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Red Steel: Aim and Shoot
...Now You Can Play a FPS, Gangsta Style
By Lightning Kid
February 17, 2007
For many years, the first person shooter has been played with either a "keyboard & mouse" combination or a "control stick and buttons" combination. While those play styles have worked for the respective P.C. and game console shooters, one game dares to make a difference. Enter, Red Steel, one of Nintendo Wii's first, FPS (first person shooter) games. Red Steel uses the innovative 'Wii remote' and 'Nunchuck' attachment combo to immerse the gamer into the action. To shoot, just aim the Wii remote at where you want to fire and press the "B" trigger button to fire your weapon. To throw a grenade, push down on the directional pad and do a throwing motion with the nunchuck. Players may also roll a grenade using a rolling-toss motion. If you need cover, simply aim at a table with the Wii Remote and fling your 'nunchuck' hand upwards to toss the table up. Once the table is up, you can duck using the "Z" button (also on the nunchuck) and fire at your enemies while being covered.
As if shooting was not enough, Ubisoft decided to insert unique sword fighting battles. The controls are fairly simple, Swing the Wii remote like you normally would a sword and the Nunchuck acts as a parrying blade which you can use to defend against attacks. While all of this will certainly get a player active, the game suffer from minor control glitches. First off, the shooting, while it does allow you to turn your hand side ways and shoot "gangsta style", has a bit of flaws in its aiming. The aiming is a bit slow and your hand most be a bit steady. besides the slowness, aiming is actually more precise than in your standard first person shooter. Secondly, sword fighting is not exactly "one to one". Don't expect swipe to the left and you character to do the same. Instead the game generalizes your attacks into the following commands, vertical, horizontal, diagonal and stab (thrust forward). Besides the generic attacks, sometimes the Nunchuck blocking is not as responsive as needed for an intense sword fight.
At the beginning of the game your character, only referred to as "Scott San" is on a date with his fiance, while on the date, Scott is meeting his fiance's (Miyu) father (Sato San), for the first time. Before Scott can even say hello to Sato Sama. Sato is attacked by a rival Yakuza gang and Miyu is kidnapped. Now it is up to Scott to save Miyu and stop the rival Yakuza gang before they gain power in Japan. The first few levels start off in Los Angeles where Scott is basically gathering what information he can for Sato. After the first levels you are then sent to Japan and the story develops even further. You meet a dojo master and his assistant who will teach you more sword attacks, and an American bar owner (The bar is in Japan) with his bodyguard who will help you practice your gun techniques. The characters are not too deep but not too shallow. You will remember them by the end of the game and that says a lot about the story.
Graphically, this is one of the better Wii games. While this is an early title and has no reflection on the full graphical power of the Wii console, the game still stands out. The neon setting in Japan's more 'urban' areas are beautiful. The environments are fully destructible, glass and reflection effects look beautiful. The game is not "Hi-Def" per say but, it does support Wide screen ratio and 480p. If you have a standard definition television, the game will simply add the black bars to the top and bottom of the screen. Red Steel is no run and gun game and you will find your self doing more duck and cover as well as building strategy but, with that said, the game is amazingly fun. If you are still not sure about this game. I will advise you to rent the game first and please, give the controls some time, getting used to. Red Steel is a game that is the beginning of what is to come with, shooters on Wii.
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