By Andy Kozlowski

Contributing Reporter

With all the flak video games get for violence these days, it’s easy to forget that many of them don’t involve fighting at all.

Virtual pacifists can find plenty of pulse-pounding moments in “Trauma Center: New Blood” for Wii, a fast-paced surgery sim where you save lives instead of taking them.

Here, the motion-sensing and pointer capabilities of the Wii remote prove their versatility, as the controller becomes your scalpel, forceps, syringe and more.

You’ll cut patients open and suture them back up, inject medicine and apply antibiotics, extract foreign objects like bullets and glass and drain hemorrhages.

You’ll also detect tumors with ultrasound and excise them with lasers, twist and turn broken bones back into place, and even jolt patients with the defibrillator.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, a taste of what you’ll face in the first chapter. New skills are introduced throughout and mastering them all is essential to solving unexpected complications that could result in your patient’s death.

Those who feel queasy at the sight of blood and gore need not worry. The teen-rated “New Blood” has a stylized aesthetic where flesh wounds and internal organs glow in a colorful manner, like shapes made of pure energy. Applying skin grafts to burn victims never looked snazzier.

What can be disturbing, however, is the game’s difficulty in single player. While not insurmountably hard, playing alone can prove quite challenging.

Thankfully, a two-player co-op mode allows you to operate with a friend. Teamwork not only makes the procedures more manageable, but it’s incredibly fun and gives “New Blood” real staying power.

Replay value is further increased by online leaderboards that rank the scores of players around the world, providing incentive to perfect your game.

Framing everything is a serviceable soap opera narrative, with simple anime stills and quality voiceovers advancing the plot between operations. A 16:9 widescreen mode is available.

“New Blood” won’t prepare you for on-the-spot surgery should you encounter victims of a train wreck in real life, but playing doctor in the virtual O.R. can be immensely satisfying, especially with a friend by your side.