My experience with the Trauma Center series isn't exactly stellar. I sold the first DS game about a week after buying it because a particularly heinous case of magic tumors sent me into a console-crushing rage. After that, I tread lightly -- and only touched the subsequent DS and Wii sequels because I had a nostalgic longing for the time before those tumor attacks.

Mystical medical procedures really aren't my bag and neither are increasingly difficult cases that impose blood-boiling time limits. Despite my history, I decided to give Trauma Team a chance because Atlus is making a fairly big deal out of the changes they've made. Well, let's see if this actually holds up or if I am destined to hate medical video games forever.

The previous games all lacked the same thing: variety. Sure, you could play different missions and even replay them, but the Trauma Center experience is largely a guided one. Trauma Team answers this formulaic design with six playable doctors from various fields of medicine, including a forensic examiner and a guy who looks like Spike Spiegel from the Cowboy Bebop anime mixed with Dr. Gregory House.

I'm actually impressed with the unique experience each doctor provides. The main character, a nameless convict brought in to perform dangerous, next to impossible, surgeries, is the only one that sticks to the usual Trauma Center "remove this tumor, sew up the wound" pattern. Other doctors manage multiple patients at disaster sites, perform precision excisions and bone grafts, or operate endoscopes. Frantic time limits aren't the issue here, and the Wii remote offers a surprising amount of precision.

My one issue is that the nunchuck is a complete nightmare to use. Each tool you use is keyed to one of six directions, and that is as imprecise as it can be. Pressing up can often send your cursor to the left or right of the desired target, and keeping the item you need selected is an absolute pain. This, coupled with my intense dislike of having to push an endoscope into a virtual colon, made me want to lob my controller just as I once nearly destroyed my DS.

The Endoscopy mode totally killed my goodwill for about three days. No amount of clever plot-connecting and fantastical story elements could make up for a section that simply didn't work, and that left my arm incredibly tired. Most levels involve finicky multi-step procedures that the setup is not able to handle. Had it been simplified, I think I would have had a better time with it, but the biggest issue of all was losing my way in druglord's labyrinthine colon....

My hope for future installments is more of a focus on the diagnostic and forensic aspects of this game and less on the completely "gamey" surgeries. Witty characters working through complex puzzles is absolutely perfect to me. Medical adventure games, that's what the world needs, just like we need the Ace Attorney series.

But, to address the question asked by the title, can Trauma Team win over a jaded gamer? My answer is a resounding "maybe." I definitely enjoyed some parts of this game and appreciate the departure from grueling time limits and magic powers, but the overall experience needs some tuning. Despite the bicep-destroying endoscopy, Trauma Team is a positive step forward, made better by allowing the player to choose which field of medicine they want to work with at any given time.

But I'm still jaded -- and my arm still hurts.