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Share the trauma with Trauma Team's co-op
When you play Trauma Team, you'll have the opportunity to do so as a ... team. A new trailer for the medical adventure game (after the break) demonstrates co-op multiplayer in the Surgery, First Response, Orthopedics, and Endoscopy modes. Most of the multiplayer action involves alternating control of procedures between players, though the Surgery mode makes mention of splitting up surgical tools between players, and First Response's co-op requires players to assign patients from a group to each player. There's a sort of "combo meter" that rewards unbroken chains of successful steps performed by both players. In addition, the inactive player in the Endoscopy mode directs light for the active player. Now you have to determine whether you have any friendships strong enough to stand the test of performing endoscopy together.
Trauma Team to be less traumatic on wallets
Atlus announced the price point for Trauma Team today, and we believe it improves the game's retail prognosis: It's $39.99. That's less than the retail price of most Wii games for a game with six different, interesting modes of play. Trauma Team will be out May 18. To mark the announcement, Atlus sent out a dramatic new trailer for the game. It's oddly conflict-oriented, with lots of talk about "final battles" and "wars" and "fights." Such destructive language for a game about helping sick people! That's no kind of bedside manner.
Trauma Team scenario writer on the trauma of writing its scenarios
All the story we need in Trauma Team is "some people get sick, and doctors make them better." But Atlus has generously included a story with the medical action game. In a new featurette on the Atlus site, scenario writer Teppei Kobayashi describes the process of writing for six different medical disciplines, including descriptions of required research, and the fact that the team happened to be working on a medical game when the swine flu epidemic gained notoriety. A couple of videos of story sequences are also included in the featurette. In addition, new screens are available here. %Gallery-86407%
Investigate Trauma Team's forensics missions
A few weeks ago, Atlus demonstrated Trauma Team's forensics segments for us in a webcast. The publisher just released a new trailer focusing on that mode, so you can witness the medical crime-solving gameplay for yourself. It's like Phoenix Wright, but more medical-y, and with more revealing clothes. Of course, it wouldn't be Trauma Center without some odd supernatural elements, and in Trauma Team's forensic missions, space virus monsters give way to phone calls from the dead. If only Dr. Naomi Kimishima had the presence of mind to ask the victims who killed them.
Trauma Team delayed; recover from the shock with new trailer
We'll be in the waiting room a bit longer before we're allowed to meet with the Trauma Team. Atlus announced a delay from the game's original April 20 date to May 18. In the meantime, in lieu of an old magazine, why not watch this video about Trauma Team's orthopedics mode? It's all about bones -- setting broken bones, drilling into bones, setting pins, and all manner of extremely methodical work to fix broken Day-Glo bones, all represented in-game as movements within precise guidelines. Even without the Trauma Center time limit or malevolent viruses, it seems stressful.
Impressions: Trauma Team's adventure game-style forensics mode
Trauma Team's forensics, one of the six medical disciplines represented in the Trauma Center sequel, doesn't just involve examining dead bodies for cause of death. The forensic examiner in this game, Trauma Center's Dr. Naomi Kimishima, takes a more holistic, CSI approach to her job, searching crime scenes, interviewing witnesses, and doing all the work of figuring out the events surrounding the victim's death. What that means for us is that Trauma Team contains an adventure game among its six discrete play styles. And, judging by the case we were walked through in an online presentation by Atlus, it looks like an interesting one!
A slice of Trauma Team gameplay
In previous videos for Atlus's upcoming game Trauma Team, we've seen interviews with the voice actors, and behind-the-scenes footage of the recording process and game development. This latest, however, focuses on something that's only been incidental to other trailers: footage of Trauma Team, the game. In this somewhat infomercial-esque video, Atlus introduces the aspect of the game most like its Trauma Center predecessors: the surgical portion. However, unlike the maddening, arcade-style Trauma Center, many of the surgical challenges come without a time limit. Also seen in this video: pretty good 3D models of bones! We just wanted to point that out.
Meet Trauma Team's voice team
The floodgates for Trauma Team publicity are open, starting with the screenshots and now continuing with promotional videos. Atlus takes us behind the scenes of Trauma Team -- wisely choosing to feature the game's voice recording over, say, the medical research the team did. In the first of two videos (above), Atlus offers a tour of PCB Productions, the company producing the voice work for the multidisciplinary medical adventure. In the second (after the break), we meet a few of the actors portraying the quirky medical team, allowing us to put different faces to the voices behind the cartoon characters. Trauma Team is currently scheduled for an April 20 release date.
Trauma Team screens feature the whole team at work
click to cut open the galleryIn case you've forgotten about Trauma Team (it has been a while), Atlus's expanded Trauma Center sequel stars a group of six medical professionals, each an expert in a different discipline. These new screens feature each of the game's six simulated medical practices in action: surgery, forensics, diagnostics, first response, endoscopy, and orthopedics. They all seem to involve similar activities: jabbing, cutting, and otherwise manipulating human bodies with Wii Remote motions. Still, the variety of methods through which you manipulate said bodies should help keep the Trauma Center formula from going stale, as should the personalities of the six quirky doctors (the "Drama Team," if you will). %Gallery-80773%
Behind the scenes with the Trauma Team team
Trauma Center changed the world a little bit, and we didn't even notice. Sure, there were surgery games before on the PC, but Trauma Center was the first really popular surgery-game franchise. It's so popular, in fact, that not only is there now a game that expands beyond surgery into other medical practices, but we'll watch a behind-the-scenes video for that game raptly.Seriously, this is a game that is partially about endoscopy and we're totally on board. What has Atlus done to us? Trauma Team is currently slated for Spring 2010.
Atlus opens up old wounds with Trauma Team for Wii
Just days before the real life trauma of E3 takes hold, Atlus announced that it will localize the recently revealed Trauma Center successor, Hospital, as Trauma Team for the Wii in North America. As previously noted, the game will feature gameplay across six different medical fields, as players play as a general surgeon, diagnostician, E.M.T., orthopedic surgeon, endoscope technician, and medical examiner. Atlus hasn't yet sewn up all of the details, However, the game is expected to be among the publisher's titles on display during next week's show and we look forward to finding out more before Trauma Team scrubs in next Spring. %Gallery-64456%
Atlus goes beyond Trauma Center for new Wii game 'Hospital'
In this week's Famitsu, Atlus has revealed a "spiritual successor" to the Trauma Center series that expands the game's scope beyond surgery. Hospital, created by the same development team as the hit surgery games, stars six different medical practitioners, each with a different specialization. Only one of the six is a Trauma Center-style surgeon -- Prisoner CR-SO1, a convict whose sentence was reduced in exchange for his surgical expertise.The rest of the group include a diagnostician, a paramedic, a cosmetic surgeon (who performs non-life-or-death procedures like hip replacements), an endoscopic surgeon, and a forensic examiner. Each character features a different style of play.According to 1up's translation of the article, producer Daisuke Kanada told Famitsu that the game "completes one of the goals for a medical series that we've been striving for before, and it's also a wholly new title, not a sequel to Trauma Center. It's not just a surgery game, but an entire hospital in game form.
Carnival Games makes its return to the DS Download Service
For people longing to play new demos via the Nintendo Channel, the frustration continues. All we saw on the channel today was the return of two demos that we never really missed in the first place (we're looking at you, Carnival Games and Crosswords DS Wordsearch).Nintendo also extended the availability dates on three of the existing demos, probably because offering three new ones would have been too satisfying (/bitter). The good news is, you have another week to try out Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 and Contra 4 if you haven't done so already.Click past the break to see yet another underwhelming list of demos.
Wii pwns Australia with 500,000 sold
Sure, it may be the most neglected continent in the history of video games, but those crazy Australians are going positively mental for Nintendo all the same. According to industry tracker Gfk, the Wii has just passed the 500,000 mark down under, making it the fastest-selling console in history. Well, Australia's history. Does that still count as cool?The Wii achieved this monumental feat (remember, there's only 20 million people in Australia) in just 84 weeks since launch in December 2006. On top of the "hey, we're awesome!" announcement, a few new release dates for some hot Wii games have been revealed. Wario Land: The Shake Dimension will be hitting consoles on September 25th, and Trauma Center: Second Opinion (yes, that neglected) is coming out August 28th.
DS Download Service updates with old demos
For those of you looking to play something brand new this week, you're out of luck. Instead, Nintendo offers us a chance to catch up with some demos me might have missed in the past, allowing folks to download these up until next week. So, if you missed out last time, get on it!
Another unimpressive week of Nintendo Channel demos
With Trauma Center 2 and Contra 4 on the Nintendo Channel's demos list, you may wonder why exactly we're unimpressed. Perhaps it's because there's nothing new offered this week, unless you count the reappearance of certain demos on the list as "new." We don't.To see why we're thoroughly uninspired, check past the break for the full list of "been there, done that" demos.
DS Daily: Recent favorite
As DS fans, we play lots of games. There's just no getting around it, because the system is up to its eyeballs in great titles, always. So, we're often busy with this or that.We imagine you game quite a bit on the handheld, too. So, we have to ask: what is your recent favorite game? What game have you played lately that has blown you away? A little game called Space Invaders Extreme? Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2? Well, what game have you played lately that has been just plain great?
Nintendo Channel updates with lone demo this week
It's Monday again, which means it's time to check out what the Nintendo Channel has in store for DS demos. Like last week, we don't get much in the way of new stuff to play on our DS, but it's not about quantity here, it's about quality. And, this week's lone demo has that in spades: Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2
DS Fanboy Review: Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2
There's one thing you need to know right up front: Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 is one of the best DS games to date, even without the benefit of some of the things that were added to the Wii entries in the medical franchise. The gameplay is much improved over the already-excellent first title, and the biggest complaint made by the original's detractors -- the difficulty -- is mitigated here by the inclusion of a range of difficulty settings. The result is pretty close to spectacular.But when the gameplay is so good that there are few complaints, it's a lot easier to nitpick other aspects of the title, and we've got nitpicks in spades. That's all they are, though: tiny complaints that hardly matter. Under the Knife 2 should be remembered as one of the most satisfying experiences on the DS. Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen.%Gallery-20065%
DS releases for the week of June 30th
Anyone need a kidney? It's fresh! We need the money so we can keep up with all these vitally important DS games, and after this week, we'll know how to remove it cleanly. Trauma Center is just like real surgery, right? It's important that we learn, so we can get 1 vs. 100 (omg!) the moment it's released.Surgery may not be our thing, but we've got a handle on sarcasm. 1 vs. 100 AMF Bowling Pinbusters! Ducati Moto Journey to the Center of the Earth Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 Stagger past the break to see what's out in the rest of the world. %Gallery-20065%
