Red Steel is a Ubisoft video game in development for Nintendo's upcoming Wii. It is being developed by the Ubisoft Paris studio. It was unveiled in the May 2006 issue of Game Informer. Red Steel was the first game for the Wii platform to release in-game screenshots, thus giving the public an idea of what the console is capable of. It is currently scheduled to be a launch title. A presentation of the game will be held during E3.

Story

The player takes on the role of a nameless American man, who is engaged to a Japanese-American woman named Miyu. The story begins when Miyu is kidnapped from a posh restaurant where the player intends to meet her father for the first time. The player later learns that her father is a Yakuza boss named Sato, who owns an important ceremonial katana. A younger Yakuza lord named Tokai covets the sword, and had mortally wounded Sato in his attempt to get it. When the attempt failed, Tokai had Miyu kidnapped, in hopes of trading her for the sword. Sato instead gives the sword to the player, expressing his wish of the player using it in order to rescue his daughter.

Supposedly, the story will revolve mostly around the main character's quest to gain support from various gang leaders in an effort to defeat his fiance's captor. The game will begin by emphasizing a reckless playing style but will gradually require more precise, efficient attacks.

Gameplay

The game will take full advantage of the Wii's unique motion-sensitive controller, along with the "nunchaku" attachment. Some ideas of the game that have been confirmed are the use of a katana and a gun. It has been confirmed that the game will be extremely immersive (e.g.: twisting the controller while handling the gun causes the gun to twist as well). Players can push objects to use them as cover by pushing the controller forward. Pulling the controller backwards reloads the gun. The player can also lob grenades in a more realistic fashion, with underhand or overhand, employing the controller as the thing being 'thrown'.

The AI characters can "care for themselves" according to project leader Roman Campos Oriola; enemies will be aggressive, moving around objects and the environment to attack the player (like jumping on a table instead of running around). The developers hold the computer game F.E.A.R. as their standard for the AI.

The AI will also be completely unique, with an option that allows the player to force the enemy mob bosses to surrender, rather than take their lives. This is done by disarming the boss and holding them at the player's mercy instead of killing them. (A Game Informer article mentions this can be done by stopping the katana's swing a fraction of a second before it could inflict a killing blow, or shooting the gun out of their hand.) This actually becomes beneficial, as the bosses may then help the player if the player can convince them to join the player's faction, possibly handing over new weapons or paths. A violent approach will also be possible, but it will not be as beneficial, wise, or encouraged. The bosses' factions may actually join Tokai (instead of the player) in his quest for Yakuza control, making the final confrontation with the mobster more difficult.

It has been confirmed that the game will have multiplayer: split-screen multiplayer with traditional deathmatches. According the project leader, "Perhaps most impressive is the fact that although split-screen reduces the amount of onscreen space you are playing in, you don't have to make smaller movements ?you can gesture as wildly as you want, and it won't interfere with the other player's onscreen quadrants." Ubisoft has not yet revealed whether or not Red Steel will use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection online gaming service, due to NDAs. Full details have not been revealed yet.

The game will reportedly place less influence on killing the enemy and a greater influence on defeating them and convincing them to join the player rather than to join the opposing faction. Recklessness will be strongly discouraged by a unique system that adds 'freeze points' for accuracy/efficiency while using one's weaponry. When a certain number of points is accumulated, the player will be able to momentarily freeze time thus allowing for amazingly accurate attacks.