The original Trauma Center: Under the Knife was one of the most memorable of the early DS releases. A kind of "Surgery Simulator," Trauma Center asked would-be doctors to perform medical procedures using the stylus and touch screen. For example, you'd suture up a wound by drawing a zig-zag pattern across the gash. Foreign objects could be delicately removed via a pair of forceps by dragging your stylus across the screen. Tumors could be zapped with a laser by tapping the stylus. Wrapped around an epic storyline, the original game was good solid fun.

If there was any complaint about the first Trauma Center, it was the brutal difficulty of the later procedures, which required blazing-fast, carpal tunnel-inducing swipes of the stylus. The franchise returns to the Nintendo DS this month with Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, a solid title that keeps all the great gameplay of the original game but cuts casual players some slack by addressing the difficulty curve. With a surprising storyline and a streamlined new interface, Under the Knife 2 is a superb addition to the DS library.


Doctor, Doctor, Gimme the News...

New players shouldn't have any trouble kicking things off, as every surgical procedure is explained fresh when the game begins. Nurses explain every step of the early surgeries, and gradually interrupt less once the player learns the ropes. Still, even later in the game, helpful audio cues ("Sutures are ready, doctor!") help to keep players from getting lost.

The overall difficulty is much better-tuned than in any other game in the series. Players can choose easy, medium or hard difficulty levels for every mission in the storyline. The easy difficulty provides a nice smooth curve all the way to the end of the game, giving even casual players a real challenge without bringing on the frustration. That said, even the easy mode takes off the kid gloves eventually -- you know you're in trouble when transplanting a liver is the "easy" half of a two-part mission. But you never get so frustrated that you want to throw your DS against the wall. That's reserved for players who select the "hard" difficulty, where the game holds nothing back. We played missions at all three levels and found a nice even separation. Keeping a patient alive on hard feels like a real triumph, and you can get a lot of mileage out of the game by revisiting old surgeries at different difficulty levels.

(Nevermind the bonus mission, which can only be played on "x-treme" difficulty. Unlocked after you beat the game, it's almost like a sadistic joke from the developers to test the mettle of hardcore players. We couldn't come close to topping that one.)