Day 223, Game 223 - Amateur Surgeon 3: Tag Team Trauma

First of all, I want to explain the reason for the little, lesser-known handheld games I have been playing and writing about the last couple of days. I really don't need to explain them, but I feel having some context is something I owe my wonderful readers. I don't know why I feel like that, I guess I just don't want anyone to feel like I am cutting corners or being untrue to the nature of this blog, especially any new readers who haven't been there from the beginning. 

I had a weekend vacation up in Seattle, Washington, and while I was trying to enjoy myself and my company as much as possible, I did have some time to play some games. Mainly, that time included the drive up to Seattle, and the drive back, where I was the passenger due to car sickness of my partner-in-crime from not driving. So with that, I got to go along for the ride, as they say, and play games while I was at it. 

I had my 3DS with me, but somehow managed to forget to pack it after I was done playing Dokuro Friday afternoon. I of course had my phone, but I also managed to remember my iPad, which I haven't spent as much time on as I would like. But hey, it's been fun when I do manage to squeeze in play time with it. 

With that, I decided to play a game on my iPad that I downloaded a few days ago, but had yet to try. Amateur Surgeon 3: Tag Team Trauma was free, for some reason, on the iOS store, and seeing as how much I have enjoyed Adult Swim games as of late, figured it was at least worth a try. I had never played an Amateur Surgeon game before hand, so I had no real context for what I was getting in to. With a game like this, it actually makes it a more fun experience now that I think about it. 

In case you are like me, and have never played one of these games before, the premise is simple. You are an amateur surgeon, and you're asked to perform wacky and zany "operations" in order to save a wide variety of characters that come to see you for some strange reason, seeing as how the instruments you use aren't exactly the most sterile or most appropriate tools for the job. A pizza cutter is a serviceable item when slicing an assortment of things, but making incisions on a human body in place of a scalpel isn't exactly standard practice, as far as I know.  

You are scored based on how well you perform precise actions (think of the board game, Operation), and lose bonus multipliers for each wrong or sloppy maneuver. There is also a time limit in each level, topped off with the looming presence of the heart rate monitor, because no matter how bizarre the game is, you still don't want to let your trusting patients die, now do you? At the end of the level you get 1-3 stars for completing it, after which you can go back and play it again, picking between one of two bonus stars to go after for completing bonus challenges, like finishing the surgery in a minute or less, or doing the entire process without one mishap. The more stars you unlock, the more levels you can advance to, which makes replayability a must if you want to advance the game. Luckily, the further into the game you go, the better you get at it, so playing the earlier levels again seems a lot easier the second and third times around. 

Overall, I got through a lot more levels than I really thought I would, as it had that "just one more level" feel to it. Any game that can get me to worry about scores and rankings and stars has done something good in my book. Adult Swim, keep it up. You're doing it right. 

---