Nintendo seem to have plundered a rich vein in work related simulation games in recent times, what with the Ace Attorney series of lawyer sims, various vet/ animal hospital games for the NDS and various cookery based games (Cooking Mama? Diner Dash?). Now you too can perform heart surgery in your living room with your wii mote. Huzzah!
It would be a little unfair to this game to think this is going to be dull (work is!) but this is genuinely tremendous fun! Unlike the NDS version you can use the nunchuk to select your surgical implement whilst waving your nunchuk to disinfect, make incisions, remove tumours, stitch 'em up and bandage them. Each case is a contained mini game which feels just right in terms of length, and also in terms of the story to action ratio. The Wii mote is responsive and easy to use and pretty soon you'll be chopping away with wild abandon. The graphics are at the right level too, clean and of a level you'd expect from the Wii (as opposed to more basic consoles) but not ridiculously gory - you're not going to be paddling through lakes of blood.
The story is... special. It truly is like an episode of Garth Marenghi (an 80s medical drama/ horror piss take). It's cheesy, grand, set variously to reassuring piano intonations, German techno music and large faux- orchestral swooping soundtracks (at no point do you ever get into a German techno club incidently - just in case you were worried). It's got all the stupid appeal of the first Predator movie; a plot designed purely to allow as much gory action as possible.
So would I recommend this game? Despite spending about five nights in a row playing it... nope. For a start, I've nearly finished it after 9 hours on the saved time. If it takes 15 hours in the end (really unlikely), thats £3 an hour, which is ridiculous. It can also be incredibly, INCREDIBLY frustrating when you keep getting stuck at one level and even on easy you're getting wiped out.
Despite this, if you ever did harbour secret desires to open people up and start poking about, on your way to your local mental health hospital, pick up a copy of this.
Basics:
* 6 episodes plus a bonus side plot episode
* Approx 12 hours gameplay
* Use scalpel, ultrasound, forceps, lasers, sutures and suction on your patients as you perform approx 30 surgeries.
Graphics: 8 - Respectable - clean and non- gory.
Scripting: 4 - Well it was that or a 10. Hilariously poor!
Gameplay: 8.5 - This can definitely be too hard to the point of immense frustration even on easy level. This depends on the gamer - the persistent types will love it when they finally nail an operation but those with shorter attention spans are going to be annoyed.
Music: 4 - see Scripting!!
