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Dr. Mario World releases a day early

Dr. Mario World releases a day early

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Available now for iOS and Android

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Image: Nintendo

Dr. Mario World is available now for iOS. Nintendo’s latest smartphone game was originally slated to come out on July 10th, but Twitter user @Wario64 noted that the download went live a day early for Apple devices. The game was also released early on Android via the Google Play Store.

Whether you should pick up the game depends a lot on how faithful you want the experience to be to the original NES game. As we noted in our preview of the game, the new smartphone edition changes a lot about the experience, flipping the game board around and turning the gameplay from an endless experience akin to Tetris to a stage-by-stage puzzle game like Candy Crush

The game also suffers from the same free-to-play monetization excesses that Nintendo has used in its other mobile titles. It features timers, which limit how much you can play at a time unless you’re willing to pay using in-game currencies, and there are also randomized gacha systems for unlocking new characters, assistants, and upgrading your roster. If you’re used to free-to-play smartphone gaming, then none of this will feel particularly excessive. But you shouldn’t approach Dr. Mario World expecting a similar experience to its console namesake.

Update July 9th, 12:05PM ET: Updated with news that the game is also now available for Android.