It's common knowledge that Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2's setting and storyline is to involve disease, civil war, and refugees, but now swearing has been added to this gritty mix. Shocking! We'd expect disease in a game about making people feel better, but we hope that Atlus' game doesn't start taking itself too seriously. For this blogger, the otherwise excellent Advance Wars: Days of Ruin was a little too dark for its own good, and yours truly missed some of the inherent silliness of previous games. Here's hoping Trauma Center 2 retains its sense of humor. On the other hand, we appreciate that some of you couldn't give two hoots about the story. Regardless, make a careful incision and enter the gallery below for six new shots.
We were sitting around, checking out our library of DS games, when we started thinking about titles that deserved a sequel, yet probably never would receive one. Take, for example, Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble. Sure, the game isn't going to win any awards, but it was something fun we enjoyed and, come on, it's Viewtiful Joe. We'll play anything starring that guy.
What about you all? Are their any DS games that probably won't get the sequel treatment that you wish would?
It's only been a week since the news of Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 broke, and already we're awash in news of the upcoming title. We're not complaining, either; the original is the game you love to hate and hate to love, thanks to the fantastic concept and brutalizing gameplay.
The screenshots (found in our gallery), aren't the best news of the day, however -- the real kicker is that we'll see Under the Knife 2 in July. July 1, to be exact, and yes, that's before it's due in Japan. Rejoice!
The breakneck speed of the first trailer for Trauma Center 2 is, frankly, all a bit bewildering. As we blog from our La Z Boys, margarita in one hand and our masseuses kneading our shoulders, we can't help but wonder: is watching this as downright stressful and frenetic as day-to-day life in a real trauma center?
Well, uh, probably not, but it sure is exciting. The pace of it does mean that it's a little tricky to pick up on footage of gameplay, but what's there is comfortingly familiar, and there are old faces (under their Japanese names) and new faces (including Adel Tulba, who we learned more about recently) alike. No sign of the "improved functionality" of the instruments that has been promised by Atlus, but there's plenty of time for that yet. We need a breather.
Yeah, we know that all the other ones did too, but all we ever remember of the story for any Trauma Center game is "surgery happens." Some guys perform surgery on some other people, because they are sick or injured. Trauma Center 2 is no exception: Atlus has gone to the trouble of crafting a narrative for the surgery game, and we guarantee it'll stick in our minds as "a guy gets glass in his leg for some reason."
This latest entry takes place in a refugee camp in an African country called Costiga, where a civil war and an outbreak of disease have led to an overload of patients and a shortage of doctors. Derek Stiles and his nurse Angie Thompson are in the area doing research, and are contacted by a young surgeon named, uh, Adel Chilba (or something like that) to help. Or at least that's how we understand it based on the translation. The point is (and remains): surgery happens.
Good old Trauma Center. Preposterous storyline, not even remotely medically accurate, and a difficulty curve with all the consistency of lumpy custard. But hey, despite its flaws, we quickly fell in love with Atlus' unconventional surgical sim. It was one of the very first DS titles to really use the touchscreen convincingly, and the execution was, on the whole, superb.
And now -- rejoice! -- there's a sequel planned, complete with improved surgical tools and a lower difficulty level for scalpel jocks like us. That's all well and good, but is there anything that you'd like to see done differently in Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2?
Trauma Center, in case you hadn't already heard, is making a return to Nintendo's handheld to make ham-fisted would-be surgeons feel inadequate all over again, and Famitsu has just delivered an array of details and shots of the new game.
According to this, we'll be getting a sprinkling of old and new characters, a slightly more Wii-like user interface, and a number of operations that will be familiar with us all, including the really cringeworthy ones where you have to yank excruciatingly long shards of glass from your patients (well, they made us cringe, anyway).
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit to take from this scan, however, is the mention of a Japanese release date -- it's a little hard to make out, but the magazine seems to suggest the game will be released there on August 7th. That's by no means an official date, obviously, but if true it means we could be seeing a western release in 2008.
Posted Mar 31st 2008 8:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News
The Nintendo Power news just keeps on coming in! If you're not already a subscriber, we very much suggest you pick up a copy of this month's issue when you can -- it's packed with exclusive announcements and screenshots.
Almost three years since Under the Knife captured the hearts of wannabe surgeons on the DS, Trauma Center is finally coming back to the handheld after a remake and an indirect sequel on the Wii. Dr. Stiles stars in the game, once again, and is joined by Nurse Angie Thompson as they deal with the effects and "unanswered mysteries" left by the defeated GUILT Virus.
Developer and publisher Atlus didn't reveal any new surgical instruments for this direct DS sequel, titled Under the Knife 2, but it did state that the old tools will have "improved functionality. Addressing difficulty complaints many often cited with the original game, Atlus has also included a mode for those of you with unsteady hands and frail nerves. Expect to hear a lot more about Under the Knife 2 from us before it hits stores this summer.
If you ask us, Konami's Elebits is one of the Wii's truly underrated gems, so when we saw that a page for a sequel had appeared in the database of rental specialists Gamefly, we whooped, punched the air, performed chest bumps with one another, and said stuff like "OH YEAH!!" a lot.
Then we calmed down, only to realize that Gamefly has Elebits 2 listed as a DS title, with a release date of August 30th! Cue further bumping of chests and abusing of the exclamation mark key!
Unless this is a simple error (and Gamefly is usually right on the money with these kind of things), we're dazzled by this development. Could a DS version of Elebits successfully recreate the wonderfully tactile sensation of chucking furniture about that was such a key part of the Wii title? Why, yes, we think it could!
Having seen video of Monolith Soft's Soma Bringer and having found it to be, well, basically sumptuous, we're tentatively pleased to hear that it's probably going to be a series. That's according to a newly-translated tidbit in a "Creative Voice" interview with Soma Bringer producer Tetsuya Takahashi and composer Yasunori Mitsuda.
In a discussion about the building of the Soma Bringer world, Takahashi makes this casual mention of the plan: "As this is the first title, it does not have to comprise of every single detail of the world, instead the elements of the storyline best suited for an Action RPG were selected to be told."
We're tentatively pleased, of course, because we really have no idea if Soma Bringer is a) any good, and b) planned for localization at all. If both of those conditions are satisfied, then yay for sequels!
Posted Feb 10th 2008 12:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
Even though Professor Layton and the Curious Village is only sort of out (as in it is just now officially coming out, but some people already shuffled on down to Wal-Mart and picked it up), a fairly official statement has already been made confirming the sequel. That's one major riddle solved!
The back page of the manual gives information about a password entry screen that is unlocked by ... playing the sequel! Which means that there's probably going to be a sequel. This isn't too much of a surprise since Professor Layton and the Devil's Box is selling really well in Japan, but it's certainly nice to have some confirmation of a localized version.
If you loved the idea of a portable SimCity, then this news should make your day -- a sequel to the handheld simulation is in the works, and already set for a March release (in Japan). The DS sequel to the first entry in the popular franchise looks to be adding timelines -- with appropriate costumes for your advisors throughout each era, as well as buildings. Cue caveman garb! Otherwise, it seems like typical SimCity fare, which is actually good news.
And hey, if you haven't picked up the first one, it looks like that GameFly sale is still going.
Gaming sites are inundated with holiday gift guides at the end of the year, listing the best and most popular games that everyone pretty much already has (or knows about). Well, we're not going in for that this year. Our gift guide will help you find the best gifts in categories the other sites won't cover -- because we just made them up.
Nintendo's indifference towards PAL regions is infamous, but there's arguably less room for complaining when it comes to the DS. See, the DS is (and we do not use this phrase lightly) an importer's dream. It doesn't faff around with region-specific software, there's a huge library of diverse and interesting NTSC-only titles, and the games themselves are cheap. As in, cheaper than they'll be when they arrive in the UK/Europe/Australia six months from now. Frankly, we can't think of a good reason for you not to import.
Which brings us to our latest anti-guide, featuring the five DS-related gifts that PAL regions won't be seeing until 2008 at the earliest -- if ever. All deserve to be imported without hesitation, so read on fellow PAL folk, and prep that credit card!
It's easy to assume that the folks at Square Enix aren't doing anything new these days -- after all, usually when we discuss SE games, we're talking about remakes, or one of the many handheld strategy games they've put out this year. Don't let the repetition fool you, though; even when they're treading familiar ground, Square Enix is working to innovate with all of their games.
With Final Fantasy XII, Square Enix took a step outside the box. While the system for improving your characters in the long-running RPG series often differs, from materia to the sphere grid, the basic gameplay has long been at least similar. In the latest installment, however, Square Enix lifted influences from the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI and did away with series staples, like the battle screen, and the result was a Final Fantasy like none before it. Revenant Wings, as a sequel, changes things up as well -- and the result is a fusion of RPG and RTS that, while odd at first, feels completely natural even before the short tutorial is finished.
Oh, sweet time suck. How we've longed to return to your lengthy embrace. Even though we don't know much yet about what to expect when it comes to the sequel to the beloved Advance Wars: Dual Strike, we don't care. It's enough to know that, somewhere, someone is feverishly working to bring us joy. New screenshots will help us through this time. On this one, we're easy to please. Now leave us to our dreams.
Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight
Someone's thinking of playing with you tonight
Somewhere out there someone's planning a war
And we'll crush one another in that big somewhere out there
And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright tank ....
Trauma Center did a swear!
If you ask us, Konami's Elebits is one of the Wii's truly underrated gems, so when we saw that a page for a sequel had appeared in the database of rental specialists Gamefly, we whooped, punched the air, performed chest bumps with one another, and said stuff like "OH YEAH!!" a lot.
If you loved the idea of a portable SimCity, then this news should make your day -- a sequel to the handheld simulation is in the works, and already set for a March release (in Japan). The DS sequel to the first entry in the popular franchise looks to be adding timelines -- with appropriate costumes for your advisors throughout each era, as well as buildings. Cue caveman garb! Otherwise, it seems like typical SimCity fare, which is actually good news.
Oh, 
_thumbnail.jpg "Prince of Persia: The Fallen King")
