The first four to five hours of the game deal with you tracking down your kidnapped fiancé but after you track her to Japan the story progression changes drastically. The game goes from being a straightforward linear experience, to a more opened world where you can train your sword and firearm skills and choose whichever mission you wish from an allied Yakuza clan.

Once you've gained enough support from allied Yakuzas then you'll finally be able to rescue your fiancé and restore order to the clans. It may seem a bit thin, but just like many Yakuza movies it's all about the action not the story.

For a shooter Red Steel is surprisingly long, weighing in at about 15 hours. Despite it's length the game never feels like it's running long thanks to long strings of gun battles and sword fights that make the game worth playing in the first place.

Presentation is easily the games strongest asset and while most character models are fairly bland and simple, the animations are solid and smooth. Lighting is absolutely incredible and adds and extra layer of excitement to the many explosion filled arenas of death you'll be battling in.

Cut scenes are like animated panels in a comic book and not only look incredibly cool, but keep the game grounded in the realm of fantasy so that it doesn't seem too far fetched.

Load screens on the other hand are abysmally ugly and look like they were ripped straight off the 3DO. They're generally nothing more then a static image with a spinning animated disc.

Voice work in Red Steel is far from spectacular, but the actually written dialog itself is pretty good. Sound effects on the other hand offer a rich pallet and are well positioned within the 5.1 range offered by Dolby Pro Logic II. Music can be summed up simply as Golden Eye-esque.

Unfortunately the game really bombs when it comes to multiplayer. Aiming is significantly harder and swordplay, for some unknown reason, is completely absent. The only kind of cool multiplayer feature is Killer mode where every player is given secret objectives through the Wii Remote speaker.

It's far from being a prefect experience, but thanks the control scheme and lighting effects Red Steel is a cut above the rest, even in today's world of HD gaming and realistic graphics. Unless you're hands are ridiculously unsteady you should be able to get used to the controls very quickly and with a little effort master them.

Red Steel is a must play launch title and proof that the Wii's control scheme is far more then just a gimmick.

Red Steel is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB for Violence and Language.