Section 5: Cards and Card Games

M.G. McIntosh

OPINION

02/15/2021

CONCEPT REPORT (EXT.)

INTRODUCTION

I’m sure you’ve all seen Super Mario graphics on card games before. I’ve seen them at the gas station, (which seems to be a staple for card games) and they look pretty cool. This got me thinking about the card games I haven’t seen. And it gave me a few ideas.

DR. MARIO SOLITAIRE

There seems to be a lack of card games (and board games) involving Dr. Mario, one of my favourite games as a kid. I think Solitaire might be an interesting idea for Dr. Mario because the introduction of the colours and viruses in addition to the standard numbers would allow for some variation in gameplay and difficulty. Beginner play would simply involve matching the colours and would be suitable for kids. Intermediate play would be the standard game of solitaire. I’m sure more could be done with the additional variables of colour and viruses, maybe even a two deck game of solitaire. I’m content to leave the precise rules and details of those variations to experts as it would be a long process to work it all out. It might be worth mentioning that for each colour/suit the 6, 9, and Queen cards could have viruses on them instead of pills. A mixed suit to put it differently.

DR. MARIO WIZARD

This one could be kind of fun, actually. The standard game of Wizard is based on each card player guessing how many “tricks” they can win. Tricks are won with the highest card. I can see a couple of variations of this game being suitable for Dr. Mario. The first would be guessing how many “viruses” they can beat. Beating a virus would mean that a card with a pill on it of the same colour has a higher value than a virus card itself. The winner of the trick can be ignored altogether.

In the second version both viruses and tricks are in play. It’s possible in a multiplayer game that more than one virus card is played in a hand. This means the winner of the trick is the one who played the card with the highest value (possibly a virus card), while another player is able to claim victory over a virus card of lesser value, by playing a pill card of higher value, even if they ultimately lost the trick. This would mean points awarded for both. This might be a time where the aforementioned “mixed suit” would come in.

As an illustration, there are four players W, X, Y, Z. They play cards as follows: W plays the 6 of blue (which is also a virus card), X plays 5 of blue (pill card), Y plays 3 of blue (virus card) and Z plays 4 of blue (pill card). In this hand, W wins the trick and corresponding points. Z would claim the points for beating the virus card played by Y. So, as you can see, there would be a few versions of the game.

OTHER

I don’t suppose Nintendo would consider a card battle game, eh? I hear Pokemon did pretty well – just saying. Maybe Nintendo would like to take a crack at it? I’m sure it would do well – so many people love the Super Mario Bros. Maybe a game like ‘Tetra Master’ from Final Fantasy 9 instead? The cards would essentially be another collector’s item as well as a game and I collectors are more likely to play these games and buy the sets too.

CONCLUSION

There are plenty of Mario inspired ideas on the market right now, and many that were tried in the past. I have to give Nintendo full credit for guts – they aren’t afraid to think outside the box. I think that’s part of why I like Nintedo so much – it feels like a platform for creativity. Anyway, thank you all for reading this and please like, subscribe and share!

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