Nice to see someone who really likes Red Steel. My guess is that when you see the game in it's current state instead of in progress, you don't think of it as much like, "Oh, it's fixed that, but this is still broken". Also, it sounds like maybe he was playing in a more closed environment which may help.
I was disappointed but not surprised by the Splinter Cell impressions. I think Ubisoft is on the right track with supporting Wii heavily, but the company needs to ensure that everything is being built for Wii, not just ported cheaply. Unfortunately, it looks like a lot of their early lineup is cheap ports. I hope they keep that in mind when those games sell poorly.
Edit: for the record I think Wii controls could vastly improve Splinter Cell...he complains of complicated controls...well those have always been a problem for Splinter Cell. I've never gotten past the training mission of the first game. I think holding down A and performing a gesture could replace a ton of current moves in the game.