This review has been a long time coming.  While I purchased Red Steel on launch day, it took me a considerable amount of time to actually play it enough that I felt comfortable writing a review.  When I purchased this game I had the highest hopes for it. I had heard numerous negative reviews about the title but was hopeful that Ubisoft wouldn’t let me down.  Swords were drawn, guns were fired; and after fighting for the Yakuza I emerged with my own opinions on this title. 

Red Steel is a game that had too much hype and idealism behind it.  People, like me, hoped that this game could revolutionize the way we played FPS releases.  We hoped that the wiimote would become the most responsive system for shooters on a console ever.  We hoped that the sword fighting would make us feel like the ninjas we’ve always wanted to be.  I for one feel that our hopes were partially wasted.

The game needed much more time to be polished.  Graphically, it looks like something we would have given negative press to if it had been a GCN release.  The “cinematic” sequences are just comic-esque still shots with dialogue that add to the glaringly bad graphics and make the game feel even more rushed and incomplete.  And even though Ubisoft added somewhat destructible environments, the only good they really serve is to allow you to destroy some of the environment you can’t stand to look at.

The enemy A.I. is disappointing; your enemies are about as intelligent as the enemies were in the N64's Goldeneye. While they try to take cover from time to time it all feels scripted, rather than seeming as if they had any sense of self-preservation.  And the lines that they throw out in the middle of a fight are so terrible that they make you wish that you could shoot them in the throat.  If Ubisoft’s goal is to make me hate the enemy due to their horrible acting, they succeed with high honors. 

      While some levels are better designed than others, the action in the game feels stale.  The game keeps recycling patterns and pacing.  Shoot a few guys, meet a mini-boss, sword fight, and then repeat.  There is no car driving or even something like a sneaking mission that could help change the pacing of the title.  Playing through this game, especially with no promise of even something as paltry as achievements, becomes a test of your ability to complete repetitive tasks. 

The controls, the one thing that could solidify the uniqueness of this title, are in desperate need of fine-tuning.  they will force any gamer, no matter what skill level, to climb a steep learning curve.  Even after you feel like you should have mastered the wii-mote/nunchuk setup, you will still often feel like you are not in control of your shooting.  I would find often myself standing still in order to get off a precise shot at an enemy (one that I could have made while jumping with a standard analog controller), while being shot the whole time. 

      The sword fighting is the most upsetting portion of the gameplay.  TheE3 2006 trailer made the hairs on my arms stand up with anticipation and the final product makes my eyes flow with tears.  The swordplay is, in a word, totally fucked (ok, two words).  Unless you're facing a major boss you can literally wave the remote back and forth and defeat any enemy in a sword fight.  The sword fights feel so repetitive that this becomes the easy way to move the plot forward.  However, I suppose when trying to fight while crying tears of frustration it is convenient to be able to just waggle the remote and win.

Red Steel is probably one of the worst titles that I have played in a long time (for any system), but it does give me hope that Nintendo can someday get the wiimote functions to work well. I want to believe that if the controls are refined enough that FPS titles on the Wii will provide me with a unique and fun experience.  However, only time will tell.  If there is a Red Steel 2 I hope Ubisoft makes good on the hopes of those who were let down by this early Wii release.