FREE: Operation mania (medical mayhem in the E.R)

While the game may bear a passing resemblance to the Milton Bradley board game, it's not really the same. In the board game you use tweezers to carefully remove bits from the board without touching strategically placed metallic strips. If you do, the patient's nose lights up and everybody is supposed to laugh. In this video game, some of the patients that enter the hospital look similar to the one from the board game, but the mechanics are different, and, as it turns out, pretty entertaining

The video game is much more about speed than precise movements. The entire game takes place on a static screen and puts you in control of a wiry-haired doctor. Things start off with patients lining up on waiting room seats, the number of which increases as you move through either story or marathon mode. They all have icons over their heads indicating what kind of treatment they need, and using the mouse you pick them up and plop them down at the appropriate station, be it the check-in desk, operating table or X-ray setup. Each patient's path through the hospital may be different; some may just require a check-in, some may come in with an emergency and need to go to the operating table, but all will turn into a pile of cash once they're done

The catch is each patient also has a timer above their head which gradually counts down. If you don't get to them in time, they die. So you need to constantly be scanning the screen for who needs attention first, then make sure you have enough open stations to take care of them, as there are a limited number of check in desks, operating tables, beds, and wheelchairs to rush out any patients you can't quite get to. The game throws quite a few variations into this formula to add variety to the play. Some patients' timer bars decrease at different speeds, lining up patients with the same color of clothes repeatedly at the same station increases a multiplier there, and performing the same activity multiple times like clearing patients from hospital beds gives you bonus dollars. So overall there are quite a few layers to the gameplay, which turn out to make this a deeper experience than you might expect for a casual style game.

These dollars can then be used to upgrade various stations so they earn more money, bump up your doctor's run speed so he can get to patients more quickly, or buy new beds and check-in desks to let you more effectively run patients through the health care gauntlet. Alerts like health inspections and epidemics will occasionally sound to mix things up even further. In all, there's quite a bit you need to pay attention to in the game, something the stage-based story mode does a good job of introducing you to and something the marathon mode throws at you all at once.

And then, under all that, are mini-games you can perform at the operating table for bonus dollars. You don't really have to do these, though, and once enough patients crowd your office you won't really want to do it as it throws off your rhythm and planning, as you can queue your doctor's movements to move from one station to give you a second to scan a few steps ahead. The mini-games are all pretty simplistic and throwaway activities, requiring extremely rudimentary twitch skills to perform goofy actions like catching frogs in burlap sacks, whacking tennis balls, and a few memory challenges.

IGN Ratings for Operation Mania (PC).
Rating Description
out of 10 Click here for ratings guide
8.0 Presentation
A nice use of UI icons to convey the large amount of information you're required to process.
5.0 Graphics
Decent, cartoony visuals, but nothing all that memorable.
6.0 Sound
Pretty generic in general, but a good use of sound effects to indicate changes in the gameplay or patient status.
7.5 Gameplay
There's a lot more to this game than you may initially think. It's hectic, but if you can maintain focus and rack up multiplier bonuses it can be entertaining.
7.0 Lasting Appeal
The marathon and story modes should keep you busy for a while.
7.1
OVERALL Decent

Hello guys sorry for having to write so much about the game, but i wanted you guys to see & actually feel like your in the game,
HAPPY BIDDING & ENJOY THE FREE SHIPPING!

What age range is this for?

sound like a nice game, especially for people in med field. Thank you.