I hate medical tests. Health class wasn’t just boring for me back in high school, it made no sense! The interesting little tidbits that I latched onto were never, ever, on the tests. What’s a femur? Don’t the biceps belong in the leg area? What about the location of the ribs? Don’t those belong on a cow or something? How does one pass the necessary classes when it is a painful experience? I don’t know how I passed, but I did. Although I don’t think Trauma Center: Second Opinion would have made my life any easier, it certainly would have made learning everything a lot more interesting.

Trauma Center: Second Opinion continues the adventures of the young doctor, Derek Stiles. He has just finished his internship and graduated from medical school and is now working at the local hospital. He continues to get involved in patients’ lives and, ultimately, combat GUILT (more on that in a bit). And then there’s Nozomi Weaver, who is struggling with what it means to be a doctor after being suspended in Japan.

So yes, the plot is a bit on the thin side, and it can probably be considered “a weak” narrative for various reasons. However, the main lure here is the motif on what it means to be a professional. The struggles daily on what it means to be an ethical doctor, bedside manner, learning the ropes of being a [top] surgeon, personal goals, idealism and how our some of our earliest recollections influence our career choices. It’s a reminder that even doctors struggle with what it means to be “human.”

Gameplay can be considered a surgery stimulator. The odd part is that it has an arcade-like feel to it. Let’s focus on the main gameplay component first. You have eight different surgical tools to help accomplish the goal of the surgery: forceps, salve, scalpel, ultrasound, laser, stiches, magnifying lens, syringe and the drain. Each tool has its own unique purpose and must be used quickly and accurately in order to keep the patient alive.

Here’s how the surgery flows: You usually get briefed by Angie (Derek’s nurse and assistant). After that, the surgery begins. You first have to place salve on the site you’re going to “explore” in order to prevent infection, and then you cut the person open. You fix whatever is wrong, stabilize the patient and stitch the person right back up. You are then scored on how well the surgery went. The first time through, I got several “C” ratings. After some missions were under my belt, my grades slowly rose.

Different levels of difficulty offer additional challenges that the “easy” mode lacks. Instead of having a “simple” procedure, you now have several foreign bodies to remove. And some surgeries are complicated thanks to GUILT. These pesky bug-like creatures literally hide underneath the surface of organs and can wreak havoc with a patient’s pulse. If they are not excised quickly, it’s game over.

As a first-generation Wii game, it controls rather well. You aim at the screen using the Wii-mote and use the nunchuck attachment to choose your instrument. (I tried to get my dog to play the role of nurse, and she just looked at me to say she wanted to be the head surgeon.) Most of the time, the game gives you a fair amount of leeway so you can be a bit off and not make a serious mistake. But like any medical skill, precision is key, and it rewards you for doing so with the highest ranking and the confidence to handle higher difficulties.

Graphically, the game has a nice clean cartoon/anime look to it. The various characters will not really move that much since they are, after all, cartoon cutouts. The surgery mode is much more interesting. The place actually looks like the insides of a human body. There are veins all over the place, organs, polyps, blood clots and more. The main strength is that nothing is really recognizable, nor is the game over-the-top in its blood count. This is perfect for people like me who have trouble dealing with real-life gore.

Sound design wise, everything is a bit ... forgettable. And that’s a shame considering that the music is rather fun to listen to while playing. There’s the perky beat of the general hospital, the fast techno beats of the Caduceus track and the intense “industrial” inspired sounds of surgery. Voice acting is present but only in a limited manner. You’ll only hear it when the two doctors are ready for surgery. Although it isn’t bad, it would have been much better to hear all of the characters speak and fill in the pleasant background music with speech.

Overall, Trauma Center: Second Opinion is a solid Wii game that came out about five years ago. The presentation can be considered subpar by today’s standards, and yet it plays out rather well. While Second Opinion has been dwarfed in popularity by newer installments in the series, it shows the potential from the small DS screen to a major big screen console. That’s what makes this game worthwhile for Wii gamers. And the $12 price tag doesn’t hurt either. Don’t take my opinion for it, decide for yourself if this is something you can “dig” into, excise it from the general game library and transplant it into your own.