Name: Red Steel
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Players: 1-4
Controls: Wii Remote and Nunchuck
WFC: No
The first thing I can say about Red Steel is this. I woke up on Christmas Day 2006 at 5.30am in excitement at getting my Nintendo Wii. The first game I popped in that inviting disc slot was naturally Wii Sports, then 5 minutes of Zelda (I got lost in Ordon Village) then I turned on Red Steel.
The first thing you get to do is a stupid tutorial involving fish, but then the action starts (and the remote madness). Red Steel sure is sensitive for beginners, I’ll give it that. When you first play the game your crosshair will be going mental, and jumping around at 90mph. Some would recommend turning on low sensitivity, but I wouldn’t as it really is good practise; at this stage, I’m loving high sensitivity for its accuracy! The rest of the controls work surprisingly well, but the occasional little fault like the infamous “crosshair flicker of death” can really leave a bad taste in your mouth. It is when you are moving the crosshair on the screen and it suddenly starts flickering back into the centre of the screen; many reviewers have noticed this. Some gestures are a little unresponsive as well; the flicking up the Nunchuck gesture works fine, but you have to flick it a little too hard for my liking, so tired people are gonna start getting angry at doors! Grenades are awful and rarely used. Sword fights really are great fun, but I hope in the next Red Steel (crosses fingers) their will be katanas allowed outside of their designated parts.
Graphics are bland but interesting. You can destruct much of the environment by just shooting it, which feels great. There are many glitches in this game, unfortunately. For instance, sticking grenades Halo-style and walking up the escalator in the games level (the best level might I add).
The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. From the slow, ambient Japanese sounds to the hyper J-Pop song “I see, you’re very cool” in the big firefight scenes, which really is well thought out by Ubisoft Paris. Every time you reload you’re gun, you can hear a realistic clicking from the Remote speaker that is different for each weapon in your double arsenal.
For a launch title, this game is extremely long. I can’t be sure how long it took me to complete, but I’m sure it would be in between 15 and 20 hours no problem. Each level is about an hour long which in ways reflects Halo.
Multiplayer is fantastic but it has about as much depth as a frying pan. It feels really Old Skool which really is what makes it as fun as it is. It's just a standard deathmatch, no mods, no mounted weapons, no music, just you and up to three other guys, shooting the heck out of each other. Then of course if you have three available friends, you can play the most innovative multiplayer game ever. At the start of the game, each player's phone rings (well, their Wii Remote speaker) and you each press the 2 button to answer. You then put it up to your ear and it tells you who to kill and who to dodge. The best part is, you can't trust anyone.......
Should you buy it?
Yes you should. Red Steel is still the best shooter on Wii, at least until Metroid graces our shores. Multiplayer is definitely an added bonus, but I'd still buy it for one player.
Best Bits:
- Sniping! This game has the best sniping of any game I've ever played.
- The music, especially the J-Pop hits.
- The way Ubisoft didn't leave out a single control or gesture.
Worst Bits:
- The graphics just aren't what they could have been.
- Controls work fine.... most of the time.
- Glitching. I'm surprised nobody's registered redsteelglitches.com yet!
- The story is just awful!
Summary
Graphics: 7.2
Sound: 9.2
Gameplay: 8.5
Story: 5.7
Lifespan: 8.0
Innovation: 9.1
Replay Value: 8.4
Overall: 9.0
On a final note - This really is one of those games that will go down as one of the most remembered Wii shooters, if not games.
..cant wait to see other reviews from you