Red Steel costs little green
by Candace Savino 
{ Jul 4th 2008 at 4:30PM }
People seem to either fall in the "love it" or "hate it" camp for Red Steel. For some, the controls were a mess, but others felt that they worked pretty well after an hour or so of playing. If such mixed opinions initially scared you away from Ubisoft's launch game, you might be happy to know that you can now pick up the title for super cheap.Starting today (and lasting only one week), GameStop is selling used copies of Red Steel for $9.99. This deal is available in brick and mortar stores only, but you can check if your local store has copies in stock by using the retailer's website.
For those of you who've played Red Steel -- is it worth $10?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
harry @ Jul 4th 2008 4:40PM
Overall, I didn't mind Red Steel. The only parts I didn't like were all the sword battles. They were difficult to get right, and attack when you wanted to. Other than that, i didn't have a problem with the guns, or missions that you had to do. So, it's worth the $10.
Dilly @ Jul 4th 2008 4:57PM
i bought it for 50$, it was definately worth it. people that whine about the controls are usually just bad at wii.
Dave T @ Jul 4th 2008 5:08PM
I got it this past Winter for $7.92 brand new at Circuit City. Harry has it right - the sword fights were pretty difficult and I ended up quitting the game half-way through because of one difficult sword fight - and the save point was pretty far away; meaning I would have to spend 20 minutes to get to the sword fight where I would die anyway. Not sure if it was worth the $7.92 for only getting through half the game.
A. says "raw" @ Jul 4th 2008 7:17PM
like you, i stopped at a sword fite cuz it was too hard,
---BUT---
it is definately worth 10$; i bought mine used at gamestop last year for under 20$ (i had the game informer discount card). the vs. mode was one of the funnest parts of the game for me (i loved pwning my friends with the rifle at the docks).
Chyld989 (MKWii: 5241-2307-2882) @ Jul 4th 2008 5:11PM
100% not worth $10. There are VERY few games that I can say this about, but I would actually turn down an offer to get this game for free. It is that freaking bad.
@Dilly: No, people that "whine about the controls" as you so succinctly put it aren't just bad at Wii, they just know the difference between a good control scheme and a control scheme so frustratingly bad it makes you want to throw the Wii Remote through the TV just so you can stop playing the damned thing.
Prince @ Jul 4th 2008 5:20PM
Alright everyone here has friends? Right?
Yeah. The multiplayer. Its very primitive, but it works. Gotta love simplicity.
The graphics? Suck.
The story? Sucks.
The entire one player campaign? TERRIBLE.
Number of hours spent in multiplayer? A LOT.
I bought this for 50 bucks.
Worth every penny.
JaKo @ Jul 4th 2008 5:22PM
its definitely worth a rental and if its worth a rental id say spend another few bux to keep it.
c_judicator @ Jul 4th 2008 5:25PM
Wow, it really is a "Love it" or "Hate it" for most people. Surprising .
Jonathan @ Jul 5th 2008 2:11AM
100% worth $10. It's worth even more.
I bought the game early on and had a blast with it. Yeah, some mechanics make little sense (why drop my gun and draw out my sword when I could, you know, shoot him instead?) but it's great.
The graphics are pretty nice and it has a great level design. There's one level that was just a blast to play, (slight spoilers) it was super eerie, and it included the Rabbids and these Power Ranger knock offs.
It's a good game.
psyborg @ Jul 4th 2008 5:43PM
The controls were pretty horrible on their own, but now compared to Metroid Prime or Medal of Honor, my god 9.99 seems like too much.
The overall game sp and mp seemed like it would be fun with a working control scheme, plus the graphics looked pretty good in some areas. Red Steel with Metroid's controls would have been a pretty solid game, which is why I think theres alot of potential for a sequel.
Shaq-Fu @ Jul 4th 2008 6:05PM
Since its the only FPS with local Mulitplayer (sans rail shooters), it seems worth $10. But with RS 2 possibly being given a release date at E3, I'd wait for that
ponceturtle @ Jul 4th 2008 6:14PM
Red steel is at least a decent game. For all the crap we are getting for the wii. The story mode is cheesy but the first person shotting with practice get easier but the bad A.I does' t help. Is it worth the 10 dollars? yes. The only thing i hate is that this game was rushed for the wii release it could have been good if they would have given more time developing it. And look at the graphics outside the samurai dojo they look great it seems that this is the only place in the game they give attention to details.
John @ Jul 4th 2008 6:14PM
I hate sword fighting but I like the rest of the stuff....
Andrew @ Jul 4th 2008 6:33PM
If they turned that $9.99 upside down into $66.6, I would buy it
Lord Bowser @ Jul 5th 2008 6:47AM
You'd rather pay $66 rather than $9.99? Wow, you're a real consumer whore, aren't you.
Nils @ Jul 4th 2008 7:38PM
Well, I bought red steel with my wii since I'm a big shooter fan and allthough I guess I wouldn't have admitted it if it were bad back then, I think I realy did quite like it. I was rather dissapointed by the sword battles, I expected something more impressive, which I still haven't een by the way. I dont want to swing up right left or down, if I wan't to make some ridiculous swing into the air, I want to see my character do just that. I guess its never gonna come but thats what I expected of wii, and that would be wockz0m.
JBuddy @ Jul 4th 2008 8:03PM
i wipe my ass with 10 dollars
Evil Bastard @ Jul 4th 2008 8:45PM
I borrowed a friends copy last winter and thought it was fun. Even playing with a severly injured finger (Making the battles truly painful), I was able to get through the sword battles without much difficulty.
Mr Khan @ Jul 4th 2008 9:19PM
I briefly swapped Sonic and the Secret Rings for Red Steel with a friend a month or so after i finished Sonic, and i kinda liked it. It just seemed inconsistent. The proper FPS controls worked very well, as they tend to for Wii FPS, and the sword fights were ok, but whenever the game would transition from sword fight mode back to FPS mode, the whole camera would go wonky on you
The inconsistency really came graphically. Certain rooms and arenas were elaborate, both technically and artistically, but most of the hallways and some of the rooms seemed like they were done by a B-Team after the A-Team that worked on those aforementioned rooms moved on
SoshiKitai @ Jul 4th 2008 9:27PM
I played the whole game all the way through when I first got the game (the first game I got)...
Unlike most people, I didn't expect much from it... and becuz of that, it was pretty fun for me.
It's not AS BAD as people make it out to be. It's just bad, not the most awful thing ever created.
Worth the $10? I'd say worth $20.
The $50 price is kinda' too large for the game's rather awful swordplay.
But if it was a game that came out for cheap in the beginning, people would be talking a bit bigger about it.
Dustin @ Jul 6th 2008 3:04PM
Red Steel has a cheesy, repetitive, and boring campaign. Sword fights are a joke. Controls can be extremely annoying. Framerate drops in areas. Graphics are a mixed bag.
But this is still absolutely the best shooter on the Wii. Once you get used to the controls you WILL master them, and the game suddenly becomes insanely fun. Grenade tossing feels really good. Destructible environments are satisfying. Multiplayer is great and and reminds me of days spent with friends playing Goldeneye on the N64. Easily worth $10.
James @ Jul 5th 2008 4:51AM
I got it free with my Wii on launch day. It was pretty good. Story was stupid, scripting was bad and the sword fights. Well I didn't find them hard but they were hardly dramatic, I found I just seemed to break my opponents swords straight away.
The multiplayer modes with phones was alarmingly fun. If they'd included more multiplayer content it really would have saved the game completely.
betazealot @ Jul 6th 2008 2:34PM
I really liked this game, even the single player. It was so entertaining, and the graphics weren't THAT awful. What made them seem awful were the crappy ass grungy cutscenes. Oh how I cringed when I hit one of those. The controls were actually really good, the only thing was, of course, the way too large bounding box for the cursor so that you had to have your gun held basically horizontal in order to turn. Being able to hold the gun gangster style was so fun. I loved the level design, but there were only 4 levels! I sadly didn't get to play much multi because friends instantly dissed the controls without trying it. I played it for half an hour before I played with friends, then played multi, and was getting headshots like no tomorrow. It bought it for $50, and I think it was worth it. The sword fights were frustrating and pointless though. If RS2 tightens the aiming mechanism, adds online(which it supposedly is confirmed for), and has more maps...and GETS RID OF THE CRAPPY CUTSCENES...I will call it as an amazing game. Ubisoft felt like they just rushed the first one, but if RS2 isn't far off, I would just wait for it since it's 99% sure to be better than this. I still think this is definately worth $10, if you have cash to spare (which you most likely do) and you're bit bored, pick this up and play with some friends, just make sure not to get scared off right away. Give it at least half an hour, prolly an hour, and you will most likely have fun. I think lots of the people who said it was a bad game basically played for a few minutes with friends and couldn't adjust incredibly quickly. I play CoD4 PC like a hardcore player all the time, so I know accurate and good mouse control, and I still say this game is fun and worth more than $10.
Michael K. @ Jul 6th 2008 7:21PM
It isn't THAT bad of a game, I think people are too hard on it, especially considering that it was a launch title. The controls are pretty crappy and the game is mindlessly easy, but it was the only shooter at the time and at least it tried. I'd say if you're still curious after this long and you don't have many other games to play right now, $10 isn't too bad.
soare @ Jul 7th 2008 9:33AM
I am torn on Red Steel. I own it, and have played it a fair bit. I really like the story and the general game play. Great to sword fight with the Wiimote. But there are some serious bugs in this program that Ubisoft won't acknowledge. The aiming control has a weird glitch where your aiming retinal will suddenly jump down on the screen every few seconds. This can get pretty damn annoying when trying to make some exact sniper shots. And then there the show-stopper bug that completely lock up your Wii and leaves it making this loud whining sound until you completely disconnect the power from the Wii. Lot's of people report on this bug, but Ubisoft's support states "There are no know bugs at this time". Thanks for releasing buggy software Ubisoft! (I've played a few levels so many times, just to get past this damn bug, it kind of out me off the game after a while.) It's hard to pass up at just $10, but dammit Ubisoft release some bug fixes!