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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.

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!

Eh...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 20
Date: November 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is alright I guess... I do not feel it is worth the hype...It gets repetitive and boring quickly.

Trama Center... Lots of Trama, too much Drama

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: November 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing this game for an hour or so, and let me give you my impressions.

#1. It's fun playing doctor. My mother, a surgical tech, watched me play and said, that while not very realistic, it's still better than the Operation board game. She laughed at some of the placements of the incisions, and the copious amount of antibiotic gel that has to be spread around in the body cavity.

#2. Too much soap opera type drama for me. I read the first few screens, but, it's just too much like a soap opera for me. The cartoon characters in still frame with the words on the screen, it looks low-budget. This is the part of the game that I hate.

Overall, I'm having fun with the game. I like the challenge, I like having to remember how to perform certain procedures, and I like the medical element to the game. I wish it were a tad bit more realistic, and I hate the way you have to suture large wounds.

I'd definitley rent this game often, if it were available to rent, but since the Wii games are 'buy only' now, I'm going to play it til the end and trade it in for some more. Definitley worth playing, though.

Story presentation is dated. Controls are innovative. Repetitive gameplay.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: November 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is fun but it's very old fashioned in the way its story is presented (text). I got tired of reading all the BS really quickly.

The operating part is fun. The controls (with wii-mote) are very intuitive. It's very difficult to do a perfect operation. Especially with the nurses interrupting you at opportune times and requiring you to acknowledge their text by pressing the A button (in the middle of open heart surgery, for crying out loud). I DID enjoy using the defibbrilator paddles but it gets old after a while.

One thing they really did right is the quickness of the cursor on the screen tracking your hand movements. I had no idea the wii-mote was that precise but this game will really showcase that. It's VERY precise. Even the cursor in the Wii-menu seems to move slower than when you're using hte scalpel in this game --- so I was impressed.

Other than that, I think this game is getting kind of boring and I don't really want to play it anymore. The graphics are pretty blah. The sound is repetitive (reminds me of the old days of video games where they recycled songs between scenes --- think StreetFighter2 between matches).

I'm stuck on a surgery right now. I'm not sure if I'm willing to try again or just give up on the game and sell it used. That's sort of how I feel about the game and why I gave it 3 stars. I would have given it 2.5 if I could. It's just so-so.

Final words: "Nice to play once but not something you're gonna pick up in 2 years and say 'Hey I want to pass this game again'"

Best Wii controls of all the Wii launch games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Trauma Center Second Opinion is a Wii-make of the original which was the first game on the DS to really show the DS true potential for new and innovative game types for the portable handheld gaming machines.

The version for the Wii fills exactly the same role for the new Wii console. It really shows the true potential of the Wii for new and innovative game types but for the home console. It is the most polished of all the Wii launch titles and has the absolute best controls. It controls even better than the Wii menu interface. The pointer functionality is extremely accurate as well as the rest of the controls and the game challenges you to fully utilize the excellent controls.

In fact the controls are soo good that the version on the Wii becomes much more accessible and fun game compared to the version on the DS which was much more difficult. The DS game only had one difficulty setting, your hand or stylus would get in your way and the control scheme didn't allow for rapid tool switching which the Wii version using the Nunchuk control style allows.

In addition to the better controls/gameplay the Wii version has. It also includes more content, better graphics, more refined tools, and better story overall. The first 5 chapters of the Wii version are more or less same as the DS version with minor changes (improvements) and it also has a chapter 6 as well as alternate doctor story called chapter Z. Also if you complete all 6 chapters and chapter Z than it unlocks the really challenging chapter X.

This is the single Wii launch title that I would recommend to everybody who gets the Wii console in addition to Zelda Twilight Princess. It is just that good and really the only Wii launch title (in addition to Wii Sports) that shows the full potential of the Wii innovative gameplay potential.

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.

Trauma Center Deserves Second Opinion

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

Atlus definately shows its strengths with this launch title. The gameplay, using both the Remote and Nunchuck, make Trauma Center feel fluid to your hands - and they need to be, because as you progress through the storyline, you quickly discover you need the fastest fingers on the planet.
The game begins simple enough, with basic surgery of lacerations and the like, but something gruesome happens in the year 2018, and you need to be quick on your feet and quicker in your hands. You will feel your palms sweat and your body shake as you try to remove the most bizzare and deadly diseases with not a moment to spare save for wiping the sweat from your forehead.
This is no childrens game. By the end, this game will keep you and your onlookers at the edge of their seats, not from the long, winding and enjoyable (I like soaps) storyline, but from the near impossible surgeries that you pull off usually by the skin of your teeth.
A required launch game. Do not rent. Buy.

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.

Now I know why I didn't decide to go through med school after all.... :P

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing this game in "Easy" mode, and I'm surprised by how hard it still is. Even at "Easy," it's really not easy to get more than a grade of C with a number of the oeprations so far. I don't make mistakes with the operations I've done so far, so maybe it's a matter of working faster? I don't know. Anyway--this game isn't fun for me, honestly. Or it's not fun like Wii Sports is--for me personally, this isn't the kind of game that I'd play to unwind and have a good time. This is the kind of game I tend to play when I'm bored and need to give my brain a jump-start. It's challenging--you really have to think and remember back to previous procedures to get through future operations--and that's the main reason why I've stuck with it, even if I've learned that I stink as a surgeon. :P Another reason why I've stuck with it is, it's an interesting idea for a game. As another reviewer pointed out, it's like the board game OPERATION. It's OPERATION for grown-ups, and that's what makes this game cool.

Personally, I think it'd be nice if this game featured a practice area or mini-games of some kind...mini-procedures, maybe, that don't involve the patient dying...that helps players get used to the equipment and basic procedures and prep for the actual operations. As it stands, I tend to rewind a lot when I pop this game into the Wii. I'll sometimes go all the way back to the beginning and keep doing previous operations till I have more of a feel for what I have to do in the next operation that I haven't completed. I guess that's okay enough as a way to review previous procedures, but I'd really prefer some stepping stones of some kind, in the form of mini-games, to help prepare me for future operations.

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