Nintendo teams with LINE to bring Dr. Mario to iOS and Android

Nintendo has brought a few of its popular franchises to iPhone, like Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing — though of course the most fun Nintendo games are still exclusive to the Nintendo consoles — but this summer, a classic is slated to make the jump to mobile. Nintendo has announced that it is partnering with LINE Corporation to bring a Dr. Mario game to Android and iOS.

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The new "action puzzle" mobile game, called "Dr. Mario World", will be released "Early summer 2019" in 60 initial countries as part of a global release, though the only two mentioned by name are the United States and Japan. LINE Corporation, maker of the LINE messaging app, which is insanely popular in southeast Asia, is no stranger to mobile games with big-name talent. While LINE has several of its own games, the game that might be best-known outside Asia is the Tsum Tsum game LINE partners with Disney on.

For those unfamiliar with Dr. Mario, the premise of this 90's Tetris-like puzzle game was to use bi-colored pills to match up colors and kill viruses that are blocking the board. It's very similar to the popular puzzle game Tetris. There is no official release date yet, but hopefully, by the time it gets too hot to go outside for Pokemon GO, Dr. Mario World will be here to give us a new virus-busting adventure.

Ara Wagoner