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Appropriate for Kids, Quite Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 78 / 95
Date: November 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Remember the Operation game of your youth? Trauma Center is like an online, graphic version of that - with puzzles, too. You need fast fingers and a sharp mind to save your patients.

You're in the future, and you begin with simple operations. Repairing broken bones, stitching up cuts. You use your Wii controller in the right hand to point at the various items, and the nunchuck in your left to select the tools. It's really quite intuitive, although it requires you to hold the controller like a pencil for pinpoint accuracy, and this can get really tough on your hand, really quickly. You need a super steady hand to pull off some of the moves.

Then the game goes into futuristic mode and now you are trying to zap moving creatures that are crawling around inside people. There isn't any blood or gore - even "drain the blood" only has fuzzy red areas. Parents don't have to worry at all about upsetting young tykes from this point of view. Even I, who am normally squeamish about blood, didn't have any issues here. The worst was perhaps using the scalpel to slice open the flesh and see it open up into a red wound. But again, it was very tame, just a red inside on a tan body.

The issue for me is that I would have loved for the game to be more realistic from a medical point of view. They love throwing around complex words in this game, to give it a hospital feel, but then they get some basic anatomy wrong that even I realize! Part of the fun of watching shows like CSI is that you are learning something as you go. Here, you are getting inaccurate information, which is a real shame.

Also, while the realistic episodes such as "get the arm bones back together" are very satisfying, it's much more odd when you're tracking down moving "enemy objects" inside a person. I would really have loved many more complex, real life situations. Medical operations are tense and complex enough on their own without having to throw in unnecessarily silly items to jazz it up.

Speaking of tense and silly, the game intersperses your doctoral duties with a soap opera of cut scenes. These involve stationary images of people shown on the screen, while a hyper voice babbles in the background. It's bad enough when these happen before a mission, getting you riled up and worried about your patient. It's far worse when you are IN an open chest wound, trying frantically to pull out the shards of glass or whatever, and your nurse barges in with inane babble, that you have to deliberately click to "hear" and continue with!

Also, I think they could have done a better job of laying out the HUD. Part of your screen is taken up with an image of your nurse or other person, which is of course completely unnecessary. The pulse line, showing the health of your patient, is of course critical to the operation but is very hard to keep a handle on when you're in the thick of things. Half the time your nurse only warns you about a danger when it is too late to do anything about it. So you have to either keep looking up there yourself or have a friend watch it for you, calling out when it begins to drops. Just about every other game out there has some sort of a health line / bar and handles it better.

Finally, especially for a kid's game, they are a little harsh on the consequences. If you do something wrong, the game could say "Another doctor stepped in to save the patient, and you decided to be a nurse instead". Something that indicated failure but not catastrophic emotional trauma. Instead, they talk about the patient dying, you quitting your job in despair, your life being ruined because of this one mistake. Most people play these games to release stress, not to feel like they have destroyed a person's life because they didn't zig-zag their sutures quite right.

My boyfriend got hooked on this and played it straight through in about 3 days, playing maybe 5 hours a day. So in that sense it's relatively short, although of course you an go back and re-play it to get the highest score on each of the levels. I do want to comment here that the soundtrack got MADDENINGLY annoying after a while. It's pretty much the same. DUM DUM DUM DUMMMMM! The music is like watching a soap opera hospital scene, where you sense impending doom every ... second ... of ... the ... time ... The nurse is screaming out "Doctor! What is that?!?!?" I realize they want to get your adrenaline going, but there's such a thing as overkill. If you turn off the music, though, you lose the few indicators you do get about the patient's health. I really would have liked an option to have just "medical sounds" playing - alerts for the health, that sort of thing - and be able to have silence otherwise.

Still, the game is fun to play and very intruging in concept. I would *love* to play a sequel to this. Again, my suggestions would be to remove the annoying cut-scenes (at least mid-operation!), give options to remove the music and super-hyper-unprofessional sidekicks, and to have more realistic scenarios. I think this could become a must-have title if they headed that way.

Fun, Addicting, & Informative

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: December 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It's refreshing to see a different type of game like this compared to all the same old fighting, racing, war, & rpg games, etc. Trauma Center Second Opinion puts you right in the hands of a surgeon where you control the fate of your patients and its quite a rush! The controls and game is easy to get used to and the storyline and gameplay is very fun. My only complaint would be they should've had voice overs for everything instead of having to read all the dialogue. Just think how even more real it would've felt with people talking to you about the patient, diagnosis, what instruments you need, etc. Hopefully they'll make another sequel and incorporate that feature. This original game is fun, addicting, and very informative. You'll feel like a doctor...time to play some more Trauma Center and then watch Grey's Anatomy.

Worth every cent, a must own for the Wii, the wii controller works great and makes much more sense than with any other controller cause this feels like what a real surgeon would do since you have to be precise and accurate.

Gameplay/Controls: A-
Graphics: B
Replay Value: A+
Story/Plot: B+

OVERALL: 5 out of 5 (A-)

Entertaining Gameplay

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: March 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Recommendation: Rent

Trauma Center: Second Opinion puts the tools of a surgeon into your hands via the wii-mote and nunchuck.

The controls translate fairly well in this game. The Wii-mote is used as your tool, while the nunchuck analog stick lets you select from your arsenal of equipment. You'll need a steady hand to be really good at this game. I found it hard to get anything above a C rating, even on easy. I'm not sure the criteria for getting a better grade, but it didn't effect the fun of the game at all.

The game missions are timed at five minutes each, so the pressure is on to finish your job quickly.

The story cut scenes aren't really animated, but frames in a japanese style. While I didn't mind it, it didn't really grab my interest. I think I would have preferred an actual animated style of story. It has a sort of branching storyline. It's easy to replay missions and toggle difficulty levels without having to leave the storyline screen.

This was a decent game with unique controls well suited for the Wii console.

7 Fun
5 Graphics
6 Replay Value
8 Control Scheme

A great Launch game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: November 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For those of you who played Trauma Center on the DS, this game is the same old same old, but still worth the buy for you can play it on a full size tv. For those of you who have not played the game the game is one of the most unique and challenging games i have ever played. As one can tell from the pictures you are a surgeon, who does everything from remove glass to fighting wierd bug things that live inside people. The game is a great port from the DS and the Wiimote controls great in this game. I highly recommend this game.

Hey mom, I'm a surgeon!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: November 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I was unfortunate never to get around to the cult Nintendo DS classic, Trauma Center: Under The Knife. The surgery simulation game received rave reviews and dried up from store shelves, eventually being re-released this summer due to consumer demand. Needless to say, the DS title was quite a hit with the well-informed and adventurous crowd. It was a surprise to see Atlus, a rare Nintendo supporter, remake the game for the new Wii console. Trauma Center: Second Opinion captures the intensity of the original but makes everything more intuitive and thus more fun to play.

In Trauma Center: Second Opinion, you're the newly-appointed Dr. Derek Stiles. Surrounded by his surgeon cohorts and assistants, Derek's the man in charge of some serious surgeries and it's up to you to save dozens of citizens from all sorts of medical issues, including death. Eventually the story gets a little deeper, as Derek discovers a special ability within himself and a "medical terrorism" plot is discovered. Though the story is a little on the hokey side, it's always intense and throws in a bit of medical humor and terminology that med students, doctors, and generally intelligent players will find humorous and interesting. The story seems to be an embodiment of the reality of the game; what's going on around you doesn't matter as much as what's going on in the OR on the operating table.

Trauma Center wastes little time before throwing you into your first surgery; a simple procedure on a man whose motorcycle accident resulted in glass shards sticking out of his arm. This surgery goes quickly, as you stitch up and disinfect cuts, use the trusty forceps to pull out shards of glass, and bandage incisions. Of course, "simple procedure" is a phrase that quickly gets thrown out the door-pretty soon you're dealing with life and death situations that come out of nowhere. For example, tumors that freakishly spread across an organ, or thrombi on a patient's trachea. These scenarios never, ever fail to be entertaining. Using the nunchuck to select tools is easy enough, as a radial display shows icons that indicate each tool. You select tools and follow guidelines on the screen to do almost everything. Using the Wii remote, you'll cut incisions, apply antibacterial gel, scan internal organs with an ultrasound, and more. In theory, it's simple. In execution, it's pretty darn challenging, especially when the patient's vitals are slipping and your assistant is barking in your ear.

It helps Second Opinion that the Wii remote allows pixel-perfect precision. I'd understand how fans of the DS original would be worried that Trauma Center would be less accurate with this new controller, but it isn't. In fact, the nunchuck allows for lightning-quick exchanging of tools and with practice, surgeries can be completed in record time. It's fun to go through each operation, striving to earn an S rank. Of course, some of the missions are so difficult that an A or B rank will make you happy.

Trauma Center looked great as a DS game but it was cleaned up and made into a clear, easy-to-see Wii title. Not only are the displays scattered around the screen in an intelligible way, but the different things you'll interact with are easy to see and understand. When you see yellow connect-the-dots, for example, you know an incision is at hand. Trauma Center is a little bare-boned on the presentation scale, offering just a few different anime-inspired character sketches in its many cut-scenes, but it gets the job done. The menus have a cool shattered glass look to them, which is interesting. Similarly, the music is intense and keeps you on edge while the scarce voice acting is a little disappointing. I understand that this was originally a handheld title, where storage space was an issue, but that should have been addressed in the Wii version. Some of the sound effects are pretty gruesome, and the sound of skin opening up as I performed an incision got an uneasy reaction from me each time.

Really, the only problem with Trauma Center lies in its trial-and-error style. Eventually you'll fail operations a dozen times before you figure out when to use Derek's special ability or in what order to extract tumors to avoid life-threatening hemorrhages. Once you do figure out the perfect order to do everything, the missions are easy enough. It's really a difficult thing to judge, honestly-this trial-and-error is unrealistic, but it wouldn't be realistic to be lightly penalized for screwing up on a life-or-death operation. You'll see the Game Over screen a lot, but you'll hit "Retry" a lot more than you'll hit "Quit."

Trauma Center: Second Opinion gets the job done and leaves no mess to clean up. If the DS Trauma Center escaped your adventurous side, the Wii version shouldn't. Even owners of the DS version should check it out, as it introduces a new chapter and a brutally-challenging Hard mode. Overall, it's a great launch title that delivers the innovations of the Wii remote and nunchuck controller. It's fresh, original, and downright entertaining.

Fun in the OR . . .

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is fun, fun, fun.

Yes, the cut-scenes can be silly, and yes, voice acting would have been great, BUT the main focus of the game is performing surgery, and performing surgery is exceptional. Why, you ask? Because the controls are perfect. Shows you what the Wii is capable of.

On the downside, I didn't give it a perfect rating because the game is a little on the short side. I beat it in about 8 hours and you could probably beat it in 6 if you were good. Might be better as a rental, although the replay value is high. It's a toss up.

This is a game unlike any other--surgery just wouldn't work without the Wii's motion-sensing remote. Rent or buy, but check it out! A great launch title for the Wii.

A strange but very cool kind of fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: February 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Got to hand it to Nintendo. A lot of their announcements on new gameplay and innovations seemed mainly designed because that's what gamers want without us actually saying anything. Did we really mention we were getting bored of the traditional control scheme and that we "needed" this new style? Or that Gamecube/GBA-connectivity was the better innovation over online play? But the big buzz about the Wii is that even non-gamers are starting to pick it up and play. Where does Trauma Center fall? It's more or less the next step for Wii newbies ("Wii-bies"?) If Sports or any of the other launch titles were too simple, this one's the way to go but be forewarned: this game can easily hand you your ***.

Story: You play Derek Stiles, a medical doctor who's completed his residency. It's 2018 and many diseases including AIDS and cancer has been wiped but a new threat emerges named GUILT and the story continues from there. It's actually a neat story even if it is kind of silly and quite out there but it's also quite interesting in the end.

Graphics: It's actually quite detailed. Granted it's nowhere near stuff like Gears of War or upcoming PS3 titles like Metal Gear Solid 4 but it gets the job done. In-game cutscenes consist of plain backgrounds with anime stills of the characters. The in-game graphics are also quite easy to understand and in a game where you got to do multiple stuff you don't want to be hung up over incredibly tiny play areas. By the way, it's a gory game if you actually imagine the procedure in reality but when a stomach consists of a purple and pink surface, it's kind of hard to get grossed out.

Sound/Music: I was so engrossed in the saving of patient's lives that I didn't even notice the music but it does its job well, if in slightly melodramatic fashion. Voice acting is mainly just sound clips such as "what the?"! or "I will save this patient!"

Gameplay: The bulk of your work is with the remote but the nunchuk is crucial as well. Essentially on the nunchuk, your analog acts as a tool selector as you point to whatever you need from sutures, draining, scalpel or disinfectant. On the remote you have to draw/point to take care of what the patient ails from. An example is if you needed to take a tumor out: use ultrasound to locate it, scalpel to cut it open, drain excess fluid, cut it out, use tweezers to put it in a bowl, put a small cloth over the wound and cover it with disinfectant. And that's in one of the early stages too since it'll get much tougher.

Speaking of tough, Trauma Center was one of those DS games that people loved when they can actually beat it since it had quite unforgiving and kind of sporadic difficulty. Sometimes it got easy, other times will make you see the mission restart screen over and over. Now unlike some games where enemies are too cheap and way more powerful than you (Metroid Prime 2) or just way too enemies, the replaying is actually your fault: you're simply not fast enough. Now the time limit and the enormous amount of tasks is daunting but this isn't like beating 20 enemies with only 7 handgun bullets (like let's say, Resident Evil 4? especially if that chainsaw freak showed up) but after practice, pretty soon you'll be your own ER co-star and heal patients like quick.

Like many have said, this is probably the Wii's best launch title to get after Zelda: Twilight Princess. The difficulty might put off some but since there's always a hunger to beat it anyway, you get over it.

Awesome game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 21
Date: November 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have the original for the DS lite. I thought that was fun, but this is better. The first few chapters seem the same, but the gameplay is better.

Twisting the bones is a new feature. Repairing a compound fracture also new to me!

This game is good because it could really help shape you kids minds and let them explore a simulation to see is practicing medicine would be a job they would like.

BACK to the game. I like that the NUNCHUK is the tool that lets you select your surgical instruments. Having the patient displayed on a big screen is helpful too! I do wish there was more talking though. I thought they would upgrade that from DS, but hey didn't. It's not a waste of money. It's like tetris in that you either love or hate it! If you like it, you won't be able to stop playing!

Get a second opinion

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Trauma Center: Under the Knife was one of the first games that truly showed what new types of games are possible with the DS. This re-make, ahem, Wii-make is just as good as the DS with added features that take advantage of the Wii's unique control interface.

The plot of the game is the same as the DS: you are the young doctor Derek Stiles with some super powered medical skills, like slowing down time. In the beginning every time one of your medical instruments is used your (very irritating) assistant pops on to tell you what to do. However she soon leaves you and you have to figure out what to do for yourself. Eventually you get involved with a government medical facility and treat an illness called GUILT which takes several forms.

Outside from the obvious graphical upgrade, the major changes from the DS is slight. They changed the forceps so you are actually pinching using B and A. Also they added a defibrillator which is lots of fun to use. The DS has the ability to be much more precise, so for example connecting veins had to be much simpler on the Wii and most of the puzzles involving veins (or wires in the board with the bomb) have been removed. The ability to turn the controller left or right has been added. Think for example the ability to turn a screw or rotate a bone so you can set it.
The control scheme is fantastic. The nunchuk is used to switch between tools rather than the cursor. Switching and the actual surgical actions are made significantly easier with this controller setup.

Also after you finish each set of levels a brand new board is opened up with a new protagonist. Her boards are all new and suggest the direction Atlus has for future installments of Trauma Center. They also include some new medical problems, like the patient with a broken arm.

Finally the negative - as much as you would like to follow the story it isn't very interesting and usually involves lots of text. However you can speed it up with the minus button, so it isn't too much of a drag. Also the characters have like four emotional representations and they rotate between moods with their text.

If you never played Trauma Center: Under the Knife you need to get this one. If you have played it already there is enough new content to keep you interested. This is an essential game for your Wii library.

Addicting gameplay

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Let me begin saying I got this for my twin sons to get them interested in medicine (I am a MD). Well this game is not realistic, but it is fun and addicting. I have found myself coming home from practicing real medicine to practice the fake one! The dialogues can be boring but they can be skipped. I have a blast playing it and I return to previous surgeries to improve my score. I highly recomend it but I would suggest that you rent it first since some folks do not like. We do not all share the same likes!

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