Red Steel 2

Red Steel 2 is a game that shares only its name with its predecessor and otherwise started completely from scratch. Instead of gray Japanese interiors, it presents a colorful, comic-book-stylized world in which the desert of the Wild West meets samurai tradition. A nameless hero returns to the town of Caldera, whose inhabitants were massacred by the Jackals gang, and sets out for revenge armed with a katana and a revolver. The whole title requires the Wii MotionPlus attachment, and its precision is the foundation of everything essential the game offers.

Combat is a combination of shooting and swordplay, between which the player switches fluidly. Every vertical, horizontal, or diagonal swing of the controller is translated into the game, and enemies have guards that must be broken with the correct direction of slash, so combat feels more like a fast puzzle than mindless button-mashing. Added to that are special techniques unlocked with money found in the levels, dodges, kicks, and the ability to strip an opponent's guard. The result is combat that feels physically satisfying and noticeably more precise than anything Wii had offered up to that point, even though it requires a bit of patience before the hand gets used to it.

Visually, it's one of the best-aging games on the console, because its cel shading and bold colors don't need high resolution or complex effects. The music mixes western guitars with eastern motifs, and together with the empty streets of the desert town it creates a very distinctive mood, which also includes excellently done weapon sound. Contemporary reviews were mostly favorable, and the controls were often described as the best use of MotionPlus ever. Commercially, the game didn't do particularly well, which is a shame, because it represents exactly the kind of title that simply couldn't exist on another platform, which is why collectors keep coming back to it today. The first releases even included the MotionPlus attachment itself in the box, which opened the door for many players to other games that required it. Today, Red Steel 2 is recommended as the first title anyone with this accessory should try.