Dr. Awesome iPhone Review
Dr. Awesome ($1.99) (5 out of 5)
The iPhone isn’t exactly the gaming powerhouse that many people predicted early on. The classics are there, of course, but is anybody going to pay $10 for Tetris in 2008? The problem with the App Store is that people are just trying to port old games onto the iPhone. Some, like Super Monkey Ball, are pretty solid. Others, though, don’t share that same success. What the platform really needs is a little dose of creativity, pun definitely intended. Zing!
_
Dr. Awesome (God, I love that name) is what you would get if you took two DS standards and mashed them together. Equal parts Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Trauma Center: Under the Knife, Dr. Awesome, Microsurgeon M.D. shares more with these games that just the punctuation in it’s title. The animation is very similar to Phoenix Wright in its wacky, anime inspired characters while the gameplay borrows extensively from Trauma Center.
The object of the game is to cure your patients of the viruses that are roaming their bodies like so many drunken hobos. You’ll accomplish this by slicing up an area of tissue and trapping the little buggers with your laser/scalpel thing by tilting your phone and utilizing the motion sensing controls. It’s like that Jezzball game from back in the day. Remember that game? It was fun and addictive. So is Dr. Awesome.
What really makes Dr. Awesome as awesome as its awesome name are the unique little touches that the game adds. The names of your ‘patients’ are pulled right from the contacts list on your phone, which has so far resulted in me killing both my sister and her husband (which sucks) and my former boss (which doesn’t really suck at all). It really should let you see the faces of your friends along side their names, though. Dr. Awesome also supports achievements, which sounds a lot cooler than it actually is. You’ll end up earning about half of them on the first few levels if you’re not terrible at the game.
The game is as challenging as it is addicting. The difficulty starts out easy enough but quickly ramps up to hard. The quickness of the rounds and the ease of jumping in and out of the action make the game enjoyable even when you end up failing rounds (and killing patients).
Dr. Awesome is $1.99 and it’s worth every penny. The game joins the short list of must have iPhone games and is the perfect 5 or 10 minute time killer.
This post is part of the series: Dr. Awesome Guide
More articles about Dr. Awesome for the iPhone.
