Before it came out, many proclaimed that Red Steel would surely become the ultimate showcase for the Wii Remote’s motion-sensing technology: an FPS with a dash of swordplay, a combination of two activities that the Wii Remote could make far more lifelike and accurate than any other controller! And then it was released. Reviews were unusually polarised, with most sitting at either one end of the critical spectrum or the other, making it exceptionally hard to know what to think of it. Which, though surely aggravating for potential consumers, was very helpful for me, because I was genuinely unsure of what to expect from it. And, free from any preconceived notions, I feel that I was able to give Red Steel a fair chance.

My first impression of the game was… bemusement. Entirely due to this menu screen that you have to wade through before beginning a new adventure:

That’s right, it’s a neon skyline from Japan. As the grey text box indicates, you can drag one of the mini displays on the right onto the large one on the left. The game will then do whatever’s written on the small sign, such as continuing a saved adventure. Oh, except all the writing on them is in Japanese, isn’t it? So unless you can understand kana and kanji, you’ll have to hover the cursor over each of them, upon which the grey text box will tell you what they say in English, and then when you’ve found the right one you can drag it onto the large display on the left, after which the game will finally do what you wanted in the first place. Although it’s hardly the worst menu system I’ve come across, it’s not that intuitive either - especially for a Wii title.

But bizarrely, when you’ve started the actual game you can access a nicely organised (albeit less visually striking) menu system by simply pressing the Plus Button. It’s all in English and each option can be selected with a single click. So fortunately, the rather clunky menu screen above is a fleeting annoyance; once in the game proper, all the options you’ll need are but a button press away. On with the game, then:

You play as Scott, an American bodyguard who has fallen in love with Miyu, a Japanese woman that he’s been assigned to protect. Fortunately for him, the feeling is mutual, and they’re now engaged. However, Scott hasn’t even met his fiancé’s father Sato yet, so they’re all going to an expensive hotel in order to be introduced. But what should’ve been a happy meeting goes haywire when Yakuza members try to assassinate Sato, and Miyu is kidnapped! Which, in short, means that you’ve got to shoot and slash lots of people in order to save Sato and rescue Miyu.