Top 10 Red Steel 1 & 2 Differences

You may have heard about the impending Red Steel 2, especially if you have read my blog recently, or any other E3 related Nintendo coverage. If you have heard about this, you probably know that it will be mighty different than the original game in the series. However, you may be wondering what the heck is different, since it carries the Red Steel franchise title and the main character wields both a gun and a katana. I am currently playing my way through Red Steel, so I will give you my Top 10 Red Steel 1 & 2 Differences.

Before I start, I would like to refute something I mentioned in my previous post.

"Although I've never played the original, I've seen it played and it looked pretty crappy."

I take that back. I love it. Now that we have that over with, let's get on with things...

Number 10: The Beginning And 2009

While the original Red Steel was created at the very beginning of the Wii's market and homelife, Red Steel 2 is being created after 3 years of mistakes, glitches, and lessons learned. Hopefully this makes the game all the more amazing - although the rise of the "casual gamer" over those three years may not be a benefit.

Number 9: Enemies
The enemies in the original and the new will be drastically different. While the first contained Japanese gangs shooting and occasionally slicing you, number 2 will still host gangs, but they will be samurai-esque Western gangs. One of them being the dirt bike samurai, the Jackals.

Number 8: Buy Things
No way! You can now buy things. By destroying objects, cracking safes, and presumably completing certain parts of your adventure you can obtain cash to buy upgrades to your weapons.

Number 7: Gameplay
Gameplay will be extremely different between the two games. I cannot say all of the major differences right now, but the way you attack is quite a bit different, and you have other options as the dash attack. The game is still shown in third person, however.

Number 6: Destroy Everything
I don't know how literal the developers meant when they said everything, but if it isn't, it is really close. In the video preview Steel 2 I saw the player blowing signs, rails, and various other pieces of the world. This, of course, will give you cash.

Number 5: The Protagonist
You may have guessed by now that you will not play as Scott in the next installment. This inevitably changes the storyline up quite a bit, and of course gives you a new character to play as. Your character is a gunslinging samurai wearing a trench coat and a mask, who is the last surviving member of a heroic clan sworn to protect the land from evildoers. After a long voyage, you find that the people of your hometown, Caldera, murdered. Revenge time.

Number 4: Weapon Usage
This is sweet. Red Steel is know for its sword and gun mix, but you were never able to co-mingle them. Well, now you can. Pistol or sword: it's your choice. Slice, then dice, then shoot them outta the air. Fun times.

Number 3: Setting
While Steel took place mostly in gang hubs of Japan while looking for Scott's fiancée, Steel 2 is in fictional Nevada, with a mix of Western cowboys and modern industrial. After a long voyage, you return to Caldera, the town you have lived in for many years, to find its people murdered. No dying in-laws, kidnapped fiancées, just good ol' revenge-filled gunslinging.

Number 2: Graphic Style
Scrap the standard graphics which strive to look realistic. Yes, they are amazing, but how about something different? How about some beautiful cell-shaded graphics that look real enough, but also keep you in a different universe. And all the while keeping zero lag. Amazing.

Number 1: WiiMotion Plus
Finally, number one. WiiMotion Plus will put Steel 2 head and shoulders above the rest, with precise movement controls and every motion will be what you make it. Yes, the last Steel was supposed to do that, but this one will do that.

That is the end of my Top 10 Red Steel 1 & 2 Differences, but not the end of Red Steel. Keep checking back to find out if I ever have anything else, and in the meantime check out IGN's E3 hand's on!

Making It Happen

Some very good articles have once again shown themselves on IGN. Two interesting looks are Players Wanted: Characters We Want on the Wii where IGN gives a list of characters most needed to show their faces on the Wii. The one I most agree with is Pit. Man, that we be one awesome game if done right. If you haven't yet, you may want to check my article about Pit needing a come-back, here. Don't forget to vote for your favorite character!
The second interesting look is the Lit trailer, scheduled for release on WiiWare February 9 for 800 Wii points. Give it a look, it may be worth a buy.


Now for my two favorites from IGN for a while. Making The Conduit and Is Casual Gaming Destroying the Industry?

Making The Conduit is a very cool article, bringing forth to the gamer the phases and such development of a game goes through, and what trials and difficulties have shown themselves to the High-Voltage Software team through making The Conduit completely independently. Don't forget to send them your opinion about cheats!!
As many of you may know, especially if you have been reading my posts since the beginning, that I am very very passionate about core games and gamers being pushed out by the casual scene. That's why I liked the article Is Casual Gaming Destroying The Industry? It has some quotes from developers, how the future may look, and more. Its a great read for anyone concerned about this.



By now you may be asking if I'm going to start basing my posts completely and totally off IGN articles. No. For now I am probably going to do a few posts that way, but soon I hope to bring you something fabricated by my own brain. Look forward to it and remind me like crazy!

Finally, would you please consider voting in my poll on the left hand side of the page? I'm currently trying to evaluate things. Thanks!

Absolutely Cystic

Winter: May it Rest in Peace...Or not? Sign the Petition

Interesting concept, great look. N-Space, the company who has been creating a game called Winter, decided to go back to the roots of survival horror games. Survival. They noted that survival games as of late have been all about fighting, but they wanted the true form back. And so, they created the concept of Winter. The game utilizes the remote and nunchuck in ways that only make sense, and bring in new concepts around every corner. The only problem? No publisher is willing to pick it up, fearing it to be a big risk. So head over to IGN and check out their interview with n-Space, and then hobble on over to a petition to get it back in the works, here. Maybe publishers will realize that the Wii isn't only a kiddie toy, and that it could some day beat up its tough big brother, Xbox?

10 Games for Obama; 10 Gaming Character Harmful to the Economy, 10 Trends Saving It; and IGN's 2009 Preview

IGN has released a few very interesting articles, both good reads and maybe some minor chuckles. My favorite, Top 10 Games for President Obama, is list compiled by the IGN staff. Some suggested games for the President are well known games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Tom Clancy's Endwar.

Two others are The Wednesday 10: Gaming Characters Harmful to the Economy, and Ten Trends That Are Saving Videogames. Again, an entertaining read.

On a more serious note, however, IGN also has some good articles about the upcoming 2009 gaming year, where they have included both speculation and known fact. Boy am I stoked. The long anticipated and overdue update for the console will be coming around this spring: you will soon be able to download and play Virtual Console games right of your SD memory card. Thank goodness!! I have already run out of fridge space several times, so this will make me very very happy. Along with that, Red Steel 2 and a "mature franchises" from EA are expected to be officially announced, so this coming Wii year seems to be very prelevant with mature games. For once. Sporting games seem to be up in numbers again, so you sporting fans be sure to check the article out. The Conduit, Sin and Punishment 2, Pikmin, Final Fantasy, Klonoa, Overlord...Dude am I stoked. No thats an understatement. I'm DYING.

The Conduit







Another year has come and gone, and despite the increase of profit that Nintendo has gained, I have found 2008 to be a very disappointing year for games. Sure, Call of Duty: World at War, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Band 2 turned some of the tables, but that is really all that was good in my opinion. Mario Kart Wii wasn't even the best it could have been, with multiplayer tracks that weren't right for four player battle, and no way to be eliminated in balloon battle. Even though it had many new and cool features, a few classic ones were trampled on. Super Smash Bros Brawl was simply an update to Melee. Factors like that made the best games of the year even less impressive. Don't get me wrong - I loved those games. My point, really, is that consoles like the Xbox have gotten numerous amounts of big games, such as Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Rock Band 2, COD5, and such. I can't wait for a time when Wii gets years like that.







Overlord: Dark Legends







Turn the spotlight to 2009. The Conduit, Sin and Punishment 2, the next Zelda, Mario and new rumoured Kid Icarus, and even a version of Overlord for Wii! I'm really stoked for the latter. If you have never heard of Overlord for the 360, it is a comedic, adventure, commander game. In it, you are a dark lord controlling your minions to do your will, with laughs around every bend. A Wii version will make my day. Not to mention that The Conduit will give Halo a run for its money. This is going to be one heck of a good year for Wii!

And no. I did not change my mind about my original post, I just looked at it from a different angle.

So let me know what you think about 2009. Will it be the best year to date, or is it going to be pure crap? Let me know in the comments section, or vote in the poll.

Nintendo WiFi: Hit or miss? / Commander Video :: Only a Man

IGN: Why Nintendo DS Sucks Online















On my regular search through IGN's daily articles, I ran across one referencing Nintendo's wifi connection, and I quite agreed with it. In short: It sucks. Go and take a look at Xbox live, and you will see a true piece of online connectivity art. Look at the Nintendo WiFi Connection, and you have crap. The 360 has one account for everything, and Nintendo has a separate account for each game ever made. With annoying and long codes. So go ahead and check out the above said article.


Commander: Only a Man
IGN: Who is the Commander?












This is also something else I stumbled across on IGN. Its something about "Commander" and "I'm Only a Man." IGN claims that "amidst the shuffling reel is a frame from the Wii title itself." I myself didn't notice anything like that, but then again the frames flew by quickly. I saw an image from a game like Pong, and others that I couldn't make out. I am wondering if this Wii exclusive title (or so claims IGN) has to do with Nazi warfare, or maybe its all hogwash. Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure that IGN is hiding something huge here. The question is, what? They promise to spill the beans as soon as they get more info, so I hope that is soon. It better be an amazing piece of work, like The Conduit or something similar to that level of awesome. Check out the above links, and let me know what you think of all this in the comments section.

Kid Icarus: Will Pit finally make his return?

"IGN Reboot: Kid Icarus Wii"














After reading this article on IGN, I can only image what a reiteration of Kid Icarus could bring to the gaming world. A first person angel fighter? A Zelda-esque adventure game? Or simply a well designed platformer? What ever the case, I'm hoping its good. Pit will make his return some day soon, and Shigeru Miyamoto almost confirmed the release. Factor 5, the company who developed the Rogue Squadron games for N64 and GameCube, as well as Lair for the PS3, has been rumoured to be the company to take it on. The amount of ingenuity that they put into the Rogue games surely bodes well for a new Pit game. I can just imagine controlling the angel in a 3rd person view, encountering Zeus on Mount Olympus, or fighting the dark goddess Medusa in the depths of the earth. Nintendo, you make it, I'll buy it!


What do you all think about this? Am I scratching the air, am I being a bit too wild in my thinking, or do you agree with me in how awesome it would be? And lastly, would you want it as first person, third person, or stick with its 2D platformer roots? Go ahead and leave a comment!