SURGEON SIMULATOR SURGEON DINNER

Written by Katie Bonham

It is a cold Wednesday evening in London Bridge and I am ravenous, but luckily I have been invited to a special feast, held at London Bridge Studios, to celebrate the game launch of Surgeon Simulator on the iPhone. Upon arrival I am dressed in a green gown and transformed into surgeon for the evening. With a no knives and forks policy I am provided with tweezers and other various medial tools to eat with. The menu is surgery themed and created by the ingenious Chef James Thomlinson (aka London Mess), who has brought macabre humour and food to the table.

Once inside the waiting room I am offered a beverage by a blood splattered doctor. The drink is served in urine sample pot and although my cider is a questionable colour I can happily report that it is indeed cider. Through to the operation room and I find the real-life Bob (a lovely actor) laid out onto a medical table ready for surgery. Doctors proceed to serve dinner and the courses begin with a miso soup served in a kidney bowl, followed by roasted bone marrow served in the bone with bread, liver with a sauce-filled syringe and the main course of a rack of 'human' ribs. Although, sadly, I'm not operating on Bob I at least successfully remove parts of his 'body' for my dinner.

The food is an acquired taste of liver and bone marrow, but the fun comes from scooping out the contents of bone marrow, which is wonderfully cathartic. This live equivalent of the game makes it clear why Surgeon Simulator has become so popular, beginning as a small prototype created in 48 hours at the Global Game Jam and now with one million players and a huge following on YouTube with 250 million people watching the butchering unfold. It is addictive and I could happily eat all my food in this manner, but my wide grin while I smash through 'human' bone might lose me a few friends.

I'm offered an iPhone with the Surgeon Simulator game to play as a lovely assistant shows me the basics. It's is simple enough; you play the role of the surgeon, who operates on poor Bob as you attempt to save his life. The game offers a variety of tools from a claw hammer to a plastic bottle. Cue shaky, inexperienced hands and the whole affair gets rather messy, but as they say practice makes perfect. With cracking ribs and cutting lungs, operations have never been so much fun.

The evening ends with a good old brain smashing and I thoroughly enjoy the white chocolate dessert. It's then time to hang up my scrubs and vacate the operating theatre. The evening is a great success and everyone appears to enjoy their interactive feast in celebration of the game's launch. Surgeon Simulator is now available to download from the App Store, so next time you feel like playing God see how successful a heart transplant will go in your capable (or maybe not) hands.