Is Red Steel that popular because of its amazing game controls and visuals or is it just because this game was the first Wii titled being unveiled with a huge fact list and actual in-game screenshots? We had our own go to find out and made the steel go red.

The E3 part we got to play demonstrated both the sword fighting parts and some parts where you had to use the gun. Red Steel doesn't let you choose how to fight an enemy, at least not in the demo. Enemies with swords have to be taken on with a sword; seems fair, raging in with a machinegun may be a little too excessive. The massive sword-fights we had a go at actual fitted better in a slapstick movie instead of featuring in a game with this kind of serious atmosphere.

The opponents were just standing there while I was approaching them. Ok, this is a demo, I understand the level of difficulty is kept quite low, but can they at least do something to entertain me? Now they look awfully stupid; most of the time they were just standing there looking at me, incidentally attacking and blocking my assaults. Talking about my attacks, why does this game only recognize standard swings? How I would wave my remote around didn't seem to have any effects on my in-game moves. Trying to attack with my sword from beneath didn't work. Stabbing my furious opponent was useless also. Isn't the fuss about the Wii that with this console your movements in real life are now copied on the TV-screen? It seems not the case with Red Steel... not yet at least. Not that I experienced.

The aiming with the remote worked too slow and too imprecise for me. The Metroid Prime 3 demo showed how controls in a FPS for the Wii are supposed to be. In Red Steel they got it all wrong. Taking aim at a villain from a distance was frustrating for me; it took quite some time to have a good shot at him. Aiming at the exact location where a player wants to shoot, should really be done in a second or two. With the ten to fifteen minutes we had with the game – while uneasily standing – it all seemed like hard slow work. However, more time may be needed to get fully familiar with these new controls – and some tweaking from the developers needed to get this game working as it's supposed to be.

Lastly let me mention the visuals. There was some talking about the appearances of the bad guys in the game. Weren't they looking awfully the same in the screenshots? Unfortunately this is also the case in the demo. The shooting guys apparently all wear the same clothes and visit the same barbers. They also look out of place amongst the other visuals. The baddies and the backgrounds don't make a whole at all, which doesn't help bringing this game to life.

Am I disappointed after playing Red Steel? Yeah, to some extent, but I see this dissatisfaction comes from the high expectations I had with Red Steel. I still see the huge potential of this title – just read through our previews on this game - but the crappy sword fights, confusing controls and bad looking baddies have put me down on it for now. There's still hope though. It's a work in progress after all.