They called it...

Motion sensitive gameplay came to fruition with the release of the Nintendo Wii, and brought a flurry of excitement as eager consumers rattled through all the crazy possibilities. Fortunately, Ubisoft seized the opportunity to get the basics out of the way; "I want to flail my remote and nunchuk around like a lunatic, and watch in awe as the computer man imitates my actions, albeit with a pistol and katana… awesome."

Unfortunately, Ubisoft was apparently overeager to release Red Steel in time for Nintendo's new console. This resulted in a shoddy job, with controls that barely worked and a technical performance that was unacceptably below average. These blemishes ensured that Red Steel took off with all the aerial prowess of a chicken with lead wings.

However, something was there behind the drab graphics and poor gameplay, behind the haze of mediocrity. Red Steel had something which awful control schemes and frame-rate drops couldn't quite spoil. It had overwhelming potential.

Potential

No matter how much we sniffed at Ubisoft's effort to fulfill our desires of becoming gun-toting samurai in modern day Japan, we can't deny that it sounded like a good idea. Correction – it sounded awesome. Good ideas always have the potential to become great games. With Red Steel's potential came hope, and with hope comes a sequel, Red Steel 2.

All pre-release material is beginning to echo a well-learnt lesson on the part of Ubisoft. Red Steel 2, according to an old press release, will take place in a "desert-bound, high-tech metropolis." Sounds a lot sexier than modern day Japan, wouldn't you agree? Causing havoc in this Sci-Fi Western is the "Swordsman," a mysterious warrior, and one of the few remaining members of the Kusagari Clan, who were almost entirely wiped out by a rival clan named "The Jackals." Needless to say, our protagonist is royally pissed off and, people are killed.

Killing people, the quintessential videogame action apparent in any violent videogame, will hopefully be a lot more fun this time. Ubisoft Paris promises more intense battles with up to six foes at a time, and a locked frame rate of 60fps. It has switched the art style to one more suited to the Wii's capabilities. Gone are the ambitions of gritty realism and in come the cell-shaded graphics and colorful, stylistic design. The future is embraced as Wii Motion Plus is fully integrated to banish the nightmares of inaccurate aiming, and multiplayer is scrapped to better create a fully realized single-player experience.

The game we've all been waiting for

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and I swear I won't buy Red Steel 3. Red Steel 2 is definitely shaping up to be an improvement over its predecessor. But let's face it; it isn't hard to improve on garbage. While the (increasingly irrelevant) meta scores for the original Red Steel don't exactly reflect such a harsh statement, Red Steel 1 had even more hype than its sequel, and we know how well that turned out.

This generation of gaming sees developers excreting unfulfilling sequels year after year, using the mo' guns + mo' blood = mo' money formula. Ubisoft Paris is trying to turn things for this sequel, and hopefully a four-year gap has been long enough to really put an edge on Red Steel 2.