This side of Zelda, Red Steel was definitely my most anticipated Wii launch title. After playing it at E3 2006 I have to admit I was worried, as the controls were less than stellar, but thankfully the final build has refined them into something new Wii owners will likely want to try. It’s not a second coming for First Person Shooters, and it’s not without a long list of flaws, but it might be something you’re willing to rent.

So we all know by now that the Wii is great for pointing and shooting, but how does swinging translate to the screen? Well in Red Steel not particularly well. When you have a sword equipped and then swing, it will take a second or more to register on the screen. Not only that but there’s no guarantee it will swing in the way you swung. I was sincerely hoping you might be able to do some actual tactical sword fighting in this one but in the end it boils down to the point and shoot mechanic of a gun, just at close range. And even if you do stick to guns things get hairy as you can’t instantly turn around and there’s no partial auto-aim in any form.

What’s actually really cool about how Red Steel gets things started is that it blends together the first moments of the game with a pseudo tutorial on how to perform the game’s many actions. After this small bit ends you’ll still get a decent helping of story, but for the most part it’s all about the action. Throughout the game you’ll be fighting baddies from a couple different sides and a lot of them will drop weapons that you can then pick up and use as well. With this in mind, the game basically boils down to point, shoot, and move to the next room.

And herein lies another problem I have with Red Steel, which is the AI. While from time to time enemies will seems to work together and hide behind things there are too many occurrences where they just stand there. They may point and shoot, possibly at you, but they’ll do little to try to save their own digital lives. I played the majority of the game using a trusty gun, when possible, to headshot the mafia drones from as far away as possible. This happening in a game that touted sword play, variety in combat, and tough AI was a bit of a letdown.