AMN's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What The Game's About
A year has passed since the Wii launched and Atlus brought one of the most unique titles to date onto the Wii in the form of Trauma Center: Second Opinion. The title was a more or less a remake of the highly acclaimed DS title but it was still well-received by fans on Wii. After a year, Atlus has brought the doctors back out to give a new diagnosis for Wii owners in Trauma Center: New Blood. This time around players won't be able to take control of Dr. Stiles but instead take the role of a new cast of doctors as they battle diseases and try to help families in their time of need.

What's Hot
Since Trauma Center is a medical simulator, the game tries to replicate everything that occurs in the Operating Room, including difficulty and stress. Not distancing itself far from the original title, New Blood offers a lot of difficulty and really pushes players to be as accurate and quick as a real surgeon. The game features three different difficulty modes, so that everyone will be able to enjoy the game and be able to progress at their own pace. Be warned that Normal mode will push Trauma Center veterans to their limits, so for many, Easy Mode may be the best to start off on until you think you can handle a surgery at a higher level. After each successful surgery you'll be ranked based on your performance and time. This time you can show the world how good you are as a surgeon; Atlus has included an online ranking system which shows your results against the rest of the world. The more precise you are during the operation, the higher the ranking will be. So be careful when you have that scalpel in your hand.

Gone is the Sci-Fi aspect of the game. Atlus still left in the Healing Touch element but they removed viruses like Guilt and instead concentrated on real diseases and viruses. This allows for a more realistic feel for the game because you aren't battling viruses that are swimming in the patient like living animals. Outside of the removal of Guilt, Atlus built upon the Healing Touch elements and now offers two different styles. Each Doctor has their own Healing Touch; Dr. Vaughn's will slow down time whereas Dr. Blaylock will stop all damage to the patient.

Newly added into New Blood is the addition of co-op play. If you have two Wii controllers lying around and a friend, prep them for the OR and get ready for two-way surgery. Every operation is available for co-op play and on higher difficulties many of the operations seemed better suited for two players. Co-op play adds a lot to the core gameplay because it allows each player concentrate on certain sections of patient.

Essentially, New Blood is very similar to Second Opinion in nearly every aspect, but there were some issues in the first title – and thankfully they have been fixed this time around. New Blood runs in beautiful 16x9 presentation and supports 480p display for those with HDTV's. Atlus has also built upon the voice-acting portion of the game and they did a great job. Each of the main characters has wonderfully conducted voice-overs and has long lines of dialogue to make the setting feel more realistic.


What's Not
With the higher level of difficulty many may get upset and agitated rather quickly. Many of the later operations require you to try several times before you get it right and for the more casual gamer, this may be a turn off. Also some of the missions aren't explained in great detail, leaving it to you to discover the proper steps to cure the patient. One of the returning problems from Second Opinion is the Healing Touch drawing aspect. Since the Wii controller doesn't have any actual contact with any surface, it can be difficult to draw that star perfectly in the air. With practice you can come close to drawing it perfect but when you need to get the Healing Touch out in a hurry, you'll more than likely fail.

Final Word
Trauma Center: New Blood builds upon everything done in Second Opinion and approves on it. With the inclusion of 16x9 and 480p, voice-overs, online ranking system, different Healing Touch abilities, and realistic diseases, Trauma Center is getting better and better. If you are a fan of the Trauma Center series, this is a must-buy title for you because New Blood is the best in the series.