Lifesigns: Surgical Unit – NDS – Review

Leave it to the
Japanese to introduce games that have you either playing the role of a defense
attorney, a trauma center surgeon or even a farmer and actually make these
occupations entertaining. While we’ve played the role of a physician that is
more than capable in the operating room with Trauma Center: Under the Knife,
DreamCatcher’s Lifesigns: Surgical Unit for the Nintendo DS places you in the
role of a younger doctor who must juggle his duties as a second-year surgical
intern with his own personal life problems that make this an interesting DS
title.

You assume the
role of Tendo Dokuta, who is interning at Seimei Medical University hospital that
just so happens to be headed by the man that turns out to be his actual birth
father. Of course, Tendo doesn’t quite want to recognize Professor Sawai and
hesitates when Sawai offers him a part in his clinical trial of a new medication
he created. On top of that, he has a crush on his mentor, the lovely and
talented surgical chief Dr. Suzu Aso. When it comes to his duties, though, Tendo
is all business and we guide him through a number of medical scenarios that
range from the ordinary to the more complex medical cases.

The game begins
with Tendo dreaming that he went out on a date with Dr. Aso when every member of
the hospital’s staff starts showing up to ruin the fantasy. It’s a reminder that
Tendo is always on duty in the hospital … in fact; he even sleeps in one of the
empty staff rooms. He wakes to a charge nurse telling him that he has a patient
waiting for him. Your first step is to talk to the patient to assess the
patient’s symptoms and make a diagnosis based on that. The first patient you
encounter suffers from a sharp pain in the stomach and Tendo immediately begins
to suspect that it might be appendicitis. Your next step should be examination,
a process that has you actually physically touching your patient. There are
icons that appear on the upper screen that represents a stethoscope and a hand
icon you use to tap the area on the body that hurts.

From there you
will order a blood examination as well as order x-rays you can view. Reviewing
x-rays require you to use your Stylus to circle the area that doesn’t seem
normal. At this point in the game, Lifesigns does a great job of re-enacting the
usual pre-op procedures that have you talking to charge nurses, setting up a
schedule with the rude anesthesiologist and speaking with family members. Even
as a second year intern, you will be the one to perform the operation. Much like
Trauma Center, you use the Stylus to make incisions, transport tissue, cauterize
the opening and then perform Tendo’s specialty … suturing.

Operations are
timed and under the supervision of your mentor but when it comes to making
incisions, Tendo has the ability to actually see where to make the right cut by
pressing and holding the L and R shoulder buttons. Of course, concentrating
wastes time and you can only make a few bad surgical decisions before you
endanger the life of you patient. The best part is that each of the 11 or so
cases you’ll see to offer their own challenges. You’ll encounter patients that
require different treatments from the emergency case to a terminal patient.

The weakest
aspect of the game happens to be sorting through Tendo’s non-medical related
business. It’s great that we get a break from the medical drama but the
background story behind Tendo’s life just isn’t too interesting. Mainly,
conversations are handled by way of a selection of icons that represent topics
of conversation you can pick by tapping the icons. The only good part about
Tendo’s relationships is the mini games because they’re actually pretty fun. The
day you meet your fellow internist you push her aside as a truck comes barreling
down spilling rolling fruit you can catch by tapping it with the Stylus. There
are five mini games in total and they’re actually fun distractions.

Graphically
speaking, Lifesigns actually resembles a good manga (Japanese comic book) and
that’s not a bad thing at all. There are no animated cut scenes, per se, but
there are enough animations to convey emotions. The colorful character models
and backgrounds look good but it’s the operations that will have you looking at
internal organs up close. There’s also a decent soundtrack but it does tend to
get way repetitive too quickly. This is too bad, really, since there is no voice
acting. At least the sound effects are decent enough.

Lifesigns:
Surgical Unit for the Nintendo DS is an enjoyable game that makes playing a
medical intern a treat. While it doesn’t get as inventive or amazing as Trauma
Center, Surgical Unit is still able to provide a number of interesting surgical
scenarios that are a lot more fun than they sound. Much like the Phoenix Wright
games make being a lawyer fun, Lifesigns is education at its most addictively
pleasing. Really, this is a ‘Must Have’ for anyone willing to give this genre a
try.

Review Scoring Details for Lifesigns: Surgical Unit

Gameplay: 7.5
Lifesigns
makes good use of the touch screen during operations and the diagnostic legwork
is actually pretty fun. What doesn’t work is the back-and-forth medical
procedural aspect of the game that has you making unnecessary turns to the
meeting room; and Tendo’s personal life isn’t as interesting as it could have
been.

Graphics: 7.5
The game’s
visuals look like a good color Japanese manga and the artwork is very effective
during surgeries. There are a few animations but the ones there are look good.

Sound: 6.0
There’s a
decent soundtrack but it gets repetitive after a while but not to the point that you
won’t be able to stand it. There are also some Ok sound effects and that’s about
it because there are no voice clips.

Difficulty:
Medium
Fortunately,
you’re able to “see” incisions before you can make them but there’s a timer and,
like in real life, you can’t make a lot of mistakes before losing a patient on
the operating table. Later in the game the operations become more complex and
harder but not enough that you’ll break a sweat.

Concept: 7.5
Forget the
drama that surrounds Tendo’s life, the real meat of the game is in going through
all the usual motions that start with a patient diagnosis to jumping into the
operating room with Stylus in hand ready to make the first incision. You can
always replay each operation or any of the five mini games that appear in the
game’s main story mode.

Overall: 7.5
Lifesigns for
the Nintendo DS is a deep and involving virtual medical drama that might not be
as endearing as Trauma Center but it is still a DS game well worth playing. The
soap opera that is your character’s life is a nice touch but distracts from the
game’s best elements, which are the operations. You don’t want to miss this one
if you like the genre.