The motion controls of the Wii opened the doors to many new types of games and new ways to play games, as did the DS before it. This was apparant with the release of Trauma Center: Second Opinion; a port of the DS game Trauma Center: Under the Knife, an arcade style surgery game. The Wii version offers improved presentation and a new way to control the game among other things. How does it stand before it's forefather? Is it a port worth owing? Or should it go back to Med School?
The story is about a young surgeon by the name of Derek Styles. He starts the game as a new surgeon at Hope Hospital and eventually joins the medical group known as Caduseus. There he joins the fight against uncurable diseases, the most important being GUILT. GUILT is a man-made disease that turns the victim's body against itself. Obviously this is a big deal and it's up to the player to cure it. The story is played out like a med drama and it's interesting enough to keep you playing, but it can be a little over the top at times. Overall, it has some great moments and well-written.
The gameplay is what makes the game very different. The gameplay segments are the surgeries, obviously, and they are some good old arcade fun. You control using the Wiimote and Nunchuk and you do things using the pointer. You point at what you want to do and use the proper tools to perform the task. You have both a timelimit and a life bar to keep an eye on but the life bar isn't yours, it belongs to the patient. If you mess up or take too long to cover up a problem their vitals will drop and once it reaches zero it's game over. Things start off slow and the game teaches you the proper ways to use each tool and it's all well done. Once you leave Hope Hospital things can get difficult as you'll be fighting GUILT often. The gameplay is simple in theory and the game rewards you the better you perform making replaying missions actually fun once you improve your skills.
Difficulty was a big issue with the DS game and here it's been fixed. There are selectable difficulties and it makes things a lot better. You can replay missions on higher difficulties encouraging you to play through the game on each difficulty. Aside from that, the story is longer than the DS game having an entirely new chapter in the main game and a side chapter that has one stage per main chapter. It's a strangely fun game considering the subject matter and it can still get challenging. It might not play as good as the DS game since the gameplay style was made for the touch screen, but it still works fantastically.
The audio is great though it is a little mixed. The music is fatnastic and very fitting as well as being memorable. The only issue is the voice work, that is to say, there isn't much. The only dialogue in the game consists of short, over-used lines. None of the story is voiced and the only voice clips you'll hear are "Doctor!" and "Begining the operation!". While the voice work gets old quick, the music does not and the quality of music is extremely high here. The operation theme lets you know that you have someone's life in your hands and the boss music would fit right in with music from a Japanese RPG, especially that final boss music.
The visuals are a little dull overall, but they are vastly improved over the DS visuals. The game even got a change in the art style and it looks way better. The story is played out in visual novel style with still portraits and dialogue boxes with plain backdrops. It's dull and, if it wasn't for the writting, it would be very hard to deal with. The gameplay sections are very stylized once the operation is in full motion but before entering the body things are pretty creepy and dull. Everyone looks like a manaquin with no face surrounded by white and if you are operating on a girl, her breasts and face are covered by a white sheet. The GUILT look like classic arcade shooter enemies and it's entertaining to fight them. Overall, it looks okay, better than the DS, but still sorta dull.
PROs
- Fun and challenging arcade-style gameplay
- Entertaining story with some great moments
- Gameplay eases you into it's strange style
- Controls work great
- New art style looks miles better than the original
- More story and stages to play through
- Difficulty select
- Fantastic music
CONs
- Gameplay was made for Touch Screen
- Story is told in a very dry way
- Visuals are dull
- No real voice work
- Voice clips are reused far too often
- Story can be typical anime and that may turn people off
Overall, Trauma Center: Second Opinion is a very fun arcade game with an entertaining story. The storytelling may need some work and the visuals could be better, but the gameplay and music make up for all that here. It's a ton of fun and the music is some of the best JRPG music to not be in a JRPG. Trauma Center: Second Opinion is a fantastic port of a good game. It improved what it needed to and adapted what was important; the gameplay.
Story: 8.0/10
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Audio: 9.0/10
Presentation: 7.5/10
Total = 8.5/10