I am a real sucker for surgical sims... i admit it. Lifesigns: Surgical Review is the second installment of some strange anime doctor series in Japan. However, the first one hasn't been marked for a US release. Sorry folks. Anyway, Lifesigns can be considered a direct competitor to Trauma Center. Only in my mind, Lifesigns has a few more interesting quirks. It is as if Truama Center, House M.D. and a T rated dating sim got together. In short, BIG FUN!

Plot: You control Tendo Dokuta (His surname being the Japanese pronunciation of the word Doctor), an intern in his second year at some fancy hospital in Japan. You control his life as a doctor, only unlike Trauma Center, this isn't just his life as a doctor. You have exploration, chatting, mini-games, and surgery. Tendo Dokuta works in his hospital in which only one of the ladies out of all the others is actually hideous, most of them are hot. And i swear i will get the lucky b*****d for it if it takes me a lifetime. Some of it is drawn out and has holes in it, but luckily the instruction booklet tells you what happened in the previous installment. What i am curious about is how come Tendo can't even go on vacation without encountering a bizarre or serious medical emergency?! It has multiple endings to chapters and episodes, and has an overly dramatic end. But, what else could you expect? You go from operating on the gallbladder of a androphobic teenager to trying to score with the nice nurses.

Graphics: Cute little sprites in some parts, but mostly the graphics are drawn anime frames, no voice acting, it mostly has the talk with little beeps effect that you have in Golden Sun. Luckily, it is very easy to speed through text without those beeps. The characters are well drawn, and the sprites have a funny variety. As for surgery itself, unlike Trauma Center, for the most part everything is the right color.

Gameplay: Most of the time you are exploring, trying to get the plot to go forward. You also play minigames, which range from picking up fruit to air hockey. Throughout every conversation outside of surgery, you will take notes and other stuff about what is going on around you. Those notes come in handy for continuing the plot, convincing people, and striving towards that ending you want. One thing you will notice are errors in the text due to a hasty translation job. Very low on animations, but this game does a good job with what it does have, making up for the shortcomings.

But when it comes down to the most important part of the game, surgery, you'll be more than satisfied. Rather than the pick-your-own-tool and slice and dice of Trauma Center, this game is very realistic in surgery. Though some operations and procedures are changed from the real world procedures, compared to Trauma Center, you really are a doctor. You are given your tools and instructions, and you must carry it out with precision. You hold down one of the trigger buttons when you aren't touching the screen to concentrate and see the path you have to work on, but it only stays visible shortly, so you have to be fast and precise. You handle several forms of injuries, starting simple with acute appendicitis, but moving up to epidural hematomas, ruptured lungs, and other assorted stuff as you pick apart peoples personal lives and try to get poor Tendo a girlfriend. It is a little hard to put this game down.

Music: Not a bad score for a handheld. The music and sound effects have some realistic parts and some funny anime parts. Though the lack of voice acting is a little disappointed, like i mentioned earlier, this game gives you quality in what it does have.

Difficulty: If you keep your wits about you, then this game is difficult, but at a fun and challenging level. If you panic, this game is impossible. Like a doctor, you must concentrate and keep your wits. Unlike Trauma Center, you follow the operation step-by-step, but you have much less room for mistakes. Truama Center has you learning on the fly, but somehow i find Lifesigns less repetitive than Trauma Center.

Overall: A superior surgeon with red hair and a bell choker... a bumbling but cute and good hearted nurse... and Meryl of Metal Gear Solid in the medical industry... if the game doesn't get you, a lot of the girls will. It keeps all of the proper elements of anime. It has violence, humor, and fanservice. If you love drama and life and death situations, pick up this game. This is not a game you should rent. If you rent it, you will want to play it till the end, but then you'll want to see the alternate endings, and then you'll realize that you haven't slept in three days.

My rating: 9/10