The Japanese are somewhat notorious for creating game types that no one else in the world would have bothered to think up. Survival Horror, Rhythm Games, Dating Sims; they are all Japanese. Atlus's Trauma Center: Under the Knife marks the creation of a new genre. The Surgery Sim. Yes, you read that correctly. This game is a Surgery Simulation game.
The reaction you are having right now is exactly the reaction I was having when the Atlus rep was walking me through the mechanics of the game. The game works like this: you are a doctor and the touch pad on the Nintendo DS lets you control exactly what you do to your patient. Each patient will have some sort of medical problem, and you will have to choose from a variety of tools to operate on them. You have various kinds of syringes, scalpels, sponges, suction devices, even a medical laser to help your patient get better, and a defibrillator if things go horrible wrong. A friendly nurse will direct you in the proper use of these tools, and as to what your patient will need done to them next. Each surgery is on a timer, and if you take too long bad things will start to happen to your patient. Depending on your performance in the operating room, the events between each surgery game will take either a turn for the worse or a turn for the better. The events that happen in between the surgeries make this game feel sort of like a dating sim crossed with a surgery sim.
Trauma Center makes excellent use of the DS's touch screen and stylus. To cut open a patient, you have to drag the stylus along a series of yellow pixels that outline where your incision is supposed to go. Make too many wrong cuts, and you'll have to waste time repairing the damage you did instead of helping the patient out. Once the incision is made you are transported directly to the area where you'll be operating. This is where things get interesting. The nurse will be telling you want to do, but you'll have to figure out the proper way to use the DS's controls to accomplish this. For example, to use an injection you need to choose a needle then press the needle into the medicine you want to use. Then you must pull the stopper up by pulling the stylus away from the medicine jar. Once the needle is full, you point the stylus at whatever area you want to inject and stroke down with the stylus to make the needle actually inject. The suction device works the same way. You need to stroke upwards to suck the blood and other ickiness out of the way. Most of the tools have multiple steps to use them, which requires you to have a certain level of proficiency to complete some of the harder surgeries.
Luckily, Atlus has the good sense to not make this game completely disgusting. Beyond the initial incision, you wouldn't know that any of this was taking place inside a body if you just picked this game up. Most of the time, you are looking a various red or brown patches that represent blood vessels, muscles and organs. The gore factor is kept to a bare minimum, which should give this game a good chance at coming in at Teen rating instead of a Mature rating.
Trauma Center: Under the Knife will be in stores before Christmas and should retail around $30. It may not sound like everyone's cup of tea, but I greatly enjoyed the time I spent with this game. It made excellent use of the DS platform's unique features and surprised me with its original concept. This was by far one of the best games I saw while I was at E3.
And the TV says to me, "I will eat your children." I look back, and say, "Only if I get to play their games after you're done."
