Red Steel

wii console (us version),wii loader (play uk games on us console).Game works-yes.

Another game added to my list of games that do work.

Great game tricky controls cool graphics skipping story sequences would help, but got bored after a while because I knew I had rented it and needed to send it back. If you buy it then you will have longer to master the controls and enjoy it more. Maybe I'm just getting too old haha!!

With my Xbox broken I've been forced to resort to my parents' Wii for my gaming fix. Adding some Wii games to my Lovefilm lists, Red Steel was the first that came through my door.

The story has something to do with the Yakuza gangs in Japan or something. Really, the plot means almost nothing. The game consists of walking around linear enviroments shooting everyone and trying not to die. This may sound a little samey, and make no mistake it is. But Red Steel manages to make the action a little more exciting with a few interesting elements.

Most of the time you'll be using guns to defend yourself, and in this area Red Steel disappoints somewhat. For a game basically about shooting people, the firearms on offer are lacking in punch or originality. Pistols and automatics are differentiated only by how long it takes them to fell an enemy. The shotguns are quick to kill but frustratingly slow to fire, making them useless at close range; the enemies dash around so quickly you have to second guess their movements to hit them. The constant shooting is broken up by fun but infuriating swordfighting sections. The premise is good, using the Wiimote as your sword and the Nunchuck as your other sword, you can attack, block, dodge and parry with relative easy. Special moves require pinpoint movements, and nearing the end of the game these sword section become very hard. It's nice to have the action paced with these more strategic sequences, but in the end they just become something you have to go through to get back to the shooting.

Movement is on the Nunchuck stick, and looking is on the Wiimote. Drag the aiming reticule to the edge of the screen and your character turns. It's simple but takes a while to get used to. Shooting is as easy as point and click, but at times the remote doesn't pick up your actions and you end up missing or not firing at all. The enemies are tough, fast and very acurate right from the beggining and there's almost no learning curve to speak of. Red Steel drops you in the deep end and hopes you learned how to swim in a similar game.

As mentioned before, the story is nothing special, and while it may capture you at first, slowly it dawns that it's all just an excuse for the developers to send you from one bland, linear enviroment to the next. Part way thorough you get a mission hub of sorts, but this is no remedy for the tedium.

It may sound like i'm ripping Red Steel a new one, but overall it's not that bad. Taken as a whole, the game is fun, engaging and surprisingly deep. Enemies death animations are more reminiscent of PS1 generation deaths, but still feel satisfying. There's something special about swooping into a room like Chow Yun Fat and taking out 4 guys with 4 bullets; and because you've had to aim with your own hand, the kill is all the sweeter. The story is bearable, if only because it gives the constant gunfire soem kind of context. The vast majority of NPCs are voiced badly and animated worse, but they do the job well enough. And sometimes, only sometimes, you actually feel like you're there, in the world. Then you pump 45 Uzi rounds into one guy and don't even stop him in his tracks, while his friend pounds you from the other side of the courtyard with a shotgun and you remember you're playing a game.

The Wii was designed to bring more people to the world of gaming, and to immerse us gamers in the games more than ever before. And while I'll admit the controls do add something to the experience, their not nearly enough to make up for the bland enviroments, jerky animations and overall cheap feel of the game.

Red Steel tries to be a current-gen, blockbuster title but falls short for all sorts of reasons.

6/10

Alternatives:

Call Of Duty: World At War

The Conduit

I love it, I bought it as soon as I could, the 2 player is the best I love it, the characters you could choose for two player is epic! It's great fun but a few days to get use to controlling the game etc... Good game!

I was sucked into the adverts for Red Steel when the Wii was first launched, finally got a copy recently ... five minutes later was pretty disappointed.

I was expecting a sword fighting game - actually it's a classic arcade-style shoot-em-up, with a sword fight with a boss at the end of each mini-level. The swords don't mimic your moves, which was a major let-down. Also, it's unbelievably easy ... you just hide for 10 seconds or so and you've got full health again.

Fun for the old-style-arcade value, but not what I was expecting!