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Hysteria Hospital Emergency Ward Nintendo Wii

Format:
Nintendo Wii

Genre:
Minigames

Style:
Competitive
Thirdperson
Dating

Buy/Support:
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An hour of playing Hysteria Hospital Emergency Ward is a bit like an hour in my house with three small children. Deal with this one then tidy up after that one then, fetch something for the other one, blow someone’s nose, wipe a bottom and make snack. A bit too much like reality for me, but fun if you like multi-tasking on a whole new level!

As a new nurse on the Ward your task is to keep the emergency room running smoothly as patients come in to be treated for all kinds of ailments. You start of ever so gently, step by step: drag patient to diagnosis desk, then move to treatment area, bed or ambulance according to need. As the game progresses you get busier and busier until your wii-mote skills are tested to the limit! You do get a few helpful pointers along the way, like being able to stack up tasks and buy in new beds and equipment. The trouble is the more bed and equipment you have the more patients you seem to get.

The patients very helpfully have little bubbles over their heads showing what they need or where they are supposed to go. You have to complete your level before you can move up to the next, which is quite a challenge in the timescale you are set. The game is quite fast paced in contrast to something like Sim hospital which is a bit slower and takes more strategic thinking. There are elements of that in this with a budget to buy new equipment but it is much less real-life than Sim hospital.

I see that this is also going to be available on the DS, which I think would be my preferred method of play. Again with so many Wii games the Wii-mote makes it so hard to navigate the game and do what you need to do, especially when you are working against the clock. I love the Wii for sports games like tennis or golf or the fitness games, but anything where you have to pick things up or move around the screen I just find it isn’t precise enough and arm ache soon follows. Another downside to this are the tiny screen prompts - I was only about 2 ft away from our large flat screen TV but still had to strain to see what the words said. Maybe it’s my age!? I hope not, but generally the look of it was all quite small and fiddly, again something that may look and function better on the DS.

This is quite a fun game, but not particularly good as a whole family kind of thing, far too tricky for younger kids to play and probably not engaging or interesting enough for adults. So, somewhere between the two then? I did enjoy playing it, but it wasn’t exactly a relaxing play and much too much like the manic feel of my real life to be very enjoyable. It was fine when I was progressing through the levels easily but as soon as I have to keep re-playing levels to progress then I start to loose interest.

I would be interested to see how my husband; incapable in everyday life of multi-tasking would cope with the challenge of juggling all the medical emergencies in this game. It would be interesting to have a battle of the sexes on this one. Though I think his more advanced wii-mote skills would probably win it for him! There is quite a lot of scope for progression if you can stick it that long, new wards to open and even new hospitals to explore - 60 levels in all. I think that really would drive me to hysteria!

Written by Josie Campbell

You can support Josie by buying Hysteria Hospital Emergency Ward



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Josie Campbell writes the Domestic Gamer column.

"As quite a domesticated mum of three I love the thought that Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS lite and PSP games can have a practical role around the home and enriching everyday life but also fun to chill out and unwind with too. Here are my Domestic Gamer review, join me to read about all sorts of games, from cooking, health, and family ones too."

Here are the games I've been playing recently:

• Just Dance 3
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