I am not a very medically minded person. In high school, I had the hardest time keeping all of the bones and muscles that are in the body straight. Femur? What’s that? Do I even have one? It might be in my leg ...? Yes, I am that bad. Even in my nutrition class in college, I always remembered the odd stuff and never the items that were on the test. With this in mind, I present to you Trauma Team for the Wii.

Aram Jabbari, one of Atlus’ public relations folks, was kind enough to showcase a quick demo of the game. There is more to Trauma Team than the traditional surgery that the Trauma Center series is known for. Each of the six characters has their own specialty. What I saw was an endoscopy level.

In the endoscopy level, Aram used the Wii-mote to move forward by holding down the A and B buttons and moving the Wii-mote forward. As he approached a problem, such as an ulcer, there was a little symbol on top of the infected area. (The icon will disappear when the player moves up from the default difficulty.) This little addition is meant to make the game more intuitive than its predecessors. You no longer have to guess what instrument is necessary. Plus, there is a radar function in the upper right-hand corner to tell you what problems are near you. However, you have to be just as precise as in the previous games.

For example, there was one moment when Aram had to move the endoscope through a moving cell wall. If he didn’t time it correctly, he could have injured the patient. If you make too many mistakes, the patient’s vitals will go down. Or your score will be lower than want. There are rewards to playing well, but information surrounding it will be released at a later date. So there is some incentive to play well besides healing the sick.

Trauma Team looks great. The cell walls are clearly defined, and the crosshair for the endoscope was constantly visible. Lighting also seems to be done well as the area in the lamp was visible and other problems were faintly made out. The instrument ring is clearly visible when necessary. Little tutorials appear the first time an action is performed.

Overall, Trauma Team seems to be shaping up nicely. Especially since co-op mode is available in most forms of surgery. How well this will work is unknown at this time. More information will be released as the game nears completion. Trauma Team will be released this spring for the Nintendo Wii. For more information, visit www.atlus.com/traumateam/.