House, M.D. - Episode 4: Crashed Review (DSiWare)

Dr. Gregory House is back this month with yet another instalment of House M.D. If you’ve played the previous games in the series, then you know exactly what to expect from this one. If you haven’t had the opportunity to experience any of these games, then feel free to continue reading. You’re in for a real treat.

Like the previous three episodes, this game features an all new plot and a brand new medical mystery that can only be solved by Dr. House. House, M.D. - Episode 4: Crashed tells the story of two girls who suffer a terrible car accident as they carelessly text while driving. Though neither girl suffers any mortal damage from the crash, one of them is covered in strange bruises and wounds that won’t stop bleeding. Through a series of dialogue-driven story scenes and uninspired mini-games, it is your job to get to the bottom of this medical mystery and find a cure for the patient before it’s too late.

All of the mini-games from the previous episodes are back and still require little more from you than simply tapping or sliding the stylus across your DSi’s touch screen where and when you’re prompted to do so. After playing each of these before in the previous episodes, you should be able to breeze through them like a pro. There is a new mini-game added this time around, but it’s essentially just a sliding puzzle, and that’s hardly enough to make this title stand out from the rest. The unfortunate thing about this game isn’t that the mini-games are all recycled from pervious entries, but instead that the mini-games are just not fun to play. They are all over-simplified and do nothing to engage to player.

As is the standard with these House, M.D. games, it’ll cost you 800 Nintendo Points and won’t last you much longer than two hours. Playing through the entire story will get you 100% completion on the title screen, making the grades that you receive throughout the game completely arbitrary. Essentially, once you’ve played through the short story once, there is absolutely no reason to do it again. You won’t have the opportunity to unlock anything, and all of the mini-games remain exactly the same with each play through.

Much like everything else here (with the obvious exception of the plot), the audio and visual presentation have remained entirely unchanged. The soundtrack still features the same exact songs from the previous episodes, and the graphics retain their detail and vibrancy. These have all remained unchanged simply because House, M.D. - Episode 4: Crashed is, again, just one small piece of the original PC game.