Operate Now: Hospital

While the name of this fun management sim implies that you'll be slicing and dicing your way through surgeries, the focus is actually on running a hospital. But there will still be plenty of operations. And you'll get ample guidance on which tool(s) to use and what steps to take to help people get through their surgery and heal. The app provides lots of encouragement to responsibly plan and execute your taks, and the process involves more thought than just dragging an item somewhere else on the screen. In fact, to get assignments done, you'll need to delegate work among staff members -- and you'll only be able to ask people who haven't already been asked to do something else.

The fact that you restore the staff's stamina via coffee and energy drinks sends an iffy nutritional message. And there are some odd capitalization and grammar errors, like uppercasing "patients" and "cash" in the game text. But for the most part, the experience offers an admirable focus on the work required to run a business and the human elements involved in medicine and managing people. Unlike some simulation games, where in-app earnings go mainly toward avatar gear and other frivolous items, here currency can be spent on things that provide a more tangible effect, such as upgrading a department so that it runs more efficiently. Between the emphasis on caring for others and the choices players make, Operate Now: Hospital takes the simulation game genre to a higher level -- and keeps it interesting through ongoing storylines and a constant stream of new work.