Coffee Beans
Last May, we looked at how many hours had been reported playing Red Steel 2 by U.S. Wii owners, with more than 2 years' worth of data reported.
Red Steel 2 was released as a Wii exclusive on March 23, 2010 in the U.S., and can still be found to buy, new or used, on many different sites. If you own a Wii, or even Wii U, and are interested in Red Steel 2, you should know the game requires a Wii MotionPlus accessory to play though. As for content to be aware of, Red Steel 2 received an ESRB rating of "TEEN" for "Animated Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence".
A description for the game on the Nintendo Channel says, "Embody a lonesome fighter, a man of few words with a shaded past full of mystery. Face various, and increasingly strong, enemies and defeat challenging bosses in epic and intense fights. Visit a remote mixed metropolis in the middle of the American desert, where Eastern and Western culture have been smashed together: Caldera."
About how many U.S. Wii owners have game-play data reported for Red Steel 2 through the Nintendo Channel, and how many hours have they reported playing the game since it released over 3 years ago? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!
The time has come! On April 12 I published, "5 Years Ago, This Day...and GIVEAWAY!", which was a post talking about how Ubisoft had confirmed in 2006 that Red Steel was being developed for the "Revolution", but the post also contained details for readers to enter a Red Steel giveaway.
The deadline to enter the Red Steel giveaway was this past Tuesday night, April 26.
How did I go about drawing the winner, and WHO won the Red Steel giveaway? The images below show it all:
If you entered the Red Steel giveaway I posted a few weeks back, the time to enter has closed. If you're wondering "Who WON!?" Well, if you entered the giveaway, please check your email.
Coffee Beans:
Before we knew it as the Wii, we knew it as the Revolution. In March of 2006, there were rumblings of a FPS being developed for Nintendo's next console. Screenshots were even leaked/scanned from magazines, and it was said that Ubisoft was developing it.
Well, on April 11, 2006, 5 years this day(Tuesday), not today, Ubisoft officially made the announcement, with a press release, that they were developing Red Steel for the Revolution.
A portion of the press release said, "Today Ubisoft...announced the development of Red Steel, an exclusive first-person action title for the Nintendo Revolution(working name of the new Nintendo platform). Red Steel is set in modern-day Japan. Players will master both the ancient art of the katana and the sophisticated technology of modern firearms taking advantage of the emotion and immersive gameplay possible only with the Revolution's remarkable controller."
Filtered Thoughts: Red Steel seems to be one of those games with a very love/hate type of relationship with gamers. I rented the game first, because of the wide range of review scores. I found that even with some control issues, the game was fun and I enjoyed it enough to play through it at least twice. I would say at its current prices, used or new, the game is worth a try...or at the least, a rental.
Does that "Drinks" machine have any coffee!
So, to put money where my mouth is, I'm giving away a copy of Red Steel for the Wii.
This is Part 3, of my "What Red Steel 2 should keep from the original Red Steel". If you missed the first two parts, you can find Part 1 and Part 2 by clicking on Part 1 and Part 2! In Part 1, I said that I hope Red Steel 2 keeps the explosions from the original game. In Part 2, I said I hope Red Steel 2 keeps the interactive and destructible type of environments that the original Red Steel had.
What is a third area I think Red Steel 2 should keep and improve upon from the original Red Steel?
Watch and find out:
The ability to disarm and let enemies surrender!
I really enjoyed having the choice in the original game to allow certain enemies to live or die.
I liked how you gained respect points by allowing the enemies to live.
In the video, you probably noticed the game slowing down/freezing at certain points when I had a gun in my hand. This is called "Focus Time" in the game, and it allows you to freeze time, and target either enemies weapons or enemies in general. In the video, I show how targeting an enemies weapon will cause the enemy to drop the weapon and surrender, if I wave them down.
The enemies in the video that I targeted had snake symbols above their heads. When an enemy in the game has a snake symbol, that is the leader. If you target the leader's weapon and get them to surrender, the other enemies will follow the leader's decision as can be seen in the video.
Also in the video, I showed several clips of the ends of sword fights. At the end of each sword fight, the game lets you decide to either kill the enemy, or let the enemy live. In the video, I chose to let them live.
I hope Red Steel 2 takes the features of disarming and letting enemies surrender and improves upon it.
Questions:
Are you planning on buying Red Steel 2 from what you know of the game now? If not, why not? Or are you on the middle of the fence, not sure which way you'll fall?
Is there anything that would be the tipping point for you, either towards purchasing or not purchasing the game?
Check the comments for my answer!
As always, if you're interested in any of the games, you can see what Amazon.com is selling them for right here!
Last Monday I posted my "Part 1" of this series, "What Red Steel 2 should keep from the original Red Steel".
In Part 1, I said that I hope Red Steel 2 keeps and improves upon the explosions that were in the original Red Steel. If you missed last weeks article with the video, you can find it by clicking HERE!
So, what do I think Red Steel 2 should keep and improve upon from the original for "Part 2"?
Interactive/Destructible Enviroments, watch some examples from the original game:
Why do I hope Red Steel 2 keeps and improves upon the destructible objects?
Destructible objects help bring me into a FPS game setting.
Seeing damage happen to objects from stray bullets during gun battles can be a helpful reminder that not all "cover" in the game is safe. I think it also makes the game a little more "real".
If you're wondering about some things in the video, I'm providing a list of things that happen. The list will be broken into the approximate time of the event happening.
At :10 Ceramic tiles shot off pillars @ :16 Fish tank is shot, causing water to flow out, they even animated two fish flopping on the floor!
@ :23 What appears as a piece of plywood on a railing breaks apart
@ :25 Computer monitor shatters @ :29 Walked through a beaded curtain, it actually made the sound I would expect it to make!
@ :35 A jug of water explodes when shot
@ :42 Washer/Dry expels water and clothes when shot
@ 1:08 Explosion of a food truck causes a fire hydrant to burst in the street, the water shooting from the fire hydrant can be seen in the left of the explosion
@ 1:15 Panels actually sound like they're made of paper, as they appear they are @ 1:20 Explosion of the kitchen range causes kitchen fire sprinkler system to cut on, you can see it coming from the ceiling to the left of the explosion! @ 1:39 Enemies use spotlights from walkways above, to try and keep you from seeing where they are shooting you from. The spotlights are able to be shot out!
@ 1:55 A series of neon lights shot out @ 2:05 Dinosaur eggs that break when shot, some of them contain dinosaurs...with guns?!
While these were some of the objects in the game that were destructible/interactive, there were other objects not shown that could be destroyed as well.
The objects shown were destructible/interactive, though not every object in the game was destructible.
Some computer monitors wouldn't shatter, some glass wouldn't break. Not all pipes would let steam out when shot, not all boxes would splinter/break when shot. It varied from level to level, but the destructible/interactivity of objects in the level was done extremely well.
I hope the Red Steel 2 development team took notice of this from the first game, and I hope it's as well done in Red Steel 2!
I know it seems that many reviewers rushed through the original Red Steel, and some of the attention to detail that the first game had may have been missed, even by some of you that played it.
Questions: Same as last time. Have you played the original Red Steel? If so, what did you think about it? If not, has what you've seen in the videos made you interested in it? Are you planning on buying Red Steel 2 when it releases, or are you not interested in the game?
Leave a comment and let others know!
If you're interested in either Red Steel or Red Steel 2, you can buy them on Amazon.com just by clicking on them below!
The original Red Steel on the Wii was released more than 3 years ago. It was available as one of the Wii's release titles, and the game seemed to have a lot going for it from hands-on previews leading up to its release.
Matt Casamassina, of IGN, said during a preview in October 2006, before Red Steel released, "As it turns out, the latest build of Ubisoft's shooter plays much better than the game did in New York -- to the point, in fact, where many of our former concerns have been cast aside. And yet, the control is still not as sensitive or as responsive as we would like. Strangely enough, however, Red Steel is somehow still fun -- still engaging and enjoyable -- despite its shortcomings."
A month later, after Red Steel released, Matt "reviewed" Red Steel and gave it a 6.0 out of 10. He cited the game's controls as the biggest reason for his score. I definitely don't agree with his score on the game, and most IGN.com readers don't either. Red Steel has a 7.7 out of 10 average, from 192 IGN.com reader reviews.
I don't consider Matt's opinion of the game a "review", as much as I consider it lazy. After reading his review again, I doubt he even finished the single-player campaign for Red Steel. He didn't mention how long it took him to beat, which the game provides you with when you finish. He also failed to mention the levels have ranking systems, that judge your accuracy and give you a grade for each level when they're completed.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, Red Steel 2 is due to be released on the Wii in North America on March 23, and Europe on March 26.
I've played through the original Red Steel twice, and I enjoyed the game. I admit Red Steel is not a perfect game, but there are some things that I hope Red Steel 2 will retain and improve upon from the original game.
What is the first thing I hope Red Steel 2 keeps and improves upon?
Explosions!
Did you notice the poor guy in the explosion around 1:14 in the video? He comes into the top left of the shot, at the top of the stairs. You may have missed it, it happens so fast!
I think the explosions in the original Red Steel look great and I hope that the explosions in Red Steel 2 look awesome as well. I know Red Steel 2 has a different graphical style, so I'm really interested to see how the explosions look in the game.
Questions: Have you played the original Red Steel, if so, what do you think about the game? Is there anything you hope that Red Steel 2 does like the original game?
If you're interested in either game, you can take a look at them on Amazon.com right below. Red Steel 2 requires the Wii Motion Plus accessory to play the game, so the bundle showing for Red Steel 2 includes WM+.
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