QUICK, DIRTY, AND LATE AS FUCK EDITION
INTRO
So about a month after I beat Trauma Team again and made an RTTP on it I got tired of wrestling with Orthopedic's hammer controls to perfect every operation with an XS rank and decided to leave that for a rainy day, sometime in the future. However, I fucking needed more Trauma Center. I needed it. I looked around the house and found New Blood, and Under the Knife.
New Blood I haven't re-beaten because of operation... 5-3, I think? The one where you
? Yeah, that one annihilated my morale. I'll get back to it, I promise!
UtK, however, I popped into my 3DS, made a new game file, and...
...well...
I started playing the game at around 4 PM, and three hours later I had seen the credits roll and was tackling the X operations. Even though I didn't beat them all in the same day, I DID finish all of them except for X-7, which I wrapped up the day after.
The game's fucking short, yo.
STORY
None of the Trauma Center games have inherently terrible plots. Fact. Almost none of them are practically outstanding in this regard, either. But honestly? This game kinda influenced quite a bit on how high-school era Ilvo thought at the time. It's kinda silly, thinking back on it, but that's how these things go.
Basically the gist is:
-you are smrt sargeon
-you are also lazy shit
-you get a nurse, who depending on your point of view is either rad or annoying (I opt for the former, she's cute as fuck and knows aikido, she gets a pass)
-through a series of rapidly escalating procedures you end up becoming super surgeon whose stand allows him to slow down time for about 10 seconds or so, but if you're going for high score or rank at all then you end up NEVER using it outside of when you're forced to
-there's a medically based cult creating parasitic-based supercancer
-you beat the supercancer and help the military stop the cult
-a winner is you
Obviously there's a lot more going on with character interactions and whatnot that a highly reductionist rendition of the plot won't take into account, but yeah.
I don't like covering story details in RTTP OPs. Sue me.
GENERAL GAMEPLAY
I'll be honest: the gameplay in the Trauma Center series is so fucking good, and unique specifically to the device that it's designed for, that it always single-handedly justifies the existance of whatever interface that's being used at the time for it. Under the Knife, despite being technically rougher-feeling and much more stiff than the other games in the series, is no exception. This game convinced me that the DS wasn't a dumb idea.
Ok maybe that might've been NSMB1, but it convinced me that the TOUCH SCREEN was a great idea.
No need for alternate sub-sections here, surgery's the name of the game. You have about 10 tools, a couple of which you use like... once per operation maybe? Maybe twice? The point being is that there's more tools than what you would regularly use.
-Magnification is by far the clunkiest tool in the game, which is not perfect but kinda fine because once you pass the halfway point it stops being relevant. I guess the ultrasound also counts here, and unlike magnification stay relevant throughout the game and is WAY easier to use.
-Stitches are REALLY precise in their use in this game more than any of the others. Like, Nazi precise. Resolving the laceration is fine, but stitching for COOLs requires an extreme combination, of speed and spacing. Most of the time...
-Laser and scalpel are simple 'point-and-use'. A difference from TT is that in this game (and other TCs) you can hurt the patient from overexposure to harmful objects, actually requiring care to not hurt the patient and cause a MISS. That being said, if you were crazy enough you could boost your score and disregard rank if you cut your patient up enough without killing them and COOL-heal the resulting afflictions.
-Then you've got the drain (much more involved than the Wii version of the use of the tool, that threw me for a loop for a bit). Actually dragging up to siphon away offending fluids is an interesting wrinkle that never really... comes back in the Wii games.
-Antibiotic Gel is the fucking best, and using it to slow bleeding of cuts makes the X missions possible for human beings.
-Syringe is also really useful, and CAN be misused if you're not careful. Much like the drain, the fact you have to pull upwards to fill it up adds an extra layer of intricacy that never comes back in the Wii games. Probably for the better, but still...
-Honestly, I forget the rest. Bandages are used literally for the end of procedures exclusively, and... hands completely lose emphasis past the early game. It's more or less there to disguise the fact that
is what you're ACTUALLY supposed to use that tool for.
There's a couple of interesting tidbits in this game that are exclusive to it, like how defibrilators are actually used correctly for STOPPING hearts, not STARTING THEM UP. Apparently that was retconned in SO, which is like, why? Was the hand tool THAT situational?
...I feel like I should have more on here, but fuck this is getting long-winded. Really, the only thing I have on my mind at the moment is...
DIFFICULTY
No selectable difficulty. You do or you fucking die. The aneurysms are your judge, jury, and executioner.
And after re-playing it, it's not even NEARLY as hard as the Hard difficulties in the rest of the series, sort of like an in-between difficulty between Normal and Hard in the future games. Fine by me!
Also, there's no XS ranks in this game, they didn't exist yet. S ranks are still fucking hell to get, and I can't replicate my S in X7 ever since I did it the first time.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The game is fucking great, it's aged a little but not nearly as much as I had feared. I'd argue this should be a potential newcomer's first exposure to the whole series (like it was mine), but I have to admit TT is better at being nice about things.
Maybe I'll explain my thoughts further when it's not fucking past midnight around here...
Also, I wonder who in the hell actually reads this wall of text. If you did, fucking thank you. Also also I might not believe you. Maybe.
See you next RTTP. Or in this case, LTTP. Struggling between two potential, radically different directions for my next one. On one hand,
. On the other,
.
Maybe I might listen to whoever cares.
INTRO
So about a month after I beat Trauma Team again and made an RTTP on it I got tired of wrestling with Orthopedic's hammer controls to perfect every operation with an XS rank and decided to leave that for a rainy day, sometime in the future. However, I fucking needed more Trauma Center. I needed it. I looked around the house and found New Blood, and Under the Knife.
New Blood I haven't re-beaten because of operation... 5-3, I think? The one where you
operate on three patients in a row that have various combinations of Stigma
UtK, however, I popped into my 3DS, made a new game file, and...
...well...
I started playing the game at around 4 PM, and three hours later I had seen the credits roll and was tackling the X operations. Even though I didn't beat them all in the same day, I DID finish all of them except for X-7, which I wrapped up the day after.
The game's fucking short, yo.
STORY
None of the Trauma Center games have inherently terrible plots. Fact. Almost none of them are practically outstanding in this regard, either. But honestly? This game kinda influenced quite a bit on how high-school era Ilvo thought at the time. It's kinda silly, thinking back on it, but that's how these things go.
Basically the gist is:
-you are smrt sargeon
-you are also lazy shit
-you get a nurse, who depending on your point of view is either rad or annoying (I opt for the former, she's cute as fuck and knows aikido, she gets a pass)
-through a series of rapidly escalating procedures you end up becoming super surgeon whose stand allows him to slow down time for about 10 seconds or so, but if you're going for high score or rank at all then you end up NEVER using it outside of when you're forced to
-there's a medically based cult creating parasitic-based supercancer
-you beat the supercancer and help the military stop the cult
-a winner is you
Obviously there's a lot more going on with character interactions and whatnot that a highly reductionist rendition of the plot won't take into account, but yeah.
I don't like covering story details in RTTP OPs. Sue me.
GENERAL GAMEPLAY
I'll be honest: the gameplay in the Trauma Center series is so fucking good, and unique specifically to the device that it's designed for, that it always single-handedly justifies the existance of whatever interface that's being used at the time for it. Under the Knife, despite being technically rougher-feeling and much more stiff than the other games in the series, is no exception. This game convinced me that the DS wasn't a dumb idea.
Ok maybe that might've been NSMB1, but it convinced me that the TOUCH SCREEN was a great idea.
No need for alternate sub-sections here, surgery's the name of the game. You have about 10 tools, a couple of which you use like... once per operation maybe? Maybe twice? The point being is that there's more tools than what you would regularly use.
-Magnification is by far the clunkiest tool in the game, which is not perfect but kinda fine because once you pass the halfway point it stops being relevant. I guess the ultrasound also counts here, and unlike magnification stay relevant throughout the game and is WAY easier to use.
-Stitches are REALLY precise in their use in this game more than any of the others. Like, Nazi precise. Resolving the laceration is fine, but stitching for COOLs requires an extreme combination, of speed and spacing. Most of the time...
-Laser and scalpel are simple 'point-and-use'. A difference from TT is that in this game (and other TCs) you can hurt the patient from overexposure to harmful objects, actually requiring care to not hurt the patient and cause a MISS. That being said, if you were crazy enough you could boost your score and disregard rank if you cut your patient up enough without killing them and COOL-heal the resulting afflictions.
-Then you've got the drain (much more involved than the Wii version of the use of the tool, that threw me for a loop for a bit). Actually dragging up to siphon away offending fluids is an interesting wrinkle that never really... comes back in the Wii games.
-Antibiotic Gel is the fucking best, and using it to slow bleeding of cuts makes the X missions possible for human beings.
-Syringe is also really useful, and CAN be misused if you're not careful. Much like the drain, the fact you have to pull upwards to fill it up adds an extra layer of intricacy that never comes back in the Wii games. Probably for the better, but still...
-Honestly, I forget the rest. Bandages are used literally for the end of procedures exclusively, and... hands completely lose emphasis past the early game. It's more or less there to disguise the fact that
the Healing Touch
There's a couple of interesting tidbits in this game that are exclusive to it, like how defibrilators are actually used correctly for STOPPING hearts, not STARTING THEM UP. Apparently that was retconned in SO, which is like, why? Was the hand tool THAT situational?
Yes.
...I feel like I should have more on here, but fuck this is getting long-winded. Really, the only thing I have on my mind at the moment is...
DIFFICULTY
No selectable difficulty. You do or you fucking die. The aneurysms are your judge, jury, and executioner.
And after re-playing it, it's not even NEARLY as hard as the Hard difficulties in the rest of the series, sort of like an in-between difficulty between Normal and Hard in the future games. Fine by me!
Also, there's no XS ranks in this game, they didn't exist yet. S ranks are still fucking hell to get, and I can't replicate my S in X7 ever since I did it the first time.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The game is fucking great, it's aged a little but not nearly as much as I had feared. I'd argue this should be a potential newcomer's first exposure to the whole series (like it was mine), but I have to admit TT is better at being nice about things.
Maybe I'll explain my thoughts further when it's not fucking past midnight around here...
Also, I wonder who in the hell actually reads this wall of text. If you did, fucking thank you. Also also I might not believe you. Maybe.
See you next RTTP. Or in this case, LTTP. Struggling between two potential, radically different directions for my next one. On one hand,
an N64 classic regarded by many as one of the greatest games of our time
a three-game series of freeware that's as insane in its scope as it is proficient in its ability to craft originality from assets borrowed from other people and games
Maybe I might listen to whoever cares.