At Nintendo’s E3 booth I played the E3 09 Red Steel 2 demo. This demo is the same demo that was played during the Ubisoft pre-show press conference. It starts with an in-game cinematic that shows your character, a cowboy looking guy, being dragged through the desert by a motorcycle. Although an impressive scene, noting in it is interactive. After you break free of your binds you find yourself a wanted man. At this point I actually took over.

The game started by showing me the basic movement controls. The game uses the Wii Remote, Nunchuck, and requires Wii Motion Plus. You move around with the Analog Stick, and dash with the A-Button.

After movement tutorials I found myself face to mask with some of the game’s enemies. Armed with only a six-shooter, the game advised me to aim with the pointer, and shoot with the B-Trigger. I was pleased to discover that where I hit enemies determined how they reacted. When I hit one enemy in the knee, he fell haplessly to the ground.

After a brief clash with enemies, I managed to locate the titular katana. After a bit more walking I had my first sword battle. Swordplay is done by swinging the Wii Remote. With Wii Motion Plus the sword maps closely to how I swung the Wii Remote. It did not seem to be 1:1, but it was a drastic improvement over the previous title’s implementation of sword combat. The intensity of the blow is determined by how hard you swing the Wii Remote.

The ability to move between sword combat and gunplay, simply by swinging (to draw the sword) or aiming the pointer (to draw the gun) allowed me to change weapons on the fly. It made the game feel more exciting. When the fighting gets in close, it became a mix of swinging, dodging and blocking (C-Button).

After some warm-up fights, I found myself facing a small gang of baddies. It was often hard to tell when I was in danger from an enemy other than the one I was locked on to, but the game does alert you with a flashing Z-Button (which you press to change targets) when you’re about to be creamed from outside your field of view.

After I did enough damage to an enemy, an indicator appeared around the target when I was locked on to him. This told me that I could execute a “finishing move” by simply dashing at him. These moves were all various forms of impalement on the katana.

The demo ended with “the Heavy,” which the Ubisoft employee on hand said is “representative” of the bosses in the game. The Heavy is a big armored mountain of a man, armed with a big sledge hammer. There’s no blocking the heavy. Instead, I was coached to get behind him by dashing, and then slashing at his exposed back. After a brisk throw-down, that saw me get knocked back by his hammer, I finished him off and completed the demo.

Overall the game seems to play pretty well. There is a slight delay in the sword responding to your swings, but beyond that all the controls and combat seem to work. Also, since you turn by pointing the Wii Remote towards an edge, there was an issue with turning when you move the Wii Remote too far. Often times I would start turning, and then snap back. I figured out how to avoid it, but it was a problem.

Red Steel 2’s other major change (besides Motion Plus) is the adoption of a cell-shaded graphic style. It looks very nice, and many things within the environment are destructible, including enemy armor. It also blends in some details to further enhance the “Old-West” desert setting. The only issue with the graphics is the lack of blood. When I executed a finishing move, and buried a sword deep in an enemy’s abdomen, pulling out a pristine sword just seems strange. Also, when the enemy is dead they simply blink a few times and vanish, much like one would expect in an NES game.

From limited hands on time, Red Steel 2 looks like a promising title. It needs a few tweaks before release, but so far there is a lot to like.