History YMMV / AmateurSurgeon

* ScrappyMechanic: While vacuuming up blood was always a thing in the series since the second game, it was mostly an optional task so you could see the area better. The fourth game, however, makes it ''obligatory'' to vacuum up all the blood in a surgery's section before you can continue with the next one, which eats up at the timer very quickly.

* ScrappyMechanic: While vacuuming up blood was always a thing in the series since the second game, it was mostly an optional thing so you could see the area better. The fourth game, however, makes it ''obligatory'' to vacuum up all the blood in a surgery's section before you can continue with the next one, which eats up at the timer very quickly.

* ScrappyMechanic: While vacuuming up blood was always a thing in the series, it was usually an optional thing so you could see the area a bit better. The fourth game, however, makes it so you ''have'' to vacuum up all the blood before you can continue with the surgery, which eats up at the timer very quickly.

** Ants are the most common pest, but they can still be really annoying due to how small they are. Ice ants are even worse since they're faster, leave behind frost, and drop your heart rate pretty quickly.

** Ted Rando cuts up the patient to find coins or diamonds, leaving some additional injuries for you to treat in exchange of getting an increase of currency earnings. While he could serve well to create an optional bonus task if you're near the end of a surgery and see you have plenty of time left, the problem is that you can't even use Ted manually; the time he triggers his ability is automatically randomized. Thus, he can be triggered in the middle of the surgery, usually when you ''really'' don't want any more things to deal with.

** Ted Rando cuts up the patient to find coins or diamonds, leaving some additional injuries for you to treat in exchange of getting a bonus. While he could serve well to create an optional bonus task if you're near the end of a surgery and see you have plenty of time left, the problem is that you can't even use Ted manually; the time he triggers his ability is automatically randomized. Thus, he can be triggered in the middle of the surgery, usually when you ''really'' don't want any more things to deal with.

** Ted Rando cuts up the patient to find coins or diamonds, leaving some additional injuries for you to treat in exchange of getting a bonus. While he could serve well as an optional bonus task if you're near the end of a surgery and see you have plenty of time left, the problem is that you can't even use Ted manually; the time he triggers his ability is automatically randomized. Thus, he can be triggered in the middle of the surgery, usually when you ''really'' don't want any more things to deal with.

** Ted Rando cuts up the patient to find coins or diamonds, leaving some additional injuries for you to treat in exchange of getting a bonus. While he could be useful if you're near the end of a surgery and see you have plenty of time left, the problem is that you can't even use Ted manually; the time he triggers his ability is automatically randomized. Thus, he can be triggered in the middle of the surgery, usually when you ''really'' don't want any more things to deal with.

** Max Chaos's ability is to change your patient's injuries into other injuries, which sounds like it could be useful to quickly get rid of injuries that are difficult or tedious to treat. However, Max's powers are auto-generated, so you're unable to control ''what'', exactly, you want to change, and chances are you'll end up with something even ''more'' annoying, such as floating swirling objects that are very difficult to catch. It's doubtful you'll find yourself wanting to use him, and he seems to exist solely to create challenging Partner Specials, like in the case of Level 92 (Useful Brother).

* UselessUsefulSpell:
** In the fourth game, Max Chaos's ability is to change your patient's injuries into other injuries, which sounds like it could be useful to quickly get rid of injuries that are difficult or tedious to treat. However, Max's powers are auto-generated, so you're unable to control ''what'', exactly, you want to change, and chances are you'll end up with something even ''more'' annoying, such as floating swirling objects that are very difficult to catch. It's doubtful you'll find yourself wanting to use him, and he seems to exist solely to create challenging Partner Specials, like in the case of Level 92 (Useful Brother).
** Similarly, Ted Rando's ability in the fourth game has him cut up the patient to find coins or diamonds. While this could be useful if you're near the end of a surgery and see you have plenty of time left, the issue is that his ability is auto-generated, so he'll end up triggering in the middle of the surgery, usually when you ''really'' don't want any more things to deal with. Unless the surgery is extremely simple, it's highly unlikely that you'll want to use him, and he seems to exist just to make difficult Partner Specials.

* GeniusBonus: At one point in the first game, Alan says that he'll have women flocking to him for "acute angina". While most people would assume that the joke is that it sounds like "[[HehHehYouSaidX vagina]]", that's actually a real medical term for a lack of blood flow in your heart that causes chest pain, so Alan is saying that he will get to touch women's chests.

** ''Tag Team Trauma'' and ''Regenerations'' go further with unique and creative patients, partners, and (for the latter game) in-game events... though they do also introduce microtransactions to the seires.
* GeniusBonus: At one point in the first game, Alan says that he'll have woman flocking to him for "acute angina". While most people would assume that the joke is that it sounds like "[[HehHehYouSaidX vagina]]", that's actually a real medical term for a lack of blood flow in your heart that causes chest pain, so Alan is saying that he will get to touch women's chests.

* ThatOneLevel: [[ThatOneLevel/AmateurSurgeon Has its own page.]]

* DemonicSpiders: Pretty much most of the pests would count, as they are small and fast and can be easy to miss, and require a variety of methods to take care of.
** Ants are the most common enemy but they can be really annoying because of how small they are. Ice ants are even worse. They’re faster, leave behind frost, and can drop your heart rate pretty quickly.

** Scorpions are small and tough that you have to use your ''chainsaw'' to kill them, and doing so will leave behind poison/pus that you have to quickly vacuum up.
** Bats are probably the worst. They're extremely fast and erratically fly all over the place making accuracy difficult. Not only that, but they also leave behind cuts and scratches.
** Mice too as they require the chainsaw to kill, have lots of health, are fast, and crawl all over the screen even off-screen and in hard-to-reach areas making them an absolute pain to kill.
** Ironically, spiders are probably the least frustrating enemies to deal with, as they only need to be shocked once and they're big enough to be easy targets.

** ''Tag Team Trauma'' and ''Regenerations'' go further with unique and creative patients, partners, and in-game events for the latter game.
* GeniusBonus: At one point, Alan says that he'll have woman flocking to him for "acute angina", which is when there's a lack of blood flow in your heart that causes chest pain. Alan is saying that he will get to touch women's chests.
* SequelDifficultyDrop: ''Amateur Surgeon 2'' is considerably easier than its predecessors, particularly when going for a high score as [[ScoreMultiplier combos]] are much easier to keep up. Though this is {{Subverted}} for the Mystery Boss, which requires you to [[GimmickLevel use a flashlight]] as opposed to seeing everything at once. '''OH''', and in the mobile port, the light moves when you '''[[ScrappyMechanic tilt the device]]'''.
* TearJerker: [[spoiler:Alan reuniting with Dr. Bleed]] at the end of the second game, [[spoiler:after reviving him with vampire tears. Uncharacteristically from him, Alan feels too sad to be able to really joke around, while Bleed spends the time with him congratulating him for his innovative success as a surgeon. Once Bleed leaves to return to the afterlife, Alan is left alone and crying]].

* UselessUsefulSpell: In the fourth game, Max Chaos's ability is to change your patient's injuries into other injuries, which sounds like it could be useful to quickly get rid of injuries that are difficult or tedious to treat. However, Max's powers are auto-generated so you're unable to control what ''exactly'' you'll want to change, and chances are you'll end up with something even ''more'' annoying, such as floating swirling objects that are very difficult to catch. It's doubtful you'll find yourself wanting to use him, and he seems to exist solely to create challenging Partner Specials, as is the notable case of Level 92 (Useful Brother).

* TearJerker: [[spoiler:Alan reuniting with Dr. Bleed]] at the end of the second game, [[spoiler:after reviving him with vampire tears. Uncharacteristically from him, Alan feels too sad to be able to really joke around, while Dr. Bleed spends all the time with him congratulating him for his job as a surgeon. Once Bleed leaves to return to the afterlife, Alan is left alone and crying]].

* GeniusBonus: At one point, Alan says that he'll have woman flocking to him for "acute angina", which is when there's a lack of blood flow in your heart which causes chest pain. Alan is saying that he will get to touch women's chests.

* GeniusBonus: At one point Alan says that he'll have woman flocking to him for Acute Angina, which is when there's a lack of blood flow in your heart which causes chest pain. Alan is saying that he will get to touch women's chests.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Max Chaos's ability is to change your patient's injuries into other injuries, which sounds like it could be useful to quickly get rid of injuries that are difficult or tedious to treat. However, Max's powers are auto-generated so you're unable to control what ''exactly'' you'll want to change, and chances are you'll end up with something even ''more'' annoying, such as floating swirling objects that are very difficult to catch. It's doubtful you'll find yourself wanting to use him, and he seems to exist solely to create challenging Partner Specials.

** The third and fourth game go further with unique and creative patients, partners, and in-game events for the latter game.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel:
** The first game and the Christmas edition were very well-received, but the sequel removed every single ScrappyMechanic and streamlined the controls to make for an even better experience. It also gave you the ability to upgrade tools.
** The third and fourth game go further with unique and creative patients, partners, and in-game events for the latter game.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Amateur Surgeon 2 is considerably easier than its predecessors, particularly when going for a high score as [[ScoreMultiplier combos]] are much easier to keep up. Though this is {{Subverted}} for the Mystery Boss, which requires you to [[GimmickLevel use a flashlight]] as opposed to seeing everything at once. '''OH''', and in the mobile port, the light moves when you '''[[ScrappyMechanic tilt the device]]'''.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Max Chaos's ability is to change your patient's injuries into other injuries, which sounds like it could be useful to quickly get rid of injuries that are difficult or tedious to treat. However, Max's powers are auto-generated so you're unable to control what ''exactly'' you'll want to change, and chances are you'll end up with something even ''more'' annoying, such as floating swirling objects that are very difficult to catch. It's doubtful you'll find yourself wanting to use him and he seems to exist solely to create challenging Partner Specials.

* TearJerker: Alan reuniting with Dr. Bleed [[spoiler: at the end of the second game, after reviving him with vampire tears. Uncharacteristically from him, Alan feels too sad to be able to really joke around, while Dr. Bleed spends all the time with him congratulating him for his job as a surgeon. Once Bleed leaves to return to the afterlife, Alan is left alone and crying]].
* ThatOneBoss: The 2nd Dr. Bleed surgery. All the various hard-as-hell surgeries (which are usually made hard by GuideDangIt moments,) tend to be much easier once you know the trick behind them. The 2nd Dr. Bleed surgery, on the other hand, is a four-part MarathonLevel against poison, fire, buried chunks of crystal, and finally a tapeworm that takes more hits from the battery to kill than the last tapeworm (and can quickly cause Bleed to...er...bleed out if you're not multitasking between cauterizing the cuts it makes and zapping it.) And you have just enough time to do it all quickly and flawlessly.
** Napoleon Trotterski from the second game. It starts off easy enough but suddenly ends with the player having to spell out words on a Speak 'N Spell. And if you aren't fast enough, the Speak 'N Spell suddenly ''explodes'', leaving flames and burn marks that'll almost certainly obscure the screen and the keys, and if you try to put out the fire/heal the burn marks directly when they're on the keyboard, the game will assume you're hitting the keyboard instead and explode a second time. Not that you'll have any time to put out the fire anyway because the words are coming faster and faster while you're trying to spell them out while not being able to see what the hell you're supposed to be spelling because ''the goddamn fire is in the way.''
*** And if you thought that was bad, imagine trying to spell those words without knowing [[spoiler:that you can use ''the computer keyboard'' to type them]].
*** It speaks to the difficulty of the Napoleon operation that Amateur Surgeon 4, which otherwise has every level in the series, ''omitted'' the level from the collection.
** On the iOS version, the Mystery Boss in the second game requires you to tilt your device to move a flashlight around. And while you're doing this, there's a bee randomly flying around and only landing for a second in which you have to zap it. The difficult controls and the small time window combined make this unfairly difficult.
*** It's not any easier in the PC version. Poison builds up quickly, and while you're trying to clean up the poison in one area, it multiples in another. Meanwhile, that goddamn bee keeps stinging him. And every time you syringe out poison, it makes a small cut. If you lose track of them, the patient's heart rate will plummet.
* ThatOneLevel:
** The Partner Special for Level 54 (Dwayne Pipe) in the 4th game, to where even using the required I.C. Wiener doesn't help that much. Worms are fast and small enemies which makes it very easy to miss them and you have to shock them three times. Also, your heart rate decreases rapidly, so you can't just shock a few of them at a time. Instead, you have to be really quick and shock as many of them as you can in one consecutive try, and if you miss a shot, well, just hope your heart rate isn't close to zero.
** Level 42 (Karl Puccino) is also hard just for how little time you have to complete it. You have to find eight coffee bags hidden, scratch out the pus, vacuum up all the blood and pus, and stitch up the wounds ''all in the span of one minute and thirty seconds''. Pair that with the fact that having too much pus onscreen will rapidly decrease your heart rate, so it's recommended to vacuum up one or two piles of it at a time. If you want a shot at beating this level, you better have some memory of where the coffee bags are and you better be fast.
** Level 84 (Junkyard Guts) is extremely hard if you play on Sudden Death mode or try to go for a no-hit run. One of the tasks is pulling out five needles in a row from the time bomb, which all are very narrow and require a lot of precision and accuracy to successfully pull out without harming the patient.
** Level 92 (Useful Brother) and its Partner Special are both ''extremely'' difficult. If the ice ants don't bother you, then the confusing cluster of maladies Max Chaos causes in the Partner Special will.
* UselessUsefulSpell: Max Chaos's ability is to change your patient's injuries into other injuries, which sounds like it could be useful to quickly get rid of injuries that are difficult or tedious to treat. However, Max's powers are auto-generated so you're unable to control what ''exactly'' you'll want to change, and chances are you'll end up with something even ''more'' annoying, such as floating swirling objects that are very difficult to catch. It's doubtful you'll find yourself wanting to use him and he seems to exist solely to create challenging Partner Specials.

** The first game and the Christmas edition were very well-received, but the sequel removed every single ScrappyMechanic and streamlined the controls to make for an even better experience.
** The third game gives you the ability to upgrade your tools, have unique and creative patients, and partners.

** Level 84 (Junk) is extremely hard if you play on Sudden Death mode or try to go for a no-hit run. One of the tasks is pulling out five needles in a row from the time bomb, which all are very narrow and require a lot of precision and accuracy to successfully pull out without harming the patient.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Max Chaos's ability is to change your patient's injuries into other injuries, which sounds like it could be useful to quickly get rid of injuries that are difficult or tedious to treat. However, Max's powers are auto-generated so you're unable to control what ''exactly'' you'll want to change, and chances are that you'll end up with something even ''more'' annoying, such as floating swirling objects that are very difficult to catch. It's doubtful you'll find yourself wanting to use him and he seems to exist solely to create challenging Partner Specials.

** Level 92 (Useful Brother) and its Partner Special are both ''extremely'' difficult. If the ice ants don't bother you, then the confusing cluster of maladies Max Chaos causes in the Partner Special will.

** Level 42 (Karl Puccino) is also hard just for how little time you have to complete it. You have to find eight coffee bags hidden, scratch out the pus, vacuum up all the blood and pus, and stitch up the wounds ''all in the span of one minute and thirty seconds''. Pair that with the fact that having too much pus onscreen will rapidly decrease your heart rate, so it's recommended to vacuum up one or two piles of it at a time. If you want a shot at beating this level, you better have some memory of where the coffee bags are and you better be fast.

** Ants are the most common enemy but they can be really annoying because of how small they are. Queen ants and ice ants are even worse. Queen ants are only slightly bigger than regular ants and have to be shocked three times, and ice ants are faster, leave behind frost, and can drop your heart rate pretty quickly.

** Ants are the most common enemy but they can be really annoying because of how small they are. Queen ants are even worse. They're only slightly bigger than regular ants and have to be shocked three times.

** Flies and bats are probably the worst. They're extremely fast and erratically fly all over the place making accuracy difficult. Bats are more annoying as they're constantly flying, while flies do eventually stop to take a rest.