Back in January Nintendo just very nonchalantly announced that the classic puzzle series Dr. Mario would be heading to mobile devices sometime this summer in a new free to play game called Dr. Mario World. Perhaps most interesting about the announcement was that Nintendo is partnering up with their third third party developer for Dr. Mario World in chat juggernaut LINE, following previous partnerships with Cygames on Dragalia Lost and DeNA on Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Super Mario Run. About a week after that initial announcement Nintendo explained during a financial briefing their reason for wanting to partner up with LINE for Dr. Mario World. Well today we get our latest bit of news regarding Dr. Mario World as Nintendo has announced on Twitter that the game will be launching on both iOS and Android on July 10th. They’ve also released a lengthy overview video showing just what this new iteration on the Dr. Mario franchise is all about.

As you can see, Dr. Mario World has that familiar sheen of a free to play mobile game. Everything has a sugary sweet coating and the classic style of gameplay has been tweaked quite a bit. Which isn’t the end of the world or anything, as I’m always down to try out something new, but what I don’t love is the free to play monetization system that is being utilized in Dr. Mario World. Two currencies and an energy system. Bummer. There is an additional video series on the Nintendo Mobile Youtube channel that highlights the various virus types in the game, and it’s actually quite cute and enjoyable, and there’s also a dedicated Twitter account for Dr. Mario World that should offer up some additional info ahead of release. I can’t say I’m not disappointed with the direction of Dr. Mario World, but I’m also willing to give it an honest try, which we’ll be able to do in just a few weeks on July 10th. If you want to take it one step further, you can pre-order the game on the iOS App Store or pre-register for it on the Google Play Store for Android.