Red Steel

Red Steel was one of the initial First Person Shooters available for the Wii at the system's launch, and one of the first games to make significant use of the Wii's motion-sensitive hardware.

Wii

Plot

The protagonist, Scott Monroe, is at a hotel in Los Angeles to see his fiancée Miyu's father. Before Scott gets a chance though, a gang who have disguised themselves as hotel staff open fire on Isao (Miyu's father). Scott is knocked out when he attempts to help, but upon regaining consciousness he picks up a pistol from a downed bodyguard and fights his way to the roof, where he meets up with an injured Isao.

Sato then begins teaching Scott the way of the Katana so that the pair can get past a waiter who is wielding a sword. They eventually return to Sato's hotel suite where they rendezvous with Miyu and Ryuichi, a bodyguard. When the gang storms the room, Scott covers the other three as they head for Sato's car in the parking lot. Once finished with the gang in the hotel suite, Scott chases after the other three and eventually caches up with them. However, when he does, Ryuichi turns traitor and tries to kidnap the Satos. Scott manages to rescue Isao, but Ryuichi escapes with Miyu.

The pair retreat to a store owned by one of Sato's friends, Tony Tanaka. Here, it is revealed that Sato is the Oyabun of one of the Yakuza's biggest families. Scott proceeds to raid Angel's Heaven (Owned by Angel, Ryuichi's mistress) and Extreme Wheels (A car workshop owned by Ryuichi). Scott and Ryuichi eventually meet in combat at an airport. The pair have a sword duel and Ryuichi triumps over Scott, but chooses to spare him.

Ryuichi escapes to Japan with Miyu, who will only be released if Ryuichi and his cohorts are given the Katana Giri, a sword once used to execute godfathers who had been dishonorable, is handed over by Sato as a ransom. Sato has no interest in surrendering the sword and, at any rate, is dying. Instead, he gives the sword to Scott, leaving the issue in his hands. Shortly thereafter, he passes away.

Scott proceeds to Tokyo in search of Ryuichi. He eventually locates him with the help of a Samurai called Otori and an American who owns a nightclub called Harry Tanner. Ryuichi is found at a waste processing plant where he is handing Miyu off to his superior Tokai, the main antagonist of the game (As the leader of Scott's enemies). Ryuichi and Scott duel again, but this time Scott is victorious. Scott spares Ryuichi in order to gain information but this proves futile as a sniper dispatches him immediately thereafter.

Tokai's power is revealed to be quite significant. He has gained control over all the major districts (The docks, the Geisha houses, the financial district and the gaming district) by bringing down their leaders, the Sanro Kai. Scott heads to these four districts and helps restore faith in the Sato name as well as return the power over these districts to the Sanro Kai.

Scott eventually delivers the Katana Giri to Otori and heads to Harry Tanner's nightclub which has been his base of operations in Tokyo. He heads up to the conference room, where he finds Tokai waiting for him. Harry turns on Scott and knocks him out. Scott is incarcerated in the cellar where one of Tokai's henchmen is to torture him. Scott manages to escape, subduing Dozan (The henchmen tasked with torturing him), and heads to interrogate Harry.

Harry, panicked over Scott's escape, tries briefly to talk him down before taking up a sword and dueling him. Once Harry is defeated, he begs Scott for his life and provides useful information to try and bring Scott around to sparing him. Harry reveals that Tokai has raided Otori's Dojo with the help of the Komori, a new wave of Ninjas. Whether Scott does or not is up to the player.

Acting on Harry's information, Scott heads to the Dojo to thwart the attack. That done, Scott heads to one of Tokai's bases to rescue the members of the Sanro Kai who Tokai intends to execute. Scott and Tokai duel and Scott learns that the reason Tokai is after the Katana Giri is to kill the Sanro Kai who had previously used it to execute his father. Scott wins the duel and saves most of the Sanro Kai, but Tokai gets away. Scott chases after Tokai, dueling the leader of the Komori along the way.

Otori and Scott both head to Tokai's private residence to end the conflict once and for all. Otori is poisoned by a Komori blade and Scott squares off against Tokai one last time, besting him once more. Tokai pleads with Scott to let him live, telling him only he knows the antidote to the Komori poison. Otori intends to kill Tokai and players must duel him. If the player wins, Otroi and his daughter live but the Katana Giri is destroyed. Otori honors Scott and at the end of the game, the remaining characters attend Isao's funeral.

If players allow Otori to kill Tokai, Otori and his daughter die. Miyu and Scott escape Tokai's residence alone.

Levels

Sato's Legacy

Bloody Sunset
Fire Escape
Angel's Heaven
Extreme Wheels
Broken Wing

The Path of the Katana Giri

Interlude
Burning Trash
Fish Market
Tetsuo's Games
Business Plot
Geisha House

The Ghosts of the Sanro Kai

Blind Date
Night of the Komoris
In the Name of the Father
Reunion

Gameplay

Most of the game is a first-person shooter which takes advantage of the Wii's unique controls. The Wii Remote pointer controls the player's aim and various actions can be performed by gesturing with the Nunchuk. For example, opening doors and knocking over tables to make cover. Similarly, players control the arc of a grenade using the Nunchuk by mimicking either an overhand or an underhand throw.

The game encourages accuracy over recklessness by rewarding players with "freeze-points" which can be used to momentarily freeze time to pick targets. Players can also win many firefights without killing by disarming opponents (shooting the gun from their hands). This is especially important when the enemy who is subdued is a mob boss as often his cohorts will surrender as well.

The shooting mechanics are similar to the bow-and-arrow mechanics from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii), where moving the targeting reticule to the edges of the screen will scroll your point of view horizontally or vertically as appropriate. This allows for a more "stable" screen that allowed you to point directly at your target as in a light-gun game, while sacrificing accurate control over your lookspeed (turning left-right / looking up-down). In future first-person shooters, developers have adopted the "bounding box" approach as seen in such games as Call of Duty 3, Metroid Prime 3 and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. Sniper rifles' zoom mechanics also require the player to push the remote towards the screen to zoom in, and pull away to zoom out. This is reliant on the sensor bar technology, requiring the player to keep the Wii remote steadily aimed at the sensor bar while s/he pushes / pulls it.

The sword-fighting in the game is two handed. Players block with the Nunchuk and attack with the Wii Remote. The game does not mimic players' movements 1:1, instead representing broad motions. For example, players slash horizontally by performing a similar motion or vertically by doing likewise. The movement on screen is relevant to the action performed, but is pre-defined. Players are notably unable to perform stabbing motions, though their opponents can. Special attacks are learned at Otori's training dojo, and are executed using combination's of strikes (such as swiping up, down, up with the Wii remote, or pulling the Wii remote and Nunchuck apart in a slashing motion simultaneously). Further, you can't wield the sword on command; instead, the game dictates precisely when sword battles occur.

Showing mercy via both mechanics earns you "respect" points with which you can upgrade your arsenal of guns and sword techniques. During gunplay, executing the aforementioned disarms earns you respect points. So does targeting and disarming a team's "leader" (indicated by a yin-yang symbol above his / her head), which also has the added benefit of forcing the rest of the enemies in the room to lower their firearms. During swordplay, when you've defeated an enemy, s/he kneels and you're given the option to deliver a finishing slash or sheathe your sword. The latter option results in respect points.

List of Characters

Scott Monroe: The character you play, main protagonist, Miyu's fiancée.
Miyu Sato: Scott's fiancée, Isao's daughter.
Isao Sato: Miyu's father.
Tokai Kawaji: Main antagonist.
Otori-Sensei: Scott's katana technique teacher.
Harry Tanner: Club owner.
Mama San Sasori: Tokai's mistress.
Kajima: Scott's firearm teacher.
Ryuichi: Isao's former lieutenant (betrays him).
Tony Tanaka: Teaches Scott (player's) basic katana controls.
Mariko: Scott's advanced katana trainer, Otori's daughter.
The Sanro Kai: Five Yakuza leaders who served for Sato. Consists of Geisha girl Mama San Reiko, financier Kenzo Chiba, casino and game expert Tetsuo Misumi, shipping baron Inoue Makoto, and leader Akira.