LOS ANGELES, CA – In a desperate attempt to salvage his copy of Super Mario Bros, L.A. native and first-year University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) medical student Mac Little summoned his ACLS knowledge and started giving his flatlining Nintendo cartridge two rescue breaths.

“NOOOOOO!!!!!” screamed Little before taking a deep breath, forming a tight seal with his lips around the center of the cartridge, and giving a fast and forceful 10-second rescue blow.  “Come on, COME ON!!!” he frantically blurted towards his 31-year-old childhood friend before giving a second rescue breath.

Though cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is typically reserved for the emergency care of human patients, that hasn’t stopped a whole generation of adults who grew up playing with the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) from using it on “frozen” game cartridges of old favorites like Metroid, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Mega Man 2, Tetris, Double Dragon, or The Legend of Zelda.

“The fact of the matter is that many of these adults, no matter if they are working nowadays in the health care field or not, were implementing CPR on these cartridges as children, before they even took any BLS or ACLS courses,” explained Dr. Jerome Louis, spokesperson for the American Heart Association (AHA), as he blows into his favorite NES game of all-time, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse.  “If you ask me, that’s pretty remarkable… Damn it, work now, WORK!”

When Little’s two rescue breaths didn’t improve the condition of the Nintendo cartridge and simply covered it with saliva, he moved to the next steps on the ACLS Nintendo algorithm: hitting the Reset button, turning it off and on, and giving the cartridge slot both rescue breaths and compressions.  After over 35 seconds of persistence, the resuscitation efforts paid off.

“PHEW, that was a close one!!!” shouted a joyful Little, grabbing his controller and moving to the final step of the protocol: rescuing Princess Toadstool.  He shrugged his shoulders and smiled.  “Works every time!”

Pros / Doc(ument) Hunt is a fun follow-up to Nintendo’s Duck Hunt that allows medical providers to channel their rage against paperwork by shooting up flying charts.

Cons / The fun wears off quickly as you’re overwhelmed with paperwork.  There are no administrators to hunt and, no, you can’t shoot your hunting buddy, Da Vinci.

The One Liner / Doc(ument) Hunt is initially fun but after 15 minutes you’ll find yourself suffocating under all the paperwork, just like in real life.

Duck Hunt is a first-person shooter that debuted in 1985 alongside Super Mario Bros on the same cartridge.  For the generation of health care providers who grew up with Duck Hunt as kids, Doc(ument) Hunt will give them a much needed outlet while reliving some childhood memories.

Ducks have been replaced by paper charts.  Your annoying, laughing a**hole dog friend from Duck Hunt is no longer around, but he’s been replaced by an even more-annoying and useless character: the Da Vinci Surgical Robot.  After a few rounds, you’ll try to shoot the robot right square in the red eye.  Unfortunately, you can’t kill it.  I know, it’s unfortunate.

The initial few rounds are addictive, but like the original game, it starts to get repetitive.  You start realizing how many f**king charts there are and how it never stops.  In fact, by round five, expect to see no fewer than 2,000 charts at which to shoot.  But here’s the problem: you only have 10 bullets and 1 pen.

You’ll probably react like we did: where’s all the other fun stuff to shoot?  No EHRs.  No Pyxis machines, no Omnicells, no telemetry monitors.  No broken computers, keyboards, or mice.  No administrators.  Not even any patient satisfaction surveys.  Just charts.  Lots and lots of annoying f**king charts.

Other GomerBlog reviews:
– Children’s Book Review: Grace & Chase Tackle Acid-Base
– Music Review: Radiohead’s Clinic A
– Product Review: Mattel’s Resuscitate Me Elmo

Pros / Da Vinci’s Punch-Out!! is an instant classic as “Nurse” Little Mac takes on a new cast (well, mostly new) of health care characters that medical personnel love to hate.

Cons / The final boxing match against Da Vinci can take as long as 8 hours.

The One Liner / Da Vinci’s Punch-Out!! is a must-own game for fans of the Punch-Out!! franchise and easily catapults to No. 1 as this year’s best video game.

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! became an instant hit the second it was rolled out by Nintendo back in 1987.  With Little Mac taking on a list of quirky but entertaining opponents that culminated in a final fight with Iron Mike, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was owned by any kid with an original Nintendo.

Nearly three decades later, enter Da Vinci’s Punch-Out!!

Little Mac is back, albeit a little older.  Now with a nursing degree, “Nurse” Little Mac rekindles his first love for boxing, now with a special twist: rather than fighting the likes of Glass Joe and Piston Honda, Little Mac takes on a cast of medical foes.  And yes, “Doc” Louis is back in his corner, not letting a recent heart attack slow him down, and so is Super Mario as referee.

Video games have certainly changed in the past quarter century, with some more realistic than ever and others evolving into a form of high art.  Da Vinci’s Punch-Out!! is a reaction to this movement with its return to 8-bit simplicity.

Little Mac first encounters the twin terrors, the Pyxis and Omnicell, clumsy medication-dispensing devices that try to defeat “Nurse” Little Mac by not recognizing his fingerprint or ID code.  Punch both in the main menu and lower drawers to take them down.

Next marks the return of Bald Bull.  The past thirty years has seen him acquire a pannus and OxyContin addiction, leading him to become a painful frequent flier to “Nurse” Little Mac.  Just like the Bald Bull of old, he’ll charge at you but this time with a different purpose: a request for IV Dilaudid with IV Benadryl and he won’t take no for an answer.

We don’t want to spoil the fun, but a few other characters will be sure to make you laugh: Mark the IT Guy, Pharmacy, Christian Blacksuit the Hospital Administrator, and Patty the Patient Satisfaction Survey.

And of course, there’s the final opponent: Da Vinci.

Unlike Mike Tyson who can knock you out with a single punch, Da Vinci will try to lull you to sleep over a minimum of eight hours.  Word of advice: When you duck from Da Vinci, duck slowly because all of his punches are carried out with painfully slow precision.  It might in fact be the longest boss fight in the history of video games.  But you’ll definitely spend every minute of those long, long hours trying to kick its useless, metal ass!  Because honestly, who doesn’t?!