Ah, Trauma Team for the Nintendo Wii. The game is actually the third Trauma Center game for the console, but is oft-overlooked for whatever reason. Maybe it was considered too hard? I sure didn't find many problems with the difficulty curve(then again, I always play on Easy *gets shot*....hey! I actually cleared some of the X missions, okay?).
Eschewing Dr. Derek Stiles and the fantastical boss GUILT viruses for the first time, Trauma Team takes a more serious and real-world look into the world of medicine, dividing the game into six possible fields, each played out by a different doctor. How this adds up to overall story progression will be interesting...as there's no climax to work to with the absence of killer manmade viruses.
The six fields are, surgery(that's what we've been playing all this time), emergency medical technician, endoscopy, orthopaedics, diagnostician, and forensics.
Surgery is standard fare, suturing wounds, picking out glass shards and draining tumors should be instantly familiar to fans of the series. The big change here is the removal of the time limit, so you can operate as long as you want. Really frees up the developers' creativity to include longer, more complicated procedures that can't be done in 5 minutes....how do people finish a surgery in just 5 minutes anyway? Dr. Stiles =/= logic.
Endoscopy is inspecting the insides of the body with a long tube and a camera attached at the end to inspect blood vessels and stuff for damage. One of the more precise and delicate fields to work in, as simply driving the tube into the body requires a certain degree of care. Hit the inner body walls and patients' vitals go down.
Orthopedics is the treatment of bones, basically. To put bones back in their rightful places requires more than just magic antibiotic gel, you know (although that stuff still exists in this game). You'll need to drill holes in bones, attach metal plates and screw them in to keep the bones upright. More minigame-y, this one.
Forensics is like the job of CSI, inspect dead bodies or put them back together to find out the cause of death. Sounds very promising and I'm sure TV show fans will love this field. For series diehards, the doctor leading this field is Naomi Kimishima, from Trauma Center: Second Opinion. Wonder what she's doing here? Probably still atoning for all that GUILT work she did. Is her Healing Touch going to be here too? Based on the field she's working in, probably not necessary anyway.
Energency medical technicians are the first to arrive at the scene, say a car accident, and give first aid to help the patient pull through before he receives proper medical attention. Will we be doing CPR? This could've been done on the DS where there's a built in mic for that purpose. The doctor here is a young upstart, perfect for setting the tense atmosphere.
Okay maybe it's just me but I found this diagnosis thing quite daunting. Not because you get to touch the chest areas of certain patients, but the open-ended-ness of it all. You carry out all the tests, observe the patients closely, and then come to a conclusion of what illness or something or other the patient has. Lots of menu navigating to do, unlike the other fields.
It's more leaning towards simulation of being a doctor than being just able to kill off viruses that could pass off as your average regular game boss(albeit in a unique setting), so it's a large change in pace if you've played a Trauma Center game before. Still, a ton to look forward to, and the release date is upon us, May 18th this year. Don't forget it~
