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Nintendo’s Wii has, quite inevitably, been cited as an
extension of the NintendoDS’s unique gaming aperture. With the
NintendoDS’s initial release lull, consisting of many
Mini-Game-based and shoehorned Platform titles, there was a tangible
sense of fear that Wii would suffer the same drought. While
Nintendo’s latest home console seems to be keeping its
head-above-water, buoyed by long-term interest releases such as
The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess and
Call Of Duty 3,
the second wave of software is expected to disappoint.
The unique nature of Wii’s Control System is going to
take developers some time to get used to, and so, with the ease of
simply placating NintendoDS hits onto Wii, the new fear is not that
of forcing PlayStation3/Xbox360-shaped software into a Wii-shaped
hole, but that of simply drag-and-dropping NintendoDS innovations
onto a system that, though appearing similar in terms of
possibility, requires a wholly different approach and design
philosophy.
However, once all this is said-and-done, there’s no
escaping the fact that Trauma Center: Second Opinion is an
enticing proposition. Having been able to spend a considerable
amount of time with the final build at
Electronic Articles
recent exclusive visit to the
Nintendo House in London, it’s been
rather easy to develop an informed opinion on a title that seems to
have divided the rest of the international videogames press.
Trauma Center: Second Opinion is a remake of the
first
title, for-all-intents-and-purposes, with added Missions, livelier
visuals and optimised for Wii control. However, this fact doesn’t
diminish the title’s appeal as a Wii title one iota.
The basic principle is, as could easily be assumed, to
perform surgery on patients utilising the Wii Remote and Nunchuck
Attachment. The instruments required to perform surgery are selected
from a Wheel in the bottom-left of the screen with a nudge of the
Analogue Stick on the Nunchuck Attachment in the direction desired.
When utilising the instruments, the margin-of-error provided is much
greater than that of the NintendoDS version – creating an incision
that defers over a centimetre off-course can still result in a
decent grade for the operation. The more forgiving nature of the
title is coupled with an extended insight into the characters and
background, allowing for even those well-versed with the original
Trauma Center: Under The Knife to find a reward for what often
may seem like replaying a title they’d fallen in love with more than
a year ago.
Trauma Center: Second Opinion may not be the
pinnacle of Wii’s line-up for the first quarter, especially with the
realisation that First-Party mega-hits
WarioWare: Smooth Moves
and
ExciteTruck will be grabbing most of the limelight,
however, from what’s been evidenced so far, it would be hard to
suggest that the title won’t at least intrigue for long-enough to
prove it’s monetary worth. Whether or not the title will be able to
improve upon it’s understated predecessor remains to be seen – a
comment that’s often be made is the sense of detachment the Wii
Remote brings that simply wasn’t evident with the immediacy of the
NintendoDS’s Touch Screen – however, inevitably, as part of the
second-wave of Wii titles, Trauma Center: Second Opinion will
be a title under much scrutiny. |
