‘Real’ gamers poke fun at those that play the Nintendo Wii, they say it’s not a real gaming console and that’s it’s just an expensive toy, but it really isn’t, at least I don’t think so. I like my Wii quite a bit, sure it’s not as powerful as my Xbox360, but it’s still fun and it has it’s place. The Wii is great for casual gaming, and the motion part of it really gets you involved in the game. Looking at the selling history of it we can see that someone is buying it for some reason. The Wii sells well I think because it’s like the missing piece of gaming, it’s not for the hardcore gamers out there, it’s more for families and casual gaming, and that is something that we’ve been missing when it comes to the consoles out there now.

Today for review I’ve got Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward for the Nintendo Wii for review, it’s from Oxygen games. Hysteria Hospital reminded me of a Sims type of game when I first started playing it, that’s not a bad thing if you like those types of games, but I personally don’t care for them. HH is not a bad game really, but it gets boring very quickly, and it doesn’t really offer much new and exciting, it’s actually kind of boring and repetitive honestly. It is cute and funny at times, the animation is done in a comical way that will put a smile on your face, but that’s not enough to make a good game. So read on to see screen shots and a couple movies…

Obligatory box shots here:

Here’s a video of the opening cinematic for you:

There isn’t much in terms of options at the main menu, the only real option is to change the sound effect and music volume.

Specifications:

Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward

A usual day in Hysteria Hospital – another torrent of patients threatens to turn the emergency ward into chaos. Only one person can control the frantic situation – can you keep your patients happy when your ward is overrun?

As a female or male nurse, organize the ward and direct the patients to treat their conditions as quickly as possible. You can design and improve your ward for life-saving efficiency to be the best head nurse in America and save the Hospital from being overrun!

Each of the patients have many humorous conditions, all with cures using the latest, bleeding-edge treatment machines ranging from basic X-Ray’s to steam therapy to the hilarious De-Stress machine.

There are 7 different wards to run, from a local Maryville clinic through to New York Central Hospital; over 60 levels including the ‘Endless’ mode that steadily increases in challenge as you progress.

Can you handle the pressure?!?

The premise behind the game is that you’re a nurse and you need to save people. The view is isometric, or at an angle from the action. It does seem that you are a bit far though from the action, but with this view it allows you to see everything on the screen.

The patients will give you clues as to what they need, instead of talking a picture appears in the bubble over their heads:

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While you’re playing you’ll earn money to purchase upgrades or additional things for your hospital like beds, plants, vending machines and more clinical things.

 

Before each level begins you’ll be tipped as to what the status of the general population is and what to expect in the next level:

You use the Wii motes for everything, a gloved hand is your cursor, you grab people and drop them where they need to go. This system might work well if it was accurate, but it can be hard to actually do what you need to do, I found it frustrating at times trying to grab someone. You’ll miss the person many times, and since you’re on a time schedule it can be doubly frustrating when you miss.

There are also other tasks as well that you are responsible for, like making the beds, cleaning up a station, getting charts where they need to go and even giving medicine to patients. This sounds easy enough, but as I said the controls are not very accurate, you’ll find yourself clicking multiple times to register the action, it seems there just a very small spot to click on to register the action.

The action can be fast paced at times, as the game progresses you’ll get more and more patients. You also have a quote to fill as well to finish the level. Your hospital might not be equipped to handle everything so at times you may have to toss the people in the ambulance to take to another hospital to be taken care of, the ambulance can also be used to handle patients when you’re overloaded as well. The tasks though are really where the repetition comes in, for each patient you must do certain thing, like take them to be diagnosed, then take them to where they need to go, like the clinic, then take their chart to the clinic, then after they’re done you need to clean up the mess and drop it off at the laundry, you do this every time you’ve got a patient. You can chain tasks together to make your nurse do them in order, but again it can be hard to hit the correct spot on the screen with the Wiimote, and when it’s busy, missing something will cause you lost time.

In the beginning of the game the animations are cute, and can be funny, but after playing for a bit they do get boring, you can only see the same cloud of dust, or person being shocked just so many times before it gets to not be funny anymore. The only real talking in the game comes in the form of the public address system that makes announcements, and there seems to be only about 10 or so of them that just keep repeating over and over, at first they’re funny and cute, but they get annoying after playing for a long time. Considering there are 60 levels, there’s a lot of repetition in this game that you’ll be subjected to.

The graphics overall are not bad, it’s the Wii after all, so don’t expect much of course, but for the Wii they’re decent overall.

The play area can get very crowded, very quickly, if you wish to succeed in the game you’ll need extra beds, extra x-rays stations etc, and there’s only so much screen real estate there. At times you’ll find it hard to actually get the job done because with everything on the screen it can get confusing.

Here’s two more in game videos for you:

Conclusion:
The bottom line here is that you’ll get bored very quickly with this game, it’s a mediocre title at best that can be very frustrating at times. It might be worth grabbing if it’s in the bargain bin, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it.

It does offer a bit of fun, but not much, especially for adults, you’ll get bored quickly. Hysteria Hospital is rated E for everyone so kids can play it, but I don’t think they’ll be able to grasp the concepts, there’s just too many steps to follow and it will get frustrating quickly for both young and old alike.

I’m all for supporting the independent game studios and the smaller ones, but they’ve got to give us good games, many of the smaller studio can do this, but with something like Hysteria Hospital is make it hard to support them.

Pros:
+Cute animations
+Lots of levels

Cons:
-Controls can be difficult
-Very repetitive
-Rather boring really

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance