Developer: Atlus

Publisher: Atlus

Release Date: July 1, 2008

System: Nintendo DS

ESRB Rating: T

Official Web site

0:00 The Wii version of the original game was one of my favorite early games for the system. Here's hoping the controls work as well using the DS stylus.

0:01 Black-and-white scenes of medical offices fly by. Derek Stiles, Angie Thompson, Adel Tulba and Heather Ross are introduced just as quickly. A bird flies over a city. Scenes of incisions, patches and pentagrams. Seems pretty similar to the intro for the original, if I remember correctly.

0:02 I choose the Normal difficulty and am relieved to be told I can change it later. I wish more games had this feature. Then, a warning about this game being a work of fiction. Were there really people who thought this was nonfiction?

0:03 "The Republic of Costigar, Africa... The internal warfare plaguing the people of this country for over a decade has finally come to an end." What a cheery introduction! There are still guerrillas and landmines and such, but the country is finally headed in the right direction. "A doctor named Derek Stiles has come to Zakara, one of Costigar's many refugee camps, to provide medical care to those in need." Hey, that's the guy from the first game!

0:04 Chapter 1: "Doctor in a Foreign Land." Derek is "a surgical prodigy who travels around the world helping patients." Angie is "an elite nurse with an International Nursing License" and "Derek's trusted partner." Insert sexually suggestive interpretation of "trusted partner" here.

0:06 Some guy comes in to tell us about an army dude who was attacked by a wild animal. Derek sends Angie to prep the new patient while he finishes up with another patient.

0:08 A new doctor comes to the camp and is promptly threatened by an armed man in fatigues. She's Adel Tulba, "a young surgeon from Costigar who has just finished medical training." Hmmm... it seems she's actually a he. The long hair and feminine face fooled me.

0:09 Angie finds Adel and rushes her -- sorry, him -- over to the new patient. Dr. Stiles comes, too. There's a lack of medical equipment in the camp, as everyone keeps repeating over and over.

0:10 On to the briefing. The patient is a 28-year-old Caucasian with a fractured left leg and lacerations. He's a "member of a criminal organization that poaches rhinoceroses" who was attacked by crocodile. "I guess what goes around comes around, huh?" So why not just let him die, huh, Dr. Stiles? HUH? Angie reminds the doctors that it's "our obligation" is to help everyone in need. Pfft. Whatever!

0:12 While most of the writing is presented in text, the speakers occasionally pipe up with single words like "Angie!" or "Derek!" It's unsettling.

0:13 Sutures are as easy as drawing a zigzag on the lacerations. I don't know why surgeons get paid so much -- this is easy!

0:14 I find it odd that just injecting some green "stabilizer" directly into a patient's innards seems to be all that's needed to stabilize their "vitals." The patient could be broken and bleeding all over the place, but a bit of green liquid and they're fine, somehow.

0:15 It seems wrong for the game to rank incision skills as "cool." A man's life is at stake, and you're throwing around laudatory slang?

0:16 "Something's not right... There are too many bone fragments." Two of them are crocodile teeth. This is very surprising to all the doctors, but I don't know why. He was bitten by a crocodile, after all.

0:17 Call me a wimp, but bending bones back into place and placing the bone fragments like pieces from a puzzle is enough to make me a little squeamish.

0:18 This antibiotic gel is amazing. It closes up wounds, disinfects small cuts, AND reseals broken bones immediately. Amazing! "The patient is saved! Operation successful." I get a rank of B. I'm a "specialist."

0:20 "Amazing!" Dr. Newbie says over the speakers. He is impressed by my speed and precision. That's what she said. I mean he! I keep forgetting Adel's a man.

0:21 "Epsiode 2: Master Surgeon" begins three years ago. It retells the story of the first game: Dr. Stiles helped stop an evil virus known as GUILT. Back in the present, Adel is in awe of Stiles' impact. Stiles and Angie were attracted to this remote refugee camp by a new virus called "zoonoses." Wait, ZooNoses? Wasn't that a Saturday morning cartoon in the '80s?

0:23 Counselor Sylvia Warenburg arrives to greet the new doctor. She's a counselor at a refugee camp -- a refugee camp counselor. Ha! I crack me up.

0:25 Chapter 2 ends without an operation. I'm left still contemplating what the ZooNoses cartoon was about.

0:26 Chapter 3 is ominously titled "Novice Mistake." Adel tells a guy he has food poisoning. It's his 20th patient of the day. Angie tells Adel to be thorough, but he says "it'd be a hassle." Ominous!

0:28 It wasn't food poisoning! Dr. Tulba gets awoken in the middle of the night to find the guy is back with a bunch of tumors. He has an "acute abdomen." A misdiagnosis! "That can't be," says Adel. Come on, everyone makes mistakes, buddy boy. Stiles tells him to pull it together and get ready to operate, damnit! Tense music and sound effects help add emotion to the static pictures.

0:30 On to the operation, small tumors in the large intestine.

0:32 I burn the tumors with a laser, then drain the blood and use the magic gel to close up the tumor holes. Yay, magic gel!

0:33 For the bigger tumors, I need to ultrasound, cut the intestines open, drain the blood, remove the tumor, place a synthetic membrane, then magic gel. Remembering all this stuff is gonna be the hardest part, if it's anything like the Wii game. Stylus controls are more precise than the Wii remote controls, so far.

0:36 Two annoyances: Placing the synthetic membrane accurately is harder than it should be, and it's hard to remember which icon is which surgical tool. The nurse used to give helpful voice reminders for which instrument to use, but they're gone already.

0:37 Adel pops in after the operation. "This is all my fault! I'm such a fool." Cry me a river, doctor. You'd never last five seconds on "Scrubs."

0:38 Cue the swelling violin music: "Adel... Doctors are human too. There are times when we make mistakes," says Derek. Touching -- and true!

0:39 Y'know, I think ZooNoses involved a team of five teenagers who had magical, detachable noses that transformed them into super-powered animals.

0:40 "Chapter 4: Hidden Peril" starts with a lot of administrative busy work. Really. We get to peer in on Sylvia picking up candy for the kids and Angie writing a report back to the states. YAWN!

0:42 Sylvia's in critical condition. She got hit by a landmine when going to get sweets for the little children. NOOOOOO! WHYYYYYYY?

0:43 Sylvia has fractured ribs and abdominal hemorrhaging. Ick.

0:44 Sylvia immediately goes into cardiac arrest! I have to defibrillate her with good timing. Heady!

0:45 "The medical board will be notified" because I lost the patient. The game wouldn't let me suture closed the big wound. Am I doing something wrong? "A few days later, Derek Stiles left Camp Zakaria... alone. Not even the gifted surgeon of Cadaceus could bear the harsh realities of this foreign land." Ouch! But wait, I thought every doctor made mistakes, and that this was OK. Guess not.

0:47 The sutures work on the open wound this time. Seems I did something wrong last time, but I have no idea what it was.

0:48 I finish up removing and placing the bone, but there aren't enough pieces. Suddenly, a piece of bone THRUSTS UP from the abdomen and into my face. Yuck!

0:49 Pulling out this last bone fragment is tough. It takes a very steady hand. Luckily, I have the magic green revitalizing syringe to correct for my mistakes. Sylvia is saved!

0:50 "That was truly amazing," Angie coos as I close Sylvia up. That's what she said. Bulls-eye! BOOYAH!

0:51 Sylvia asks: "Angie... am I... alive?" If I said no, what would you say?

0:52 "Chapter 5: Civil War." The new doctor and Mr. Military Fatigues argue about the country's tribal conflict. The writing's a little juvenile, but not as awful as it could be. I know, high standards, right?

0:53 Gunfire. "We're under attack!" Time for the first-person shooter mini-game? Nope. Some people get wounded and I have to help them.

0:55 I'm extracting a bullet from the heart. Aren't bullets to the heart usually, um, lethal?

0:57 Wow, the most thrilling bit yet. The patient goes into arrest as I remove the last bit of the bullet from his heart. The defib would hurt him, so I have to move REALLY QUICK to get the last bullet out before reviving him. I finish up with the patient at a mere two percent vitality. Thrilling!

0:58 Operation complete. Another B.

0:59 Summary of the last minute's worth of text: Dr. Tulba did five operations in a row. There are child soldiers that are hurt. War is sad.

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.


Why? Good controls, decent writing and the relatively unique concept of helping people rather than killing them.

This column was based on an early preview build provided by the publisher.

Want to know more about Games for Lunch? Check out the FAQ here.

For more Games for Lunch, visit the official GfL blog.