First up is Red Steel 2. This is my first experience with the Wii motion plus. Nintendo's solution to the lack of 1:1 control on the Wii. And I decided that the best way to review this game is with a side to side comparison with its predecessor, Red Steel. Using a variety of categories, these games shall go head to head to determine which is better. So without any further ado, lets get going.
Story
Red Steel
You play as an American bodyguard by the name of Scott. You start of going to tell a rich Japanese businessman that you are going to marry his daughter, who also happens to be your current case. It seems that Scott couldn't help himself and decided to fall in love with his ward. You start in a fancy hotel restaurant with your wife to be as she leads you to her father. As she goes in to talk to him however, on of the waiters opens fire on the pair of them and all hell breaks loose. You pursue them, only to get there just in time to save the father, but not the one you're probably sleeping with. Big shame for you. You then discover that her father is actually the head of one of the largest Yakuza families and you have to go forth, rescue his daughter, and restore honour to his family.
Red Steel 2
The game starts with you, an unnamed member of the Kusagari clan, being dragged across a desert location on the back of a motorcycle. After a while, you manage to shoot the person dragging you and break free. However, the leader of the thugs known as Jackals has stolen your sora katana, a powerful blade used only by your clansmen, leaving you with only a gun. As you flee, you discover that you're in one of the main Kusagari towns, and the Jackals have completely overrun the place. You soon meet up with a swordmaster, who loans you his sword, and a research specialist, you provides you with current going ons. And with you as the driving force, you plan to recover your lost blade, and take back the town.
Verdict
While Red Steel's plot can get a little overplayed at times, it feels a bit more fleshed out than Red Steel 2's line of defeating people only to learn there's someone else pulling their strings. Point to Red Steel.
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Gun toting fun
Red Steel
Shooting is as simple as point and press B. However, there are some slight control niggles and your aim can go a bit off. To lock on to an enemy, you have to target them and hold A. This centres them on your screen. You can then proceed to aim at their head, arms, or any other body part you desire. You can also zoom in or out (using your magical zoom eyes) by moving the remote towards the screen. However this is tricky and can get confusing. It feels as a method to further adapt the remote motion functionalities. Later this is advanced. You can either zoom in slowly, or thrust forward quickly to activate bullet time. Enemies freeze and a bar appears at the top the screen. You then have a set amount of time to set places to shoot when the bar runs out. You can either aim at heads for an instant kill, or at weapons force a surrender. This can be used as much as you like and quickly becomes abused, making gunfights easy. Not helped by the fact that before each level you can take the two weapons of your choice with full ammo, provided you've unlocked them in the shooting range.
Red Steel 2
You get 4 guns in the game. Total. However you can choose any of these guns at any time. A simple choice between a Pistol, a shotgun, a sub-machine gun and a rifle. Each can be upgraded with greater damage and faster reload time. And each gun also has a unique trait to buy. The pistol can get bullets that bounce of objects, allowing you to pull off fancy trick shots, while the shotgun can get armour destroying rounds, perfect for those well defended enemies. You have more choices with your special move as well. While you can still fire off multiple shots at once, time is only slightly slowed while you aim, so you have to keep on the move unless you like death. Another allows to to dodge to the side and flank your target. While not overly impressive as a move, as a finisher it's highly entertaining. From blowing off you opponents head with a pistol shot to sending them flying across the room with a rifle round.
Verdict
Red Steel 2 gets this one, just for the never ending joy of close up rifle blasts.
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Sword Play
Red Steel
Well. This is probably a massive downside for Red Steel. Fights are one on one only and go at a slow pace. You swing in either a general horizontal or vertical direction with the remote and the game responds in kind. There are a full special moves, but they're pretty annoying to pull off and are only really used in boss fights. Of which there are few. Overall the fights seem placed just to distract you from the gunfights.
Red Steel 2
This is the star in Red Steel 2. With the Wii Motion Plus, so much more can be done. Your sword mores as you do on screen, and swing strength is matched with the amount of effort you put in. Often, you'll face at least three enemies, one of which will probably be wielding a giant hammer. Some will be armoured, and the rest will be shooting at you. Fights are all out brawls. You can use your gun, but you'll soon realise it's a lot faster and a heck of a lot more fun to use your sword. Special moves are aplenty, and all can be used as finishing moves, including one where you just smash a guys skull into the ground. You can also do a 360 spin, much like in any Zelda game, dazing all those you hit. There are so many ways open to you to kill a man, that you can't possibly get bored. And it all makes you feel like an unstoppable badass. Boss fights are also much better. Fast paced fighting means you have to have fast reflexes if you want to live.
Verdict
A clear winner for Red Steel. Being able to recreate a certain Raiders of the Lost Arc scene is the icing on the cake.
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Magical Health Restoration
Red Steel
All you need to do is hide behind a wall for a few seconds and you're as good as new. I swear you heal faster than wolverine. This turns the game into a hide ans seek game, and your the only one hiding.
Red Steel 2
Health is still restored, but only when you get through a battle. This means you can't hide if you're taking a beating. There are health upgrades available, but these disappear quickly in battle, keeping the game challenging, even for simple encounters.
Verdict
Again, Red Steel 2 gets this, hands down.
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Style
Red Steel
Red Steel goes with the realistic approach, which is done reasonably well, considering the Wii's power. However, for cut scenes, It goes into a comic book style montage, which doesn't work as well. The voice overs are also badly done, often cutting of half second sections of speech.
Red Steel 2
Red Steel 2 goes for the cel shaded look, which matches its somewhat arcade style of play nicely. The audio is easy on the ears and the voices are nicely done.
Verdict
Red Steel 2 triumphs over it's poor predecessor.
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So there we have it. A clear winner for Red Steel 2. And to the be honest, it's just that much more fun to play.
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