Of all the games at the Wii play area, none was more clearly aimed at the hardcore gamer than Ubisoft’s Red Steel. Gritty and violent with a great art style and primo use of the Wii controller set, Red Steel had show goers lining up for just a few minutes of play. Now admittedly Nintendo has said that the Wii is really meant for more casual players, but if they get a few more games like Red Steel, I think it is going to have everyone of all skills seeing the Wii as a must-buy console.

Previewing a game based on the five minutes (if you’re lucky) of play you get on the E3 floor is a bit like seeing an animal in the zoo and then presuming to know all about its wild habits. The short exposure you get at best gives you a vague impression of what the final game will be like. There have been too many examples of games being all the rave at E3 and then turning out absolutely mediocre when they are finally released. (Did I hear someone say Full Auto?) All I’m saying is take what I say below with a big grain of salt. It is about six months before we’ll see the finished product.

Red Steel is a first-person action game set in modern-day Japan. You are a young man who is engaged to the daughter of a Japanese mafia boss. One day you find that your future father-in-law has been murdered and your main squeeze kidnapped. It is time for the bad guys to meet your little friend. In the course Red Steel you will actually have several little friends, but all can pretty much be divided into guns and blades.

The controller for Red Steel is what is now being called the “nunchuck” configuration. This is the combination of the standard Wiimote control in the right hand with a tethered directional controller in the left hand. The left-hand thumb stick moves the character much as you might expect. The right controller is the look function.

In actual play, the Wiimote aims your gun just by pointing it at an on-screen enemy while you maneuver with the left thumb stick. To imagine this without the Wii in front of you, pick up that trusty lightgun in your right hand and then hold the standard PS2 controller in your left with your thumb on the stick. Now imagine running around a game world with the stick while you pop enemies with the light gun. Now you’ve got it.

Things go beyond what you can imagine with standard controllers when you get to the sword dueling portions of the game. Once combat is joined you make slashing movements with the right-hand controller while blocking with the left controller.

There is a definite learning curve to this style of control, but once you start to get the hang of it, the rewards are many. It truly is what Nintendo has touted the Wii as … a new way to experience games.

Graphically the game is only a little better than the best GameCube game out there but it has an art style that is very pleasing. Only a complete graphics slut would refuse to play this games just for how it looks.

With so many truly good games being shown for the Wii at E3, it is hard to call any one the Wii’s killer app. For the diehard Nintendo fan, that is likely going to be either The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess or Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. For the console atheist who plays all the systems, like me, Red Steel is very likely to be the one game he has to get when he picks up his Wii on day one of launch. - Will Jayson Hill.