A great early showcase of the Wii's capabilities. A recommended purchase for Wii owners after a more mature game.
Red Steel is innovative but takes a lot of getting used to. The story is well-told through comic-book panes not unlike Max Payne and you get the general gist of the story right away. Red Steel is a FPS, and a memorable one. The setting is Los Angeles, and you're about to meet your girlfriend's father. As usual, nothing goes right and you're suddenly in the thick of a yakuza gang war. I won't ruin it for you, but you eventually get carted off to Japan to do some hero work.
The controls are very good for a first-gen Wii shooter. The controls will feel a lot more natural if you're used to PC shooters than console games. You use the Nunchuk to move around and perform actions, like opening doors and knocking over tables. You use the remote to aim your weapon and let fly with some bullets. Overall, the controls work a treat and are very natural.
But are we missing something here? A big part of Red Steel is the swordfighting. This is kind of a hit-and-miss affair. The sword controls aren't as responsive as the shooting, and it does get frustrating if you're swordfighting while someone's shooting at you. You can't change from your gun to your sword, it's predefined, so if someone's shooting at you, you can't equip your gun and blast back. This glitch aside, the swordfighting is pretty solid.
The visuals are very good for a Wii game, and demonstrates quality similar to older titles on the Xbox 360. Textures and lighting are immaculate and the frame-rate rarely chugs. Expect a lot of sparks! The physics model is good fun to play around with, as the environments are semi-destructible and the ragdoll effects are awesome. The music sets the scene quite well and the guns sound realistic. However, voice-acting is sub-par. It is rather corny and the Japanese accents are pathetic and would be offensive to the real Japanese!
Despite its flaws, Red Steel is the only 'urban' style shooter on the Wii, so unless you'd rather shoot at Nazis with COD3 or space beasties with MP3 Corruption, then Red Steel is a worthy choice.