Play doctor with your DS.

[Great Rumbler]

*ahem*

Atlas' Under the Knife is a quirky title that has probably flown under most people's radars. As Derek Stiles, you're the new doctor in town. However, it seems you still haven't quite gotten used to doing even the most simple tasks. In the first two missions (operations) of the game, your nurse will assist you step-by-step in each facet of the operation, from the first incision to the last stitch.

Before you begin your operation you are usually given information about the patient and how they got their injuries. There is also some great comedy-drama dialogue in the game, which is shown in the form of anime-style characters on the top half of the screen. It works because usually there's more than just you and your nurse present, so you get a variety of hilarious opinions.

The game itself is loads of fun to play. Even when your nurse has to tell you exactly what to do and where to do it, you'll still find yourself enjoying cutting up your patient so you can find cancerous tumors in their pancreas. Adding to this is the fact that you only have a certain amount of time to do the operation before another (competent) doctor has to step in.

If you're not careful, you can also do more harm than help. It's up to you how you want to treat your patient. There are also other ways of treating your patient's injuries, so you don't have to go through the step-by-step progress. You'll also need to monitor the patient's life signs because there are a number of ways that a patient's life signs could fluctuate. At times it will be before the operation even starts, and other times it will be because of something you did, such as trying to remove those tumors too fast.

Needless to say, I can't wait to get my hands on the final version of this game when it hits the US later this fall.

http://www.planetgamecube.com/impression...ile&id=778