Nintendo Wii Puts Arcades Out of Business, Goes to Medical School   - 1,924 Views,

The Nintendo Wii is back in the news, being blamed for the closure of as many a 20% of Namco’s game arcades.

Namco spokesperson Yuji Machida said that “A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home.”

And when it’s not vanquishing gaming arcades, the Nintendo Wii can be found going to medical school.

Medical school?

That’s right - at least if they follow the recommendations coming out of a study peformed at the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix!

The study, conducted by Good Samaritan’s Kanav Kahol and Marshall Smith, found that surgical residents (medical students) performed better during simulated surgery if they had played on the Wii before going in to surgery.

“The whole point about surgery is to execute small, finely controlled movements with your hands, and that is exactly what you get playing Wii,” said Kahol.

In being scored on the surgery simulator, the team found that those who had played on the Wii before surgery scored a full 48% higher than those who had not.

As a result, Smith and Kahol are in the process of designing a surgery simulator software for the Wii.

No word on whether it will be available to the public, but for those with the stomach - and the budget - for it, it could be pretty cool.