Whilst the Wii’s launch titles were undoubtedly a rather uninspired bunch with the odd exception, you tend to get the feeling that several of those middling games may be escaping criticisms that would usually be thrown their way due to the fresh, new feel that the console’s control system allows them to give. This ‘launch syndrome’ has existed for years, usually occurring due to a particular game representing what at that point feels like a significant jump in technological performance rather than presenting any sort of innovative or ground-breaking gaming experience.

Which brings us to the matter of Ubisoft’s Red Steel. The ironic thing is that, in this instance, the game if anything makes a large technological step backwards whilst trying to offer a unique take on the first-person shooter genre. The problem is, it doesn’t really work. Whilst Ubisoft clearly had a number of good intentions for their game, various things count against it being a great game.

You take the role of a bodyguard named Scott in the game, and things start sedately enough with you escorting your soon-to-be fiancée to dinner at a restaurant. The seeds of disaster are already being sewn though, and your future father-in-law being a Yakuza bigwig ends up in him being attacked and your beau snatched away from you.

Before all this has had a chance to happen, a simple set of tasks primes you for the basics of the control system. Pointing the Wii remote around moves a cursor across the screen for aiming, whilst walking is achieved by use of the nunchuck’s analogue stick. Initially the controls seem reasonably tight and aiming gives the impression of being quite accurate and simple.

When it comes to using these principles in action, though, things are a bit different. Aiming the Wii remote at enemies makes frustrating gameplay, especially as it is hugely random whether the game allows you to do this accurately. You’ll quite often find yourself frantically waving the remote around trying to get some sort of intuitiveness, and more than once you’ll end up just mashing the trigger button and waving your gun in small circles to try and down targets. Things do generally improve with experience, but those random moments will continue to present themselves no matter how proficient you believe yourself to be.

The sword fighting sections of the game fare a little better, with control of your weapon being sensitive enough to allow you a certain degree of control over proceedings. The main disappointment with swordplay is that the remote doesn’t completely dictate where your sword is placed. Swipes and chops are all predefined and are triggered by moving the remote in certain ways, so those of you dreaming of hugely interactive sword duels may feel a little disappointed. That said though, use of the remote is pretty reliable and you’ll find the challenge of fighting some of the tougher swordsmen very enjoyable.

Visually, the game is a bit of a letdown. The Wii is understandably never going to be able to match the graphical feast that something such as Gears Of War offers on the 360, yet Twilight Princess has shown that the machine can deliver a fair bit of kick when it’s called upon. Red Steel looks akin to an average GameCube game most of the time, with relatively simple character modelling and blurry texturing rife throughout.
To match the rather drab visuals the game tells a rather generic, tired plot. You never feel particularly attached to anyone portrayed as the story progresses, and although shooters aren’t a genre which need a sweeping story you would have thought a little effort would have been afforded to adding a few extra twists and turns.

This is made all the more of a shame due to the game actually offering a varied number of enjoyable locations in which the action takes place. Initially the game focuses itself on New York, with a series of hotel lobbies and warehouses filled with bad guys for you to dispose of. The latter part of the game, though, takes place in Japan and sees you battling through gardens and neon-lit cityscapes. Accompanying all this is a soundtrack ripped right out of the book of generic rock and ambient filler tunes, although the guns all sound pleasingly raspy and the swords make a great ‘clink’ when they clash.

When the single player mode is polished off, the game offers what turns out to be a surprisingly good multiplayer mode. Whilst two of the three modes on offer pretty simple split-screen deathmatch fun, it’s with the Killer mode that they’ve really pulled a trump card. Each player is informed of a secret task they must focus on via a whisper through their Wii remote’s speaker, the first player completing his task being declared the winner.

You know what, I really wanted to enjoy Red Steel. I appreciate the effort in introducing new ideas to the genre which Ubisoft have undoubtedly put in. At the moment, though, it is too woolly to work well and is packaged together in a markedly rushed, almost incomplete way. Given the fact that Ubisoft were supposed to have only got their hands on the Wii remote development kits less than a month before E3 last year the loose, infuriating controls are understandable but no less disappointing, whilst the artistic side of the title remains pretty bland from start to finish.

Thus, Red Steel will inevitably end up sliding out of the game charts quite quickly and will soon be forgotten, buried underneath a raft of Zelda, Mario and Metroid. There are certainly reasons to be optimistic though, and given a bit of extra time with the hardware and the controller it is very possible that Red Steel 2, should it ever come into being, could be a completely different – and better – story.