Trauma Team

I'm mostly a guy that enjoys long bouts of time spent on RPGs. It's just how I roll. Some games may take me longer because I sleep with it on. If there is an RPG that makes me fall asleep after 8 or so hours of play, then that means I'm having fun. To some that would mean that they would be bored. However, there is probably one game thats not an rpg where it's so good I fall asleep to it. That game is Trauma Team on the Wii.

Trauma Team is another entry in the Trauma Center series. TC or Super Surgeon Caduceus as I may believe is called in Japan, is a series of medical simulators. The first one debuting on the DS during it's infancy was relentless. So much so that I cracked in front of my college friends and admitted, "this bitch is hard." Let me reiterate. I cried in front of grown nerds and geeks and college students aloud and said that this bitch is hard. Usually games are playable and beatable and a ton of fun. However, Trauma Center is probably the only game I ever played where I got to the end and the last boss was unbeatable....for real! It's hard enough where your going to fail...alot (LordKat).

The games consist of surgery, that's pretty much it. You cut, your inject, stitch, ultrasound, pick up with forceps, burn with a laser, drain and patch up with gel. In some scenarios, you will have to use these tools outside of the surgery table. Such as dismantling a bomb, or pick lock an alarm. The most important ability to mention is the Healing Touch. Slow down time, invoke painless procedures, or Regen hands. I love this concept as it takes pure concentration to invoke or use the Healing Touch. Also gives you an excuse to tease your girlfriend in letting you use the Healing Touch on her. eh? eh?

In the first game you play as greenhorn Doctor Derek Styles who's not in the right mind set when it comes to his job. He gets paired up with Nurse Angie Thompson who is not really hiding the typical brash aloof personality. Like a bittersweet chocolate, Angie criticizes Derek until later in the game where they get into some sticky situations with the main villain.

Derek and Angie are hired to work at this medical group named Caduceus to fight against a bio terrorism group creating this man made disease known as GUILT. That's right, the same GUILT that I was affected by that money sucking whore who I will call a vampyr. GUILT stands for Gangliated Utrophin Immuno Latency Toxin. That doesn't matter though, your job as the player is to get rid of GUILT. You're the doctor, GUILT is the disease, kill it with antibiotic gel!

Now Trauma Team takes the same premise, but this time you can play as 6 characters each with different personalities and professions. There are 6 fields of medicine that you go through: Surgery with CRS01, a young surgeon who gets arrested for something he thinks he didn't do; First Response, with the fiery boisterous busty bruiser tsundere Maria Torres; Orthopedics, with The Big Guy and superhero costume wearing Hank Freebird; Endoscopy, with the rebellious clan princess complete with a teleporting ninja butler Tomoe Tachibana; Diagnostics, with the smart ass Spike Spiegel/Mugen expy Gabriel Cunningham; Finally, Forensics with Naomi Kimishima who can hear dead people with her purgatory hot line cell phone and mini me Little Guy who solves the cases in a big whodunit. Each character is full of life, humor and a back story that's worth a pilot for a real TV show if they execs in Hollywood weren't so stupid in creativity.

The game has a great storyline that intertwines with each episode as you play it anyway you want. Want to start with CRS01 and go to Tomoe? You can. The Real story however, comes into play when you finish all the episodes from each of the doctors. No posliers (spoilers), an epidemic with something of a rose becomes a key in the main plot in the disease that affects the people in the game. It's very well written with the intentional cheesy dialogue that doesn't detract from having a good time with each of them.

There is are couple of things that I find strange especially when it comes to the art and the dialogue. For a T rated game, Maria sure knows how to cuss. I would like to invoke Getting Crap Past the Radar because with stuff like prick and goddamn staying in the dialogue, man the ESRB was off that day when they let that pass. I love it though. Shows the more raw emotion put in the lines.

The other is in the artwork. Again, I'm sure Maria's attire with a tight skinned tank top and a green-yellow jacket is not exactly doctor material. Plus in the intro to her story, we get a blatant shot of her in shorts and nothing but a towel after she gets out of the shower. (See above pictures in order from Americans hiding cleavage to Shot of Maria to Maria in her "usual attire" to the japanese cover to Maria in nothing but a towel) For that kind of blatant fan service, I give Atlus a salute and Suzaku's Seal of Awesome.

The music is also worth mentioning. At first it became catchy, catchy enough to run in tune with Maria's themes. If it comes off that I'm talking about Maria too much, no I don't dig her that well. I'm just the kind of person that doesn't dig hot blooded people. Each theme pertaining to each doctor has a different feel. Tomoe's feels like Fantastic Voyage in caves and dark corridors. Maria is hot blooded so her themes are intense and the addition to the guitar solo in her Rosalia theme. Gabe aka Dr. McJerkass has a jazzy feel with a much more sinister brooding foreshadow for the things to go bad. Hank has a medley that grows each time your score gets better.

However the detriment is that if you make even one mistake it goes back to 0. Kind of a downer really. CRS01 is toe tappingly addictive that you can do a walking montage in the beat of the theme, I like themes like that. Finally, Naomi has different themes that fit the overall finding the truth behind the dead. However, it is when Rosalia's theme effects the overall emotion of the characters is where it truly shines. Maria is still intense, Gabe is brooding, Hank is strong, Tomoe is sinister (like going to the struggling world) and CRS01 is overall powerful to invoke dread and a final shout out to Rosalia for showing up as the final take on her virus. Sure it seems like a missed moment, but after feeling stressed for most of the game, it felt nice to know that what I did was miraculous. The song that seals the deal is Gonna be Here, the ED of the game. Not only is it a kick ass song that closes this chapter in the series, but it's another one of those Crowning Music of Awesome that people who are modern music buffs will grow to recognize as another reason why Video Game music kicks so much ass, even the struggling pop artists who are flooding the TV airwaves are put to shame. No mainstream artist in the western hemisphere outside of the gaming industry can really top this kind of caliber! Here.

My only gripe with Trauma Team is not the game itself, it's great. It's some people who complain on how it's hard to play the game that they give up without giving it a try...or they watch it on YouTube. Ironic how I was one of those people who discovered it on YouTube. It's not difficult to play with the Wiimote on your dominate hand. I'm a lefty so it was pretty easy to use the forceps, but there was one level where I had to use the nun-chuck to aim the chisel to get rid of some nasty purple stuff on the bones. It shows I'm not exactly accurate or the Wii motion plus needs more tinkering to be completely jitter free. Other than that the gameplay is great.

Overall this game is worth the value considering that most games are 60 to 80 bucks, or I daresay up to over 100 bucks for one stupid game clocking in at 30 bucks now. If blood isn't your thing no matter how fake it is, then rent it. You know what, buy it. If you got a Wii and you love taking tumors out of people, then this is for you. 9 out of 10. Buy it.