difficult to explain either of these games in writing. Trust me though, once you start playing, you'll get the idea pretty quickly. In Dr. Mario, after you destroy all the viruses, you go to the next level, which has more viruses. As you get in the higher levels, viruses take up most of the play area, and challenge is extremely high. Like Tetris, if the play area gets filled up, you lose.
The games both have two player modes, which can make the experience a lot better, especially with Dr. Mario. There's one more option available, specially added for this compilation. It's called Mixed Match. I haven't used this option much, but it seems to be a two player style game in which each player can choose either Tetris or Dr. Mario and play simultaneously.
Sound
The music in these two games isn't that bad at all, but it can get a little bit annoying if you play for extended periods of time without changing it. You see, in both Tetris and Dr. Mario, you have the option to pick from a few different songs to hear while you play. The only thing that would have been better would be if you could change it while playing. I think the music could also have been a little less distracting, but it's not that bad overall.
Conclusion
Puzzle games certainly aren't for everybody, and I'm generally not a big fan of them. These two games were exceptional though, and it's really good to have both of them compiled together into one game. I'm not going to be playing these much in the future, but for fans of the genre, this is a great game to get.
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