Trauma Center - Nintendo Wii

Great fun or a road crash?

Reviewer: Stuart Miles
Review Date: 15 June 2007
Manufacturer: Nintendo
Price as reviewed: £30
Latest price: £21.20

Our score

9/10

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Full Review

15 June 2007 - Remember Operation as a kid? Great wasn't it, whether it was getting the funny bone out or that elastic band from the arm it kept me entertained for hours as a kid.

Fastforward 20 years and things are a little more high-tech, Nintendo's Trauma Center (yes spelled the American way) is a sort of modern day Operation complete with surgeries, patients and sexy looking nurses.

Following on from its stint on the Nintendo DS, the game has now come to the Nintendo Wii and sees you play the surgeon in this "exciting" Medical Drama simulation.

Levels revolve around operations and you'll need to cure patients of everything from routine medical maladies to life-threatening designer viruses.

Although the game is a remake of the DS it does include several new missions, an extra playable character, new operation types and new surgical tools.

At your disposal at the end of your Wii Remote is a medical toolkit that includes scalpels, forceps, defibrillator paddles, syringes and more as just as the board game required nerves of steel and an arm that isn't still affected by too many Vodkas the night before.

The levels themselves range from removing shards of glass from a patients arm, to defeating viruses about to take over a man's heart and overall are great fun, if not a little frustrating.

To get through those levels you'll need good arm control and Wii Remote handling skills - its like one of the games where you have to get the hoop around the piece of wire without it buzzing and therefore is best described as a mixture of highly addictive as well as highly annoying.

It's like an episode of House, Grey's Anatomy and ER all rolled into one with a soundtrack that is likely to get your pulse racing as you try to complete the set tasks in the time allotted.

Verdict

What we like most about Trauma Center is that it isn't your average shoot 'em up or your racing game, and shows that Nintendo is trying to make something different.

Innovative and fun, Trauma Center won't be for everyone, but it will certainly give you something to concentrate on as you try and patch up the numerous patients ahead of you.