Operation might appeal to your nostalgia cortex, but you might want to get that treated before you spend too much time playing this game. Although it does as good a job as possible of simulating the classic board game of the same name, it's made quite apparent that the most thrilling thing about the original are the two things noticeably missing from the mobile version: the way it feels to descend upon the body with an actual pair of tweezers in your hand and the jolting noise of the buzzer when you fail. You're better off leaving your pleasant memories of Operation alone, rather than tainting them by playing this game.
In Operation, you work your way through four hospitals, operating on patients in each one. But you'll only find Cavity Sam, the popular mop-topped character from the board game, in the first hospital. In each hospital, you must cure four ailments on four people before earning enough money to progress. As with the board game, the ailments are puns on actual human body parts, and not often something that you want removed in the first place, such as the Adam's apple or eardrum. Understandably, having doctors, especially those who are 5 years old and up, remove a cute little wishbone is easier than having to remove a blackened tumor or cancer tissue. However, future surgeons should note that, generally, having a wind pipe is a good thing.
After selecting which of the four body parts you want to remove, you are brought to the operating screen. Operation is done from a side view of the body. You must control tweezers by descending them through a hole at the top of the screen and navigating them around randomly placed "walls" within the body. Inside the body, you will find two types of germs, patrolling or stationary, expanding ones, which you must maneuver around as well in order to successfully operate. You must bypass the obstacles, pick up the objective, and return out the hole in the top before the operation is finished. This all works, and is true to the license, but it never manages to be that much fun. The challenge does ramp up, as you're given more-narrow pathways and more germs to navigate your way around. There's even a more difficult mode, called Code Red, where you must operate within a certain time limit, and some of those objectives are quite challenging. Ultimately, though, the game doesn't capture the excitement of the original with the same efficacy. This is the type of game that loses something important when converted to a video game, no matter how well it replicates the original.
Operation can be played either alone or with up to eight friends in pass-and-play multiplayer. The objective in multiplayer is to earn the most money before losing by running out of malpractice lawsuit-insurance policies (of which you get five to start, in both single and multiplayer). Although the ability to compete is nice, it doesn't offer the same satisfaction as it did in the board game, when your friends would witness your horrible failure via the honking buzzer that would emit from Cavity Sam's nose.
The game's presentation is fairly well done. It's true to the original and converted well to the mobile format. The music does get a little repetitive, as it plays throughout the entire game, and the lack of the aforementioned sound of the classic Operation buzzer is quite apparent. Neither the graphics nor the sounds are much to speak of, but they are both adequate. Instead, it's the gameplay that really falls short. It's ultimately too simple and lacks the soul of the original game. If you're an Operation fanatic, you might enjoy the memories, or you might just be disappointed. You're probably better off heading into the attic and pulling out the board game instead of attempting to relive your youth with Operation for mobile.
