PEL review: Trauma Center UTK

Phoenix: How does it look doctor?

Larry: Not so good Nurse Nick… no good at all…

Phoenix: We have to do something to save him!

Larry: I know…

Phoenix: How did a prosecutor get this fatal disease anyway?!

Larry: That’s the bigger mystery here. Okay, I’ll just have to open him up and-

Phoenix: It’s impossible! Nobody can cure this disease!

Larry: Nothing is impossible Nurse Nick! Prepare my tools!

Phoenix: Yes sir, Dr. Butz!

Larry: Okay. Begin the operation!

Edgeworth: I would never in a million years even think of letting you operate on me!

*A wave effect comes across the screen representing being brought back to reality*

Edgeworth: This story is absolute nonsense Larry!

Larry: Oh come on Edgy! Use SOME imagination!

Phoenix: Why was I a nurse?

Larry: Why not? It’s a guy’s job too Nick.

Phoenix: That’s not what I meant. I just thought you’d be the kind to have only female nurses in your fantasies Larry.

Larry: … they all reject me…

Phoenix: Even in his fantasies?

Edgeworth: Can we stop with this madness and get this review over with please?

Larry: Another game review?

Phoenix: Yes, but this time it’s going to be a review of a Nintendo DS game. So it’s territory we’re familiar with. Today we’ll be reviewing: Trauma Center Under the Knife.

Larry: Heheh, people from a lawyer simulator reviewing a doctor simulator. Makes you think ey?

Edgeworth: … about what exactly?

Phoenix: Ignore him Edgeworth. Now personally I really enjoyed this game. I played it for hours on end; you should have seen the fit Maya had because I used up so much of her DS’ battery.

Edgeworth: It was enjoyable, and the way they managed to tie in the medical world with a puzzle game is very well done.

Larry: And it has an anime feel to it, which is awesome!

Phoenix: Okay, let’s start with the story as it drives the gameplay. In this game you step into the shoes of Dr. Derek… why does it say Skittles here?

Edgeworth: “Skittles”? Surely it says “Stiles”?

Phoenix: No take a look *hands character profile to Edgeworth* see?

Edgeworth: Hmmm… someone has crossed out Stiles and has put “Skittles” in its place. Someone with very bad handwriting.

Phoenix: …

Edgeworth: …

Larry: … what?! Don’t look at me! I didn’t do it!

Phoenix: Whatever. As I was saying, you step into the shoes of Dr. Derek Stiles, a surgeon fresh out of medical school.

Larry: Kinda like people did with you in our first game Nick.

Phoenix: There’s a big difference between being a doctor and being a lawyer Larry.

Edgeworth: The story follows Dr. Stiles as he discovers he has a mysterious ability known as the ‘Healing Touch’ that allows him to move incredibly fast during operations. He also discovers a strange virus called ‘GUILT’ that turns the human body against itself, killing the people that catch it.

Larry: And I thought the plot of our games was strange…

Phoenix: This plot has a very anime-like feel to it, but then again so does the whole game in general. But the story itself is really good. It starts off slow but quickly begins to pick up. It has some great characters that you’ll love –

Larry: Like Angie… *drools*

Phoenix: *sigh* Some characters don’t get as much development as they should, resulting in some of the plot-twists being quite anti-dramatic, but that’s not a big issue.

Edgeworth: There are also some scenes that can be quite emotional, even with the game’s lack of voice acting.

Larry: Some of them nearly brought me to tears…

Phoenix: Er…

Edgeworth: Umm…

Larry: What?!

Phoenix: They weren’t THAT emotional…

Larry: Come on guys, don’t be so up tight!

Phoenix: I’m not, there have been plenty of moment where I’ve actually been brought to tears by the media, but I just don’t think the emotional scenes in this game are THAT emotional…

Edgeworth: I’m not the type to cry myself.

Larry: You cried watching City of Angels!

Edgeworth: T-that’s not true! I merely had something in my eye!

Larry: Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight…

Edgeworth: Grr… I hate you… so much…

Phoenix: Er… moving on… Overall I’ll give this game’s plot a nine out of ten. It’s a very good plot, but as I mentioned before some characters don’t get as much development as they should, and sometimes it moves quite fast, making it hard to keep up with. Maybe I was just being slow, but that’s what I felt.

Larry: I’d give it a ten myself.

Phoenix: Only because of Angie Thompson…

Larry:

Edgeworth: I’d only give it an eight myself.

Phoenix: Why’s that?

Edgeworth: Well for the reason you said as well Wright, but I also felt that sometimes there was too much plot. There are times when there’s just a wall of text.

Phoenix: Strange coming from you. I always thought you’d be the kind to choose reading over video games Edgeworth.

Edgeworth: Don’t mistake me, I am. I just feel that sometimes people might just want to get onto the operation.

Phoenix: That’s a fair point, but we can’t really complain about that. Sometimes our games just go on and on with the text during the investigation sections, even more-so then this game does. They’ve given the game a deep plot to appeal to those who like stories in games and don’t mind a bit of reading.

Edgeworth: Fine, give it a nine if you must…

Phoenix: Now gameplay. As Edgeworth mentioned before, this is a puzzle game. In most “episodes” you’ll be give a patient with an illness for you to operate on.

Edgeworth: Well that’s only for the first quarter of the game.

Larry: Yeah, the rest of the time you’re operating on GUILT victims.

Phoenix: Not all the time…

Edgeworth: Anyway, you use the DS’ touch screen to perform operations. Using the stylus you have access to ten doctor’s tools. You can select each by tapping on them, and then you either click or drag the stylus over the screen in order to use the selected tool.

Larry: The tools you have access to include:
- The laser – Used to zap things.
- Antibiotic gel – To heal small wounds and stop bleeding.
- The drain – Used for removing fluid.
- Forceps – To pick up stuff.
- The hand – To apply things or massage things.
- The scanner – Used to find hidden things and zoom in.
- The scalpel – To make incisions and remove tumours.
- Stitches – To close up big wounds.
- A syringe – To inject medication.
- Bandages – Used right at the end of the operation to keep the wound closed.

Edgeworth: That’s a simple way of putting it.

Phoenix: And by double tapping the ‘hand’ option you get access to Dr. Stiles’ ‘Healing Touch’ ability. You have to draw a star using your stylus and time will slow down for a few moments; however you can only use this once during an operation.

Larry: The operations are awesome, even for a squeamish guy like me! You basically have to cut people open and either remove a tumour, glass or something else from their body, and then heal up the wounded area, then close them up.

Edgeworth: As Larry mentioned before though, most of the time you’ll be removing a GUILT tumour.

Phoenix: While that’s true, removing GUILT isn’t like remove a regular tumour. There are many different strands of it, each with its own individual way of being removed.

Edgeworth: That’s a fair point, but there are only seven strands total, meaning you will have to remove some multiple times.

Phoenix: I’ll admit that, it can get a bit repetitive at times.

Larry: And some of the operations are incredibly hard if you don’t know what to do. What’s worse is that you have a time limit, and if that wasn’t bad enough you have to keep the patient’s vital signs up.

Phoenix: I kind of like that feature, it made it seem more realistic.

Edgeworth: As did I.

Larry: Yeah, but sometimes their vitals get critical and you have to waste precious time getting them up.

Phoenix: That can be annoying…

Edgeworth: But it is a minor thing at the end of the day.

Phoenix: I say we give gameplay an eight, knocking off two points due to repetitiveness and some operations being extremely tricky the first few times you play them.

Edgeworth: I don’t think that’s such a big issue either, it adds to the game’s challenge. You wouldn’t want all the operations to be easy would you?

Phoenix: That’s true, but they can still be annoying.

Larry: Graphics! Now, like with our games everything was done in 2D and with sprites.

Phoenix: True, but the detail on the backgrounds and sprites is very well done.

Larry: I didn’t say it was a bad thing. It’s better then trying to do 3D on the DS, which hardly ever works.

Phoenix: I know, most 3D games I’ve seen on the DS look very… not good…

Edgeworth: Getting back on to the topic of Trauma Center’s graphics. The 2D sprite parts are only where the cutscenes are concerned. During the operations the game goes 3D. I must say, for DS 3D this is very good.

Phoenix: Yeah, the bodies, the organs, the effects when you use the tools or when GUILT strikes, it’s all very well done.

Larry: What do you say guys? Ten?

Phoenix: Well, I’d only give it a nine myself. While the 3D stuff during the operations is good and the detail on the sprites and backgrounds is good, the sprites themselves aren’t animated, they just seem like cardboard cut-outs.

Edgeworth: I’d get rid of another point due to the same backgrounds being used multiple times.

Phoenix: But that happens in our games as well.

Edgeworth: Also, like in our games, the English version is supposed to take place in America-

Larry: Lousy Americanization…

Edgeworth: However, unlike with our games, the Japanese text isn’t removed from some of the backgrounds. I also notice some cases where cars are driving on the left.

Phoenix: Ah, I see. I’ll agree, I think they got a bit lazy there. So for graphics we give it an eight. But hey, that’s still a high score.

Edgeworth: Onto music. Now personally not all of it was my taste, but there were some tracks I liked.

Larry: I thought the music was epic!

Phoenix: I thought the music was good. However they do use the same tracks over and over again, no matter what the situation.

Larry: We can’t really complain about that Nick. Our games do that too.

Phoenix: The only time our games really do that is for the courtroom sections.

Larry: Fine, but it’s still worth a nine isn’t it?

Phoenix: Yeah, I guess.

Larry: Voice acting… there wasn’t a lot of it…

Edgeworth: No there wasn’t. The only time you really hear any voice acting is during the operations, from the people assisting you.

Phoenix: And even then it’s just single lines like “Let’s begin” or “Doctor!”

Edgeworth: Though we can’t complain about that. The only spoken lines we have in our games are “OBJECTION!” “HOLD IT!” “TAKE THAT!” and the newest addition: “GOTCHA!”

Larry: But the voices do suit the characters right? Angie has a real sexy voice… mmmm…

Phoenix: Yeah that’s true. But I’ll still slap a five onto this; however I think we can say this score is out of five.

Larry: Good call.

Edgeworth: So in summation:
- Story: 9
Pro: A great plot with great characters.
Con: Some characters don’t get as much development as they should. The plot can move too quickly sometimes.

- Gameplay: 8
Pro: Takes good advantage of the DS’ touch screen. A clever way of mixing the medical world with a puzzle game.
Con: Some repetitiveness and tricky operations.

- Graphics: 8
Pro: Good mix of 2D and 3D.
Con: Lack of animation on sprites. Backgrounds not translated in English version.

- Music: 9
Pro: Some great tracks. Suits the game well.
Con: Repetitive use of some tracks.

- Voice acting: 5 (out of 5)
Pro: Voices suit the characters quite well.
Con: Only single lines.

- Overall score: 8.5
A game you should really get for your DS if you like puzzle games or simulator games and don’t mind a bit of reading.

Larry: Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find myself some Angie Thompson hentai…

Phoenix: That’s… just… wrong…

Edgeworth: Oh come off it Wright. I’ve seen what you keep in between those legal books on your book shelf.

Phoenix: Those aren’t mine!

Edgeworth: Larry’s never seen Azumanga Daioh, he wouldn’t know who Sakaki is…

Phoenix: OBJECTION!