First Nintendo Revolution Game Revealed: Red Steel

The game, “Red Steel” which is produced by Ubisoft, will be the first game reported to be in development and playable (with screenshots!) on the Nintendo Revolution.

How It Began…
The game has reportedly been in development for just shy of 12 months, with Ubisoft France (responsible for games such as Far Cry, Prince of Persia, and Ghost Recon) apparently demoing the new controller at E3 in 2005. The team are said to have approached Miyamoto and Nintendo in Japan, getting the ‘go ahead’ for their idea and development kits were received not long after. The engineers at Nintendo Japan were worked with closely.

Story
Red Steel tells the story of an American man who is engaged to the daughter of a Yakuza leader, Sato, who possesses a great sword known as “Katana”. A rival leader, Tokal, has set his sights set on this great sword, and in trying to increase the power of his organization, makes a failed attempt at stealing it. He does, however, kidnap the daughter and wound the father. This is where you take control, and your future father-in-law presents you with the sword, and pleads you to travel to Japan, to rescue his daughter. You’ll traverse through the game, sparing the lives of Yakuzas, learning new skills, to prepare for the final showdown. Not only will you be learning skills within the game, but you’ll be learning how to play and perfect the skills of the Revolution controller, at the same time.

Major Gameplay Elements
- The combat will primarily focus around long-ranged shooting
- Close-quarters-combat (swords, etc) and stealth kills will also play a significant role
- Enemies will have ranks. A squad of enemies in an area will be lead by a commander, who leads his troops and assigns orders.
- Players can spare the lives of enemies and be rewarded. By sparing the life of a commander, he will call down all of his troops and give you guidence, weapons, and other rewards to help you on your way.
- The more efficiently you fight, the more your “Freeze Gauge” will fill, which, when full, allows you to freeze time to target specific points of impact on an enemy.
- Players may not always want to strive for headshots: shooting the gun out of an enemie’s hand can be just as helpful.
- Mentors will teach the player new moves throughout his quest.
- The player can track down other gang leaders and encourage them to join yours by proving your strength.

Taking Advantage Of The Revolution Controller
**From the screenshots, you can see that the game will be taking advantage of the revolutionary controller. The fine print reads “Notice how the angle of the in-game gun reflects the angle at which you hold the controller.

The game’s controls will be unique with the Revolution’s controller hook-up:
- Players can lob or roll grenades at enemies by moving your arm just like you would throwing a ball.
- Guns can be rotated in the player’s hand to further immerse the gamer.
- The player’s specific motions with the controller can trigger combos (such as tracing an X in the air to unleash a powerful hit).
- The player can interact in conversations by tilting the controller up or down to signal a yes or no response.

Multiplayer
Although the game will make full use of Nintendo’s Wi-Fi enabled Revolution online service, Ubisoft is under an agreement to not disclose anything on the matter at this point - primarily because Nintendo is yet to unveil the service.

Red Steel will, however, offer traditional four-player split-screen mulitplayer, with original modes to be shown at E3. In terms of how four people make use of the freehand controller, it has been reported that no matter how small the screen is (split-screen quadrants), your movements can remain as large as they would be if you were playing single player on a 100-inch Plasma TV.

In The End…
The game will appear at E3 and is promised as an exclusive launch game, this year! Everyone seems very excited about what this title will offer, and it must be remembered that it’s only the first game. More than 20 others, at very least, will appear in the next four weeks!