Life and Death

Some games stick with you... even after the computer they worked on breaks and the disk gets lost. "Life and Death 2: The Brain" is one of those games for me.

Even as a youngster, I loved this Brain-Surgery simulation. It was so realistic -- or at least it felt realistic at the time. There was no real beginning or end to the game, patients simply randomly come in with illnesses, and using the tools of an actual doctor (MRI, Cat Scan, X-Ray) you diagnose and fix them.

You even perform surgery in a realistic way — you need to monitor vitals, give proper treatments when the patient is having complications, and most importantly have a knowledge of the surgery and a steady hand to operate. To this day I am proud to say I operated successfully on three different patients with Subdural Hematomas.

Well, as I said, I have no way to play the game anymore, and every site that has claimed I could download the game has been a lying. I've been looking ever since for a good Doctor sim. Nintendo's recent 'Trauma Center" games pale in comparison, with their fast-paced laser-shooting surgery.

Frankly, after "Trauma Center," I had lost hope. That was, until tonight, when I read about "Life Signs: Surgical Unit." Apparently, the Nintendo DS title, which is going to be released on June 26, is similar to "Trauma Center" in the RPG aspect, but differs in that this game is very medical heavy. Like "Life and Death," you apparently have to diagnose and then perform the actual operations. How realistic this will be is still up in the air, as there has really been no good media around yet on the U.S. version... but there are videos of the Japanese version out there -- like this one!



I've made no secret about the fact that I am no fan of handheld systems... but if this game is as good as I think it will be, between this and "Drawn to Life," I may be buying my first handheld since the Atari Lynx very very soon!