The original Red Steel was a Wii first-person shooter launch title. The excitement for the game was high not only because of the chance to play a shooter with the new Wii pointer controls but also because of the unique (at the time) Wii gesture sword control. The game did not live up to its hype and was maligned by critics and gamers alike for its unresponsive waggle and pointer controls, game-ending bugs, and low resolution graphics.
Despite its flaws, the original holds a special place in my heart. I enjoyed the interesting backgrounds, great soundtrack, and addictive multiplayer. There were only four maps and abundance of control issues in the multiplayer mode but it had a Goldeneye-like feel. It was so addicting that my friends and I played Red Steel death matches weekly during the first two years of the Wii's life cycle.
Ubisoft took the criticisms of the first game to heart and addressed nearly every one of them in the sequel. Red Steel 2 is much slicker and more polished than the original. But it is also missing some of that game's wonky charm.
RedSteel 2 is a complete reboot of the franchise. The story is not tied at all to the first game. Instead you play as an outcast from the Kusagari Ninja clan. At the start he returns to his hometown just as the rest of his clan is wiped out by a rival clan boss. The exiled Kusagari then seeks revenge for the remainder of the game.
That is it for the bulk of the narrative. What gives some hook to the storyline is the bizarre Wild West/Japanese setting. The physical place appears to be the Old West. It takes place entirely in dusty saloon towns surrounded by rocky cliffs and connected by trains. The characters appear to be in both the Old West and in Japan, with all of the clans having traits of both cowboy posses and ninja clans. The most jarring thing is that the characters look Japanese but talk with Old West accents. The odd dichotomies make the story more engaging than it should be.
The controls have been drastically improved this time around. Pointer controls are still used to shoot, but they are much more accurate than in the original. However, the majority of the game is sword melee combat. Your lone warrior is almost always facing multiple enemies. But you do not simply make slicing motions with your arms to fight back. The game relies less on actual Wii MotionPlus tracking and more on combining various swings with button presses to perform specials. For example, to perform the Bear attack (a move that knocks all enemies in close proximity up in the air) you charge your sword by holding A and B and then swing down.
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