""Red Steel 2 has been in development for many months now, and this new device will help us be even more precise in what we do with the product," said Corre, speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz."
The original Red Steel was a fantastic game that showed us a path of evolution. For the first time in a long time I felt like I was playing something new. OK we've all been pointing light guns at the screen since Duck Hunt on the NES (or if you'd like to travel even further back the Spectrum!) This time it was different though. For a start, the games were no longer on rails. With the Nunchuk's joystick, we now had a totally different experience. Couple this with the fact that both controllers were motion sensitive and you had a real breath of fresh air.

However, even Ubisoft staff admit that Red Steel did not live up to their vision.

"The Red Steel brand is strong - I think we released it on year one, and that people understood that it was a first try on new technology, technology that wasn't completely finished. And our game tried to grab the best out of it, and was a bit rushed to be sure to offer something in year one to Wii consumers," he added.

So what exactly was wrong with Red Steel? What made the difference between a couple million in sales and the six million achieved by games like Mario Galaxy and Wii Play? Well of course there's always complexity. Many people I know did not pick up the game because it looked really tough. This is strange as pointing should be more natural than getting to grips with a dual sticks interface. It didn't really broaden the FPS genre, it just freshened it up. All the same people that refused to play games like Halo also turned this one down. (Don't get me started on the multiplayer - This isn't review!)

The reason I didn't finish this game even though I love FPS games, was the sword fighting. In the early stages of the game it was easy and pretty fun. Relentless attacks always made me the victor. However by the end of the game (penultimate / last level - I don't remember) suddenly the sword fighting became a huge obstacle. I was still gunning people down with no problem but the same could not be said for the sword duels. Suddenly the fun turned to frustration.

"So Red Steel is a brand, and as with every brand we have, we now have to reach the top quality possible. What was missing was the preciseness of the sabre - and with this new device I think it will change the experience."

Red Steel brought us freedom and a new way of aiming at the bad guy - The trouble is it also brought along a rather clumsy mele system which robbed us of other freedoms:

The freedom to shoot people with swords (Indi' Style)
The freedom to wave our sword (We only got moves which I found a PITA to execute)

Don't get me wrong, it was a great effort and definitely a step in the right direction. I champion companies that pioneer without fear. Let's hope with MotionPlus at their side they can iron out those wrinkles in the original Red Steel.

Wii are viewing developments with great interest Ubisoft