Sometime not too long ago, and I wish I could remember where, someone mused about what it would be like to play a game in which your principal job was to patch up the hapless victims who’d been brutalized in all of the other video games.

It turns out that a game along those rough lines, Trauma Center, actually exists. That’s not the surprise. The surprise is that it’s apparently quite good. I might have to check it out once I get around to acquiring a Wii of my own.

Now all someone needs to do is create a version that supports heterogenous networked play: as your roommate piles up the casualties in the latest Vice City franchise, you’re the one whose emergency room they show up in. Just be sure to keep the guy playing Halo off of your local network. (“Doctor, this man has plasma burns over 30% of his body, and is carrying shrapnel from a Covenant Needler.” “Oh, for Christ’s sake! I’ve only got 21st-century medicine to work with here!”)

Update: Holly has helpfully pointed out that it was in fact Demetri Martin, in a recording we listened to while en route to Palm Springs. I was thinking that it might have been Tea Leaves or possibly xkcd. I’m glad someone around here’s got a decent memory…