Given Atlus' sales success with Trauma Center: Second Opinion, timing the remake to release with the Wii's launch, it's no surprise that the small publisher has readied a true sequel for the surgery sim. Trauma Center: New Blood introduces two young surgeons, Markus Vaughn and Valerie Blaylock, along with several exciting features: a cooperative mode, online leaderboards, and a 16:9 widescreen mode. Throw on your scrubs and hit the gallery up for New Blood's first screenshots.
We've had enough time now with the Wii to discover some real gems (how many hours have you put into just Wii Sports so far?) ... but like any system, there are also a few duds, particularly within the launch window. If you're looking to expand your collection, or if you're one of the Wii-less trying to figure out how to budget when your day comes, we're here to help you find the best and the worst of the Wii so far.
The rumor floating around this week is that the infrared Wiimote interferes with pacemakers. While nothing has been confirmed or denied by Nintendo, it makes for some interesting conversation.
Some signs were spotted at the Nintendo World event in Japan warning older players but there is still no word if the rumors are real. If the grandparents, great-grandparents or anyone esle in the family with a pacemaker wants to get in on the games, family members beware. You could end up with a real life Trauma Center on your hands. No one wants that!
We've shown you a few of the major pieces ... Twilight Princess and Red Steel, for instance ... but through the dark voodoo powers they wield so willingly, IGN Wii has compiled a collection of no less than eighteen official boxarts for various launch titles. It's certainly a colorful collage, though the sight serves to remind one that there are perhaps one too many children's games on launch day. Oh well. Twilight Princess has the cojones to offset a hundred Barnyards, and you know it.
What are your opinions on boxart? In a perfect world, all consumers would educate themselves with interviews, previews, and various review scores; alas, a large majority of the world still judges by the cover. Can the elegant white stripe lure in the uninformed soccer moms? C'mon, o' bearer of the young. Your kids need this thing.
Nintendo of Japan's website offers a list of those purported sixteen launch titles...and they're not all necessarily what you would have expected. Take a look!
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Wii Sports (including boxing and bowling to round out tennis, golf, and baseball)
WarioWare
Wii Play
Red Steel
SD Gundam Revolution
Tamagotchi
Ennichi no Tastsujin (a drum game, along the lines of Taiko Drum Master)
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Elebits
Necro-nesia
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Super Swing Golf Pangya
Wing Island (demoed at E3 2006, the "plane game")
Kororinpa (a Marble Madness-type game of some sort)
Machariku Domino (a domino game)
Interesting! It's good to see a rhythm/music game so early, and we'll post details on some of the more mysterious entries as we receive information.
GameFront has a really lush set of scans on Trauma Center: Second Opinion that offer a look at the controls for the Wii. Now if only we could get someone to translate the text! Oh well, the pretty-pretty pictures are enough for a lazy Tuesday afternoon.
Look closely, too, for an inset that appears to compare the DS original with the expanded "Wiimake" that will launch with the new console.
Is it just us, or could this be one of the best games to introduce a world of irregular gamers to the Wii? Considering the popularity of medical-themed shows, we're thinking the only better possibility could be CSI: Wii. Wait, not better ... make that other.
Trauma Center: Under the Knife was an excellent game, one of the those precious few on the Nintendo DS that could not be played with a standard console interface; it was also hard as Chuck Norris' abs. Regardless, the upcoming launch title Trauma Center: Second Opinion has garnered quite a bit of hype, and the latest issue of Famitsu has some details.
Unfortunately, Second Opinion will primarily be a retelling of the original DS title. The game does add a few extra missions (broken bones and heart transplants were mentioned) and several new characters, but Atlas is hoping that the Wiimote will offer up an experience fresh enough to warrant a repurchase from surgery vets. Three difficulty settings are now available (thank insert-your-deity-of-choice-here), and the game will be fully voice-acted. Please, Atlus, get a decent crew for the voice work.
Is this a cop-out, a scam, a ripoff? Is a fresh coat of paint enough to convince you to relive X6: Paraskevi? Will Derek ever hook up with Angie? Tune in at launch...and we might find out.
GameTrailers has recently released a new trailer (in HD!) for the upcoming Trauma Center: Second Opinion for the Wii. A direct sequel to the cult-hit DS game, this iteration will make full use of the Wii controller to produce a realistic "operating room" feel.
In the trailer, we can glean a few tidbits of information. Dr. Derek Stiles and his nurse, Angie, are obviously back for the ride; other characters and locations (Caduceus, Hope Hospital) also seem to remain largely unchanged. The game is now sporting a more cel-shaded look, most likely to prevent antsy players from feeling too uncomfortable during the procedures. The game screen seems to be a bit crowded, as there's no longer a second screen to display dialogue and other statistics, but we have no doubt Atlus is going to produce another top-notch game.
Enjoy the new footage; Trauma Center: Second Opinion is slated as a Wii launch title. Get psyched.
Encouraging gamers to slice people open with a scalpel and prod at their various internal organs, Trauma Center: Second Opinion (cool title!) clearly fits in well with Nintendo's all-inclusive family strategy for the Wii. Okay, so it's a sequel to last year's DS doctor sim, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, meaning that you're generally gutting people for their own good. I managed to track down Tomm Hulett of Atlus USA and, after threatening him sufficiently, managed to extract the following information:
The game should be released within the Wii's "launch window" (i.e. before the end of the year).
Two playable characters will be available, each one following a different path in the story.
Unlike Derek (the original game's main character), the new doctor will not possess the "Healing Touch", instead boasting some other, sure to be wacky power.
The game was almost called Trauma Center: Relapse.
Thanks to the wiimote, Second Opinion will be much more intricate than the DS version and allow you to use more surgical tools.
The nunchuck analog stick is used for selecting tools.
The game will not be fully voice-acted. Only a couple of voice samples will be matched to on-screen text, much like the Legend of Zelda titles.
Tomm hinted that you'd be able to use the wiimote and nunchuck as a defibrilator.
Speaking of which, the Atlus meeting rooms just happened to be situated right next to the wall mounted defibrilator pictured to the right. Must be one for the fanboys.
Given that the game largely involves slicing open people's pulsating internal organs, we were quite excited to
hear about the supposed confirmation that Trauma Center wascoming to the
Revolution. So excited, in fact, that we hastily contacted someone at Atlus and demanded (or pleaded for,
depending on how you look at it) further information. We spoke about a few things, but the official line is the one you
may not like.
As it stands, Atlus officially denies the IGN "confirmation" of a
Revolution-based Trauma Center sequel. Now, we'd be willing to place a substantial bet on the game appearing
eventually, possibly as soon as E3--the only point of contention here is that Atlus has not officially said anything
about the game. Given how well the original title made use of the DS touch screen, it would seem almost painfully
obvious that the franchise is a surgically precise fit for Nintendo's controller. Sometimes a denial is all we need to
confirm our suspicions.
The rumor floating around this week is that the infrared Wiimote interferes with pacemakers. While nothing has been confirmed or denied by Nintendo, it makes for some interesting conversation. 
Encouraging gamers to slice people open with a scalpel and prod at their various internal organs, Trauma Center: Second Opinion (cool title!) clearly fits in well with Nintendo's all-inclusive family strategy for the Wii. Okay, so it's a sequel to last year's DS doctor sim, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, meaning that you're generally gutting people for their own good. I managed to track down Tomm Hulett of Atlus USA and, after threatening him sufficiently, managed to extract the following information:
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