This is part 1 of my capture of me playing through Red Steel 2 for the Wii. This was recorded directly from my Wii (not the Wii U). I'm playing on medium difficulty.

After I purchased Wii Sports Resort in 2009 and saw how amazing Motion Plus was, I couldn't wait to get my hands on some more games utilizing the new device. Even though I never played the original Red Steel (it seemed like a flawed game), I started paying attention to the sequel when Nintendo Power began covering it. Red Steel 2 promised to deliver the motion controlled sword fighting that the first game apparently failed to deliver, so I decided to give it a chance.

I actually preordered the standard version of Red Steel 2 at GameStop, but when I went in to pick up my copy, the clerk handed me the big box version which included a Motion Plus accessory bundled in. I didn't say anything, and the clerk rang up my sale at the standard $50 price, which was a major score for me.

Red Steel 2 is basically a cross between a standard first-person shooter and motion controlled sword fighting game such as Wii Sports Resort's Swordplay mode. However, Red Steel 2 utilizes different sword controls which take some getting used to. Unlike Wii Sports Resort, which tracks your swings about as fast as you can move your hand, Red Steel 2 relies on heavy swings with a delay in between each one. So you can't hope to win fights simply by swinging wildly. The game won't even register all of your movements if you try to do that.

Nonetheless, I do enjoy the combat system in this game quite a bit, including the various combos that you can string together. The game also does a pretty good job of making you feel like you're in a dangerous, overrun town fighting packs of enemies all by yourself.

I'm also a huge fan of the graphics. The game uses an impressive cel shaded art style that mixes western and Asian influence while running at a smooth 60 fps, even with all of the action screen. Even games like The Conduit didn't run at 60 fps, although I suppose that was due to larger environments or more enemies on screen.

However, my one complaint is that Red Steel 2 lacks depth or variety outside of the combo system. You generally don't have much of an option to ambush enemies or lead them into traps, aside from occasionally blowing up a conspicuous gas canister. Once you start a fight, you can't flee or do anything except fight or die. There also isn't much point to exploring areas except to pick up some extra money. The result is that the game lacks some the replay value of some of my favorite FPS titles such as GoldenEye or Perfect Dark.

It has been a few years since I've completed this game (I've beaten it around three times it seems), so this should be rather fun for me.

In this first part I started a new save file and completed several missions.

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and the Wii's component cables at 60 frames per second. I'm using a Wii Remote and nunchuck with Motion Plus.

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