Red Steel [Wii]

If you were to draw up a short list of terrible game launch titles, you'd have to save a place for Red Steel, a tailor-made Wii game that's bad enough to make you wonder whether the system simply can't handle shooters. The controls are horrid, the graphics are sub-par, and the gameplay is unimaginative and generic. Even its biggest selling point -- the ability to sword fight with your Wiimote -- is a let down.

Given how well the controls have worked in most other Wii games, there's no reason to think Red Steel would be problematic. You move using the analog stick on the nunchuk attachment, and you aim using the Wiimote's pointer. That leaves you plenty of other buttons and gestures for reloading, ducking, throwing grenades, and so on.

And for the most part, these other controls work well. Ducking and jumping is easy and intuitive with the 'C' and 'Z' buttons. Grenade tossing and quick sword slashing are well suited to waving the nunchuk around. A quick flick of the nunchuk downwards reloads your weapon, which feels a bit like flicking an empty magazine out of a gun. Do the same thing to open doors or pick up weapons. So far, so good.

But the problem comes from the way the Wiimote is used to both aim and turn, which are two of the most important things you'll do in a shooter. The Wiimote can't change your view and keep your aim point in the middle of the screen, since you would eventually have to move the Wiimote offscreen after turning a few degrees. Instead, the pointer moves a targeting reticle around, as if you were playing a light gun game like Virtua Cop or House of the Dead. To turn, you have to bump the reticle against the edge of the screen, which shifts your perspective and direction accordingly.

This means you can't turn and shoot at the same time, and you can't shoot at anything on the screen until you're done turning. This might have worked fine if the enemies were kind enough not to leave your field of view. But the closer your target, the easier it is for him to simply step laterally to someplace you can't see. The whole thing is exhausting given the pace of the game, and the alternating demands for broad movement and precision aiming. If you want to tire your Wii arm and wear out your wrist, this is the game to do it.

In fact, in an otherwise forgiving game where your health fully regenerates every few seconds and bad guys are dumb enough to stand around and get shot, you'll mostly die because you can't turn fast enough. Then there are the times the control system suffers weird glitches or spasms, as if there was something wrong with your Wiimote. There's something wrong with Red Steel's controls above and beyond the fact that it's a terrible interface that results in a lot of flailing around, particularly in close quarters.

The graphics are ambitious but usually awful. It's a coarse, ugly, low poly-count world of locations in Los Angeles and Japan. The Wii can obviously handle 3D graphics, within limits. Zelda: Twilight Princess and Excite Truck both show off how far those limits can be pushed. But Red Steel manages no such feat.