Can the power of Motion Plus redeem a troubled brand that once held so much promise for Wii owners?
Format: Wii Dev: Ubisoft Pub: Ubisoft Out: 26/03/10 Players: 1
Remember that terrible FPS released on the launch of the Wii? Yeah, forget that one. With the shockingly different look and feel of Red Steel 2, I don’t know why the game is even carrying the brand name in the first place.
Allow me to put this into perspective. In the first Red Steel, you had the generic Japanese mafia revenge story. Now, you’re a Japanese cowboy fighting a gang called the Jackals. Both stories melt away for the gameplay of course, but this isn’t the only section where the games differ.
Particular praise must be given to the new presentation style, an emphatic blend of Eastern culture and Western bravado. The visuals are stark and colourful, with cel-shaded angles to give every scene more ‘pop’. Granted, some textures are non-existent and, close up, you’re looking at an extremely flaky affair, especially on your large HDTVs. But it’s an original style and flair that is enjoyable to look at, and it runs at a cool 60 frames per second.
The music is down a similar route as well. Ignoring the cheesy voice acting, you hear the faint sound of western musical elements blended with Japanese plucked strings. It does well to create a new atmosphere that you may not be used to. Not to the point of it being uncomfortable; but it sure is refreshing.
There need be only one thing to talk about with the gameplay: the sword play… is actually sword play! With Wii Motion Plus in hand, what you have is a fully usable sword. No more waggling to activate sword motions that don’t represent what you do. Besides that, not much else has changed in terms of control. Looking round is still as awkwardly slow as the previous game, shooting by aiming at the screen still feels kind of cool. The game isn’t going to be threatening any popular FPS titles for control, but that isn’t the beauty of this game.
Red Steel 2 stands head and shoulders above its predecessor, thank god for that. What this game represents is stark creativity in the face of limited hardware. We’re not expecting a Halo equivalent of shooter on the Wii, but Ubisoft have created something that’s superior in three departments: atmosphere, visual style and creative flair. At last something worth picking up Motion Plus for that isn’t Tiger Woods PGA Tour or Wii Sports.
Jason England
Tags: action, hack-n-slash, red steel, ubisoft, wii motion plus
