There was something jarring about playing Operation as a kid. Even though you knew the thing would vibrate the minute you touched the sides of the board, it was still quite literally shocking to feel it happen.
Stitches, the iPhone app equivalent to Operation, doesn’t provide the same sort of buzz that makes you jump back, but it’s a fairly impressive recreation of the classic board game.
In order to simulate lifting body parts out of a 2D person, the game has been rejiggered a bit. Players use two fingers to rotate the various organs so they match up to the stencils they’re sitting inside. Think of it as a “square peg, round hole” situation.
From there, the eager gamer enlarges the piece until it pops out of the cartoon body and onto a tray. This process is repeated until you either fail to line up the organs properly several times (after which your patient dies) or you run out of time.
I thought the way the game was re-designed for an app experience was very clever. Upon loading the game for the first time (and before reading the instructions), I sat dumbfounded. realizing I wasn’t sure how this was going to work.
If there’s any complaint to be made, it’s that Stitches is just as frustrating to play as Operation. When lining up the organs, if you’re off by even the most minute amount, the game buzzes, and you have to move the piece all over again. Precision movements were key then, and they’re key now.
If you think you can handle that sort of required accuracy, Stitches should keep you busy for quite a while. But if you’re more of a shoot-and-ask-questions-later type of gamer, Stitches might be too slow-paced for you.
Download the free Appolicious iPhone app
