Review: Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward (Wii)

Starting up you’re given the choice of a female or male nurse. This is probably the biggest failing of the game. Rather than going with a god game structure allowing you to just control a pointer you’re given this character which has to slowly walk up to each item when you point at them. They could’ve ditched the character altogether and it’d already be a much better game. Especially when you consider the wii-mote doesn’t always select the thing you want it to and more often than not you’ll press on something multiple times before it registers. Not what you want from a game with the word Hysteria in the title.

The first hospital (or level) you’re flung into basically acts as a tutorial. It teaches all about upgrading your hospital with various medical appliances like x-ray machines and how to improve the speed of your service. At the start of each day you’re able to sell and buy items before you continue and the hectic day begins. First al all each day in Hysteria Hospital feels like it lasts about five minutes. You get no breathing time because as soon as the doors open then patients will start to arrive and while you can send some away to another hospital in the ambulance these patients aren’t added to your overall total. The total being the number of patients you help, with each day having a total you must reach otherwise you’ll have to start the day over again. While the games title is a big giveaway on what to expect, it doesn’t necessarily make the game fun.

Although each day and hospital brings with it new equipment to buy and new illnesses to treat nothing much really changes as you progress. Even the hospitals themselves seem like just a big box to walk around, even the stuff you buy like beds, food stands and potted plants can only be placed in certain positions. There’s no way you can customise the hospital to how you want it.

The ways of treating each patient does vary slightly. They all start off the same though with you dragging them to the desk where they’ll get diagnosed and a bubble will pop up above their head telling you where they should be put whether it be on an operating table or straight to a bed. From there you need to move your character to the desk where they get their chart and if need be, some medication. Once all complete you’ll need to tidy the bed before someone else can use it. Rinse and repeat. It does become quite hectic once the doors open and at times you will become overwhelmed forcing you to throw patients into the ambulance. Each patient having hearts above their head which slowly tick down before they leave the hospital frustrated, I guess death in a Wii game targeted at kids is a definite no.

The animations and clever little graphical touches are nice. Placing them in the X-ray machine for instance will have a little animation of them getting shocked straight out of a cartoon. And the isometric viewpoint is welcome and means that you’ll never get obstructed by scenery. It’s basic, but it works for what the game is trying to achieve. We just wish the music was a little more catchy.

Hysteria Hospital is a game with a good idea, but one that is poorly executed. Running a hospital is great if you’re given the ability to customise it to your hearts desire, and this is where this game falls down. It feels like you’re going through the motions, which essentially you are, with little in the way of experimentation. A missed opportunity.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver