- Dr. Mario 64 is the gold standard for Dr. Mario games, because of the featured games, it is a lot more fully-featured compared to a lot of its contemporaries. It introduces a lot of new modes to try out, and it has a loveably silly Story mode that is something I liked about Puyo Puyo games, though I have to admit that using Wario Land 3 characters is odd. It's also the only one which has 4-players in a competitive environment, which is something you never see ever again.
- Dr. Mario World is another superb game, mainly for how great of a fit this game is to the mobile format, and also because it's a very revolutionary game for the franchise since the series typically resists innovation for some reason. Not only are the touch controls refined from Virus Buster, but it also introduces a lot of tricky elements that makes it a good puzzle game. Obviously, the addition of many characters is another great thing for the series, so it's not just Mario and Luigi doing pharmaceutical duties (though some people think it diminishes the prestige of being a doctor, which I disagree)
- Dr. Luigi felt like a good innovation in a long time, which is why he's in the "Great" category. Operation L is a very good twist to the formula, but playing it on High speed is very difficult. It helps that the classic variation is still available.
- Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure is a good compilation of Dr. Mario and Dr. Luigi, plus it has a decent Miracle Cure mode, and it has pre-designed stages! But it also removes some features for some reason, like selecting music or the ability to continue past Level 20 (except in Virus Buster).
- Both Dr. Mario games for the NES and GB are merely good, mainly for establishing the basics. The controls can be rather rigid unfortunately, because the capsule lock delay (time it takes before the capsule's position is locked) is incredibly tight, and the capsules move in piece-by-piece increments. This applies to Tetris & Dr. Mario, which strongly takes after those games, though at least that one has Vs. CPU.
- Dr. Mario & Puzzle League has the standard features of Dr. Mario, and also a Vertical Mode, but it's otherwise a very simple representation of the game.
- Dr. Mario Express is exceptionally mediocre for how there is little to it: there's only Classic and Vs. CPU. No multiplayer at all, and so the price justified how little content it has. That does not prevent it from being mediocre, unfortunately.
- Dr. Mario: Vitamin Toss is practically the outlier for how much it does not have anything in common with the other Dr. Mario games, since it's after all a Flash game that is more akin to a minigame than a fully-fledged Dr. Mario game.