Little detail is available on the new game at this time, but Dr. Mario was a 1990 puzzle game that tasked players with rearranging different colored pills as they fall to clear them off of the game board and eliminate viruses.
The gameplay of the original title was similar to Tetris, and it should translate well to mobile devices.
Nintendo says that Dr. Mario World will be free to play with in-app purchases, with Nintendo aiming to release the game in “early summer 2019” in Japan, the United States, and dozens of other countries.
Dr. Mario World may be Nintendo’s first game of 2019, as its other title, Mario Kart Tour, won’t be coming out until the summer. It was originally scheduled to launch right around March.
Nintendo has released five mobile games thus far, four of which have been free-to-play and three of which have been highly successful. Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, and Dragalia Lost are current free-to-play titles, while Miitomo, Nintendo’s first mobile game, is now defunct. Nintendo’s only paid app so far has been Super Mario Run.