I have had an interesting relationship with Dr. Mario since its birth on the NES more than two decades ago. It was one of a very, very few games everyone in our humble Midwestern house was keen to play: my mom, my sister, me, and even my dad, who has barely picked up a controller in his life. There was something magical about the game among the Kemps family, but as years passed and new games and consoles came into the house, less and less time was spent with visits to the good doctor.

Dr. Mario has made reappearances on consoles since, of course, and I went back and played these incarnations, remembering the good times I had both alone and with my kin. But something had changed. I'd played games like

Online play, meanwhile, is functional but extremely bare-bones. Dr. Luigi features basic two-player lobbies and a ranked mode, which rarely puts you up against equally skilled opponents. Want to change the type of game you're playing? You need to step out, re-create the room, and hope your buddy rejoins. Don't expect anything like tournament modes or even the best-three-out-of-five battles the original NES version offered, either; after one round, you're kicked back to the continue-or-quit screen.

In the end, Dr. Luigi feels like Dr. Mario Online RX all over again, with a few spruced-up elements and a not-well-thought-out extra mode. That alone would be enough to make you wary of dropping the full $14.99 asking price on this. But in the end, the most disappointing part of Dr. Luigi is that it doesn't give the Dr. Mario formula that shot in the arm it needs to feel magical again. Arika is the mind behind the amazing Tetris: The Grand Master series of arcade games, and I'm disappointed that it can't bring a similar thrill and exhilaration to this classic series. But it could well be that Dr. Mario's pacing and mechanics are relics of its era that would be difficult to bring up to modern standards. Dr. Luigi provides some shallow entertainment, but it's not exactly what the doctor ordered.