A very good game, which makes good use out of the Wii's controller, but it is a short game.
About one year later, Nintendo relased a new home console called the Wii. Like the DS, the Wii has a new way to play games. It has a controller with motion sensors, so that the game developers can use it for many different functions. Atlus decided to support the Wii, and has made Trauma Center: Second Opinion. This game was basically a port of the original game. However, Atlus has improved the graphics, added new abilities to the game, and have made a few new operations, which expand on the original game's story. This may not be a new game, but it does a good job at fitting the old game for the Wii, and improving some aspects of it.
I unfortunately have never played the original game, so if you have played it and are looking for a review to decide whether this game is worth purchasing, you might want to look for a different review. This is a review for people who have never played the original game, and want to know if it is worth the purchase.
Story:
As stated earlier, this game is about a doctor, named Derek Siles. Derek is a doctor in the future, who has to fight an unknown disease, which is revealed to be called G.U.I.L.T. Derek Stiles is not the most professional doctor in the world, always slacking off, and often coming in late. However, he is a doctor with a lot of potential. In fact, he has certain abilities which make him a very skilled doctor. I don't want to spoil too much about the story.
It is a pretty good story. It has some of the typical medical drama stories, with a big anime influence. Because of this, there are some really cliche elements to the story, but overall, the story is not bad.
Graphics:
The graphics in this game are not technically great. It doesn't use the full power of the Wii. In fact, it doesn't even come close to being great from a technical sense. However, in this game, it doesn't matter. In fact, I would say that it is a good thing, because I honestly don't think I would want to do operations on people in a game with realistic graphics. It would just be too disgusting.
Instead of being good in a technical sense, the game has taken a more artistic route when doing the graphics. This game uses an anime style. This style fits well with the story, and I personally think that it looks really nice.
Controls:
Now more than ever, with the Wii, there is a need to review the controls of games. Bad controls can easily ruin an otherwise good game, while good controls can make otherwise below average games better than they would have been before (although not great).
This game, like the original, is a very unique game, which you can't do on other consoles. It takes full use of the motion sensors of the controler. It also uses the Nunchuck attachment. In the lower left hand corner of the screen, it shows the different tools that you can use in the game. There are eight spaces for those tools. You use that to choose the different tools, by moving the analogue stick in a different direction. These tools do different things, like using the scalpel. You control these by pointing to different parts of the screen and pressing certain buttons.
For the scalpel, you point at the area which needs to be cut (shown as a yellow dotted line), pressing the A button, and trying to make as straight of a line as possible along the dotted line.
For the forceps, you point at the part of the screen that you want to use them on, and press both the A and B button. This makes it feel a lot like you are actually using tweezers, which really adds to the experience.
For the stitches, you point at the place where you want to use it on, and do a zig-zag with the controller so that it closes up the wounds.
These are just a few of the controls for tools in the game. There are more, most of which are just pointing and pressing a button. The pointer in this game is great. It hardly ever messes up. The only other pointer in a game that I've played which was as great as this is was Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
There are some other aspects of the motion control wich is explored in the game, like the ability to actually twist the controller to twist the tools in the game (but you are only allowed to do this in certain opperations.). Overall, the controls are very well done. This is a great game to play if you want to test out what the Wii's controller can do.
Gamplay:
Gameplay is another aspect of the game that is very good. There are different opperations that you do throught the game. The opperations are very different, with different focuses in the opperations. Some of them focus on the actual medical part of the gameplay. Some focus on the speed and accuracy that you do the opperations. Some are more like puzzles.
The majority of the opperations have to be completed in five minutes or less. However, there are some harder opperations which are done in ten minutes, and some practice opperations where you are given as much time as you need.
The gameplay is very fun, and is very different from any other game that I have ever played before.
However, one of my complaints of the game is that it is very short, despite the new opperations. I was able to complete the game in about a week. Because of this, you might want to pick it up at a lower price if you can. However, it is still worth playing, and if you want to perfect your skills, and get the best rank for every opperation, then you will get more out of the game.
Replay value:
Replay value for this game is going to be different for different people. This game has different rankings for the different opperations. It also has different difficulty levels. And after you beat the game, there are new opperations which are unlocked, which are extremely difficult. If you are the kind of person who likes to become the best at every game you play, then the replay value will be high because of this. However, if you are not that kind of person, then you will not get much replay value out of this game. Once you are done with the game, then that is it. There really is nothing else to do besides improving your skills.
Overall:
This is a very good game for the Wii. But it won't last you a very long time, unless if you are a perfectionist. Whether you are or not, this game is a game that you shouldn't miss out on them, even if you get it for a cheaper price than most stores are selling it for. It does a great job at showing off the Wii's motion sensor technology, and showing how it can make new kinds of games that you couldn't play on other consoles (unless if you get a DS).