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Trauma Center - Under the Knife: Reviews

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Game Score: 8/10

"Trauma Center: Under the Knife" is one of those games that's easy to describe, but hard to explain why it's enjoyable. It boils down to this:

It's a small surgery simulator. Unlike games for the PC that use the mouse for control, "Trauma Center" uses the DS's touch screen to an even more immersive effect. Each level presents with a new patient, such as one with glass shards in his heart (not good), or removing a tumor, performing surgery on a plane - even at one point defusing a bomb, all with surgical tools.

Each level starts the same. The story revolves around a young surgeon just starting out, learning the ropes and trying to apply his knowledge. The first few levels are spent getting used to the controls, such as how to make an incision, cauterize bleeders, give stitches, and other important tasks. It's a good start and lets the player understand what they're looking at.

The story section is told in manga style, with still-characters telling the story around them before and after each surgery (assuming you're successful). The story's an interesting one, telling the tale of a rogue terrorist organization using diseases to spread their message, which is - uh, well, they don't really have one. This is one of those games where they story is really just to move things along. The evil group is just evil, the good guys are good. That's all you need to know, and for some reason, rather than sending in a whole squad of highly trained surgeons, there's just one - you - that can do the job. The only thing I couldn't figure out is why your assistant nurse looks like she's 12 years old. I mean, I know it's anime style, but can't we make her look at least 16 or something?

The graphics are simple enough - not the real life gore of a real surgery, but cartoon level blood and organs that give you the idea of what's going on inside the body without making those weak in the stomach reach for the barf bag.

Actual surgery, as mentioned, is performed via the stylus. There's a tray of tools on the side, such as scalpel, healing gel, syringe, and the "magic hand". The latter lets you cheat a little, and inject your patient with extra health and slow down time by drawing a pentagram on the patient's skin. This reduces your score, but if you're just eager to get through the level without losing a patient, that's probably all right. From there, using the tools is simple - follow the path to cut, use the suction on a tumor, and so on.

The main problem with the game is twofold. First, the difficulty goes up quickly, especially with some of the later levels with odd moving tumors, or when you have to perform multiple surgeries in limited time. This makes the game frustrating (in fact, I haven't finished the last 4 missions because it's just so hard). Second, the stylus doesn't all ways seem to be completely accurate. It could be my own skills, but sometimes you're certain that you've clicked the right tool in the right spot, only to be twarted by being slightly off - and the game is very unforgiving of mistakes.

But for those who love a challenge and always wanted to play "House", "Trauma Center" is an interesting and fun game - even if you want to through your DS across the room between missions.