Dr. Mario World Drops This July For iOS And Android

With all of the E3 hubbub behind us, now's a good time to remind everyone that Nintendo is still making smartphone games, too. We're due to get Mario Kart Tour before too long, but there's another game in the pipeline that we'll likely see first: Dr. Mario World.

Dr. Mario World is coming to iOS and Android on July 10, according to Polygon. And the game might look a little different to you than past Dr. Mario titles. For starters, the pills will move upward instead of downward this time around, presumably to better accommodate the way smartphones are held. And this is a free-to-play game as opposed to a one-time-purchase title, which means you could see all sorts of little time-gating tricks and pay walls that will cause you grief unless you're willing to spend some moolah.

Mario won't be the only character you can play as this time around, too. Some familiar faces will be joining (what will now become) the Dr. Mario World roster, including Peach, Yoshi, Bowser, and Toad; all with "Dr." in front of their names, of course. And these characters will all have their own unique abilities that can be used while playing, giving you a reason to seek out and unlock each one.

Does it seem slightly blasphemous to see some of our favorite Nintendo franchises employing the same tactics as games like Clash of Clans? Absolutely. But to Nintendo's credit, the company has been fairly militant about making sure its microtransactions aren't too over the top. You might recall that Nintendo asked the developers of Dragalia Lost to tone down the microtransactions in that title, as Nintendo claimed it was "not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game." So it stands to reason that the company would also take a similar approach toward a game with the Dr. Mario name on it.

But time will tell. We'll have to wait until July 10 to get our hands on Dr. Mario World and see just how much of the game we can play before it feels like we're being steered toward microtransactions. The best free-to-play titles have a hook that keeps players coming back and playing, even if they don't intend to spend any money at the moment. For Dr. Mario World to succeed, it'll have to do the same.