Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii)

As fun as playing doctor should be.
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 2

The learning curve for New Blood is steep, but you'll find that surgeries that once drove you nuts become child's play after you gain a few more hours' experience. That's not to say that the game ever becomes easy, however, just that it keeps pace with your growing skills to keep the action challenging right up until the very end.

You can choose to use either Markus or Valerie for each procedure. The operations themselves are identical for each character, so your choice will likely be based on the doctors' use of the Healing Touch, the special gift that makes them such exceptional surgeons. By drawing a star on the screen with the Wii remote -- which can be annoyingly tricky if you've had too much coffee -- Markus can stop time, and Valerie can protect her patient from damage for a brief period during surgery. Choosing the right doctor for a particular procedure can mean the difference between success and failure, especially as the surgeries become more and more complex.

In a truly brilliant move, New Blood supports co-op play, letting you and pal swab, cut and suture your way through any of the surgeries or challenges in the game. Orchestrating your efforts can be a bit awkward -- and leads to more than a little bit of finger-pointing when a patient dies -- but the team play adds immeasurably to the game's overall appeal and replayability.

Trauma Center: New Blood is challenging, even punishing at times, but if you've got the patience to muscle your way up the learning curve, you'll feel like an absolute champ every time you successfully save a life. If you manage to pull off an A-ranking on one of the procedures, you'll probably start thinking you can fly or part seas, or at least add the title of 'Master Healer' to your business cards, and few games can justifiably claim to provide that ratio of effort to reward. There's really nothing else quite like New Blood (well, except for the other Trauma Center title for Wii, that is), and the co-op play makes it particularly irresistible.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.