Like anyone who had the good fortune to track down a copy, I was a huge fan of Trauma Center: Under the Knife on the DS. It was the first title on the DS with stylus-centric gameplay that didn't feel gimmicky, and to this day it remains a shining example of out of the box thinking in game design. It's a title that couldn't exist on any other platform than the DS -- or so we thought.

Cramming a title with stylus-heavy gameplay that seems custom designed for the DS onto another console sounds about as bad as putting Katamari on a system without dual analog sticks - but is it? Hit the jump to find out what we thought.

Surprisingly, Atlus did a fantastic job of porting Trauma Center to the Wii. The accuracy of the wiimote (which many have complained about in other games) seemed spot on -- it would be impossible for it to be as steady and reliable as stylus control, but despite this the operations in Second Opinion went a lot smoother than I had expected. For the most part, the gameplay of the original title in still in tact. The only changes were minor and were necessary to adapt to the non-stylus playstyle.

Most noticeable of these was the tool selection - previously you would have simply clicked on the tool you wanted with your stylus, whereas on the Wii the tool selection is done via the nunchuk - each of the eight directions represents a different tool slot. After a while it becomes pretty intuitive, though you may find yourself selecting the tool next to the one you want more often than not. The other change was the addition of a defibrillator, which you use by holding the wiimote and nunchuk just like you would real paddles. It's a neat idea, but it's also the only one that seems poorly executed. You can move your hands a million ways before the system knows you've put the paddles to the chest. Once on the chest a minigame starts up that could have just as easily come about without unresponsive paddle part.

Speaking of complaints, Second Opinion seems to have resolved a big one. As any veteran of Under the Knife will tell you, the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly from "challenging" to "Who knew a DS could shatter when thrown against the wall?" Second Opinion has solved this by adding a difficulty selection which, for the most part, relieves the pain. As the difficulty can be changed from operation to operation, you should be able to tackle anything the game throws at you. That being said there are a number of operations that even on easy you'll likely find yourselves needing to tackle a number of times before moving on.

Overall, Second Opinion doesn't deviate from Under the Knife. Both the story and gameplay remain the same, with the exception of a second mini-storyline thrown in for good measure complete with it's own operations. Visually the game has been given the necessary makeover to make the jump from DS to Wii, but for some reason Atlus decided to keep the perspective 4:3 thereby irritating the shit out of the thousands of widescreen owners out there. Despite this minor snafu, the visuals are more than adequate, and the intense soundtrack provides a perfect match the edge-of-your-seat nature of the gameplay.

Whether you haven't played Under the Knife or you simply want a more managable level of difficulty, Second Opinion is easily the most overlooked must-buy title of the Wii's launch window. It puts the Wii-mote to use in a way that doesn't feel gimmicky, just like it's predecessor did for the DS. You owe it to yourself to make an appoint with Second Opinion. (I love writing hackneyed shit like that.)

8 out of 10

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