Atlus Readies Stylus-Based Surgery Game For DS

Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing Atlus' announcement of a stylus-utilizing touchscreen surgery game for the Nintendo DS handheld. According to the article about Caduceus: Surgical Operation: "The player steps into the role of a talented young surgeon who must operate on different maladies in each of the game's stages... Actions such as cutting the patient or getting rid of an unidentified parasite are done with the [Nintendo DS] stylus. In addition, while operating, the player must cheer on the patient using the device's voice recognition." There's also a couple of screenshots of the forthcoming Life & Death-eque game, featuring the "Hurted Heart" mission, on the Japanese-language NTT site.

Comments

This Is Why The DS Is Cool

[MBCook]

How could you do a game like this on the PSP or GBA? You couldn't. Controll would be just too much of an issue. But with the DS's touch screen, you can do surgery, or add an alien autopsy to your game. You could even do an "Operation" game of sorts (don't touch the sides!).

These are the kind of things that Nintendo was talking about when they said we'd get new kinds of gameplay. At E3 there was a carving demo that would let your carve things. They could do things like that to let you make your own piece in a board game. It may take some time, but I think we are going to see some VERY interesting games from the DS. Even if some aren't good, the innovation will be great.

How about a game where you "raise" a little AI robot or something. You could design it yourself, and be able to add user created objects to it's little "playpen" to explore and see how it reacts to things. You could "program" it by connecting little logic blocks (sort of how you program the Lego Mindstorms software).

And of course, now we could get a VERY cool version of Mario Paint.

"cheer on the patient" ????

[menscher]

while operating, the player must cheer on the patient using the device's voice recognition

Yeah, that's what I always look for in a surgeon... someone to "cheer me on" while I'm unconscious.

Re:"cheer on the patient" ????

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing that this patient belongs to some cut-rate HMO that won't pay for frills like anesthesia.... "You can do it! Don't start writhing on me now! The pain will only make you stronger!"

Mario Paint!

[OneIsNotPrime]

Great point!

Seriously, how many of us would love to see a greatly enhanced sequel to this classic. The DS would be ideal, but I could also envision a GC/next gen version that utilizes the Mario Sunshine engine and allows one to create their own 3D Mario adventure.

It could feature a user friendly 3d modeler (with premade models of all the Nintendo favorites, of course). Design your own character or bad guy, apply premade or user-created texture maps/bump maps, etc., then create animations of the character through a smart interface. Put the characters in a designed game world and give them routes to walk on, triggers to react to, etc. Create worlds with premade or user designed objects, events, and triggers. Also let the user create some hilariously lame in game music, of course. Then create an overworld and even make in-game cinemas with your characters and user recorded audio! Imagine the possibilites...

Meanwhile, relive some Mario Paint goodness here.

Mods

[Cyberop5]

First thing I'd do is create a plastic surgery mod for m' ladies ;)

Life and Death!

[prockcore]

Man I loved that game, and I sucked at it! I used to play on my ][gs. I couldn't get past the apendectomy. The game didn't like my sutures or something.

But man, if I ever had to perform an emergency apendectomy, i could. Oh sure, you'd bleed to death later because aparently I can't sew, but at least you wouldn't die from apendicitis.

In case you didn't read the article...

[osrevad]

...It says that this game will fall under the "sci-fi surgery action game" genre. I think we can all agree that we've already had way to many games in this category. Why can't they do something original for once!

And you hated mobile phone users before

[SmallFurryCreature]

Imagine the looks from your fellow travellers while screaming "hang in there" "don't die on my now" "we got a squirter here get a me a clamp he is bleeding all over" into you gameboy.

On a side note, why can't I ever turn of the music on gba games? Is it somekind of mind control program that I must play with horrible repetetive crappy soundcard music?

Games becoming more like work

[ALeavitt]

Has anyone else noticed a trend of games becoming like work? The first example that comes to mind is the common leveling treadmill, in which one has to complete the same task again and again for hours just to get anywhere. Now there are curry-house simulators, sports stat management sims that play like glorified spreadsheets, and a surgery game. What's next, "Answer the Phone eXtreme"?

Re:Argh! No!

[drinkypoo]

Yes, using a stylus is the absolute worst input method ever. That's why we have completely given up writing on paper.

I don't know how much mileage will really come out of it, and this is the only example I've yet seen that wasn't totally lame, but face it - there is no better way to mimic a scalpel than a stylus, at least at this point. How can you not think this is cool? It will necessarily improve hand-eye coordination, which is always good.

Touch screens are cool. A stylus is the only accurate way to use one. And, a mouse is not feasible for use with a handheld gaming device. Kindly extract head from rectum before posting.