Lifesigns: Surgical Unit

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.

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.