WAAAA-CHAAAA!!!!! HEADSHOT!!!!!

There's your introduction to Red Steel.


SAMAGA!!!

Gameplay

The gameplay of Red Steel is something I definitely like. On one side,you have high-action shooting; BOOM!!! POW!!! EXPLOOOOSIOOOOOONS!!! 'You see that car? POW! POW! POW! KABOOOOM!!! NO CAR ANYMORE!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!'

That's what Red Steel is like. Lots of awesome explosions.

On the other hand, you have cool sword fights that break up the action; 'WAAACHAAA!!! HIYAAAA!!! you see your hands? SLICE!!! NO MORE HER- I MEAN HANDS!!! LOOK MA, NO HANDS!!! See your sword? KACHAAA!!! NOW YOU HAVE A GINSU!!!'

That's what Red Steel is like. Tons of sweet sword fights.

Controls

The controls of Red Steel are very... new. Alright, let me explain; I like how you have to shake the Nunchuk to interact with doors and windows and stuff. I like how you have to wave the Wiimote to say ''Yes' or 'No' and to make enemies surrender once you shoot the weapons out of their hands. To be honest, I like it and I hope it'll be in Red Steel 2. But on the whole in-game controls situation, I have to say it's not so bad. The focus system worked well with the A+C thing they had going.

Sword fights, however, are a completely different beast to tackle. First you have the basics: Slashing, blocking, and dodging. Slashing can be accomplished by waving Wiimote horizontally alot. (I've actually won sword fights that way; Which is slightly disappointing.) Then you have blocking, which just takes too much time and sometimes doesn't even work. Dodging functions well, however. And the first two turn out to be useless after you learn the Little Scorpion kata. Which is the only kata that I found can easily be performed and doesn't take a load of time.

Graphics

Well considering Red Steel was made with a Gamecube dev engine, it looks pretty good. Nice lighting on windows, cool cutscenes, sparks fly when swords clash, semi-destructible environments, and weapons have detailed reloading animations. And I can tolerate the cookie-cutter enemies because most of the time they're employees or something (Which left me wondering "Why does every worker in this auto shop have a gun?!") and it makes sense that they look alike.

Story

Alright, I might be the first to say it, but the story of Red Steel is really, really good.

First, you have to save your girlfriend Miyu from the traitor Ryuichi. Generic and tolerable. Then you have to find Ryuichi. Alright, this is good so far. Then you have to bring him a sword called the 'Katana-Giri.' Umm, okay. I coulda just put a gun to his head, but I guess it's about honor or something. So you go to Tokyo to bring Ryuichi the sword, which is where it starts to get blurry. If Ryuichi wanted the sword, why wouldn't he just keep Miyu in the States so he could get the sword faster? And why does the Sanro Kai (Yakuza district bosses. Formerly were presided over by Sato.) need your help before they can help you? If they all worked for Sato (Miyu's father; Yakuza clan boss.) before he died, why won't they help me save his next of kin? But moving on, Tokai (Ryuichi's boss. Wants the Katana-Giri for himself.) then gets a bunch of gun-wielding ninjas to steal the Katana-Giri. Wait, it took a metric assload of NINJAS armed with ASSAULT RIFLES to get one sword from one dojo? But none of them could stop one Asian guy named Scott? Yeah, your guy is named 'Scott.' Anyway, you have to go stop Tokai and get the Katana-Giri back. In the final two levels, you learn that your sensei has been poisoned, and you learn the reason Tokai is so obsessed the sword; His father was an old friend of Sato's who helped him form the Sanro Kai, but somewhere along the way he went batshit CRAZY and was decapitated by your sensei with the Katana-Giri. So Tokai plans to take vengeance on the Sanro Kai by decapitating ALL of them with the sword his father was killed with. After claiming victory in a one-on-one duel, Tokai tells you that he is the only person who has the antidote to the poison that plagues your sensei. Really? The ONLY person? I find that difficult to believe. So you spare his life and forgive him, and to thank you, you receive the antidote to the poison and Miyu is returned safely. All is forgiven.

At least it was pretty close to that. I don't exactly have a perfect memory, so I might have missed some minor stuff.

Challenge

Red Steel is definitely a challenging game, but sometimes it's because of poor level design rather than well-crafted challenge: There might be not enough cover in a room, or too much stuff that explodes, but for the most part, the challenge factor of the game is pretty even. And unless you use weapons poorly, ammo is really not an issue. (MP7\M40 combo > Ninjas.)

Fun

And here we are again.

What? You don't trust me? You don't think this game is fun? Well I'm sorry you can't appreciate it. I like it. Sorry we couldn't agree.

See, that's what I never heard from people when I said I didn't like No More Heroes. But I did play that recently; thought it was so-so. Definitely didn't have the level of fun people said it had. I was disappointed.

And THAT'S what I heard from people when I said I liked Red Steel. And that's the very definition of bullshit in my book.

Overall

Notice I didn't give this game a number score; That's because I want you to PLAY THE DAMN GAME AND APPRECIATE IT YOURSELF. MINE WAS $10 USED. YOU CAN'T SPARE $10 FUGEN DOLLARS?! HORSESHIT. MATTER A FACT, YOU CAN FIND NO MORE HEROES/ RED STEEL BUNDLES WITH BOTH GAMES NEW FOR $30 AT GAMESTOP. ALSO, I COULDN'T FIND ANYONE TO PLAY MULTILAYER WITH, BUT IF YOU LIKED GOLDENEYE ON N64, CHANCES ARE YOU'LL LIKE RED STEEL. THEY HAVE VERY A SIMILAR FEEL TO THEM, BUT RED STEEL IS DEFINITELY IT'S OWN GAME. DAMN, I FORGOT TO TURN OFF CAPS LOCK! OH WELL, YOU GET MY POINT.
YOU EVEN GET IT MORE SO BECAUSE IT'S IN ALL CAPS. THAT'S HOW CAPS WORK RIGHT? YOU TYPE SOMETHING IN CAPS AND PEOPLE AUTOMATICALLY PAY MORE ATTENTION TO IT. RIGHT?

Plus, the M40 handgun looks the handgun from Duke Nukem 3D. That's 4 out of 5 stars right there!