Red Steel 2, which just got its first real gameplay debut yesterday, is now out in the open and being played by every Tom, Dick and Harry who passes by. Of course, we had to take a shot at it. I’m happy to say I was pleasantly surprised by how it controlled, although I’ve never mastered the Wii shooter style. It helped that the guy in front of us was hopeless; why learn from my own mistakes when I can learn from his ahead of time?

The sword controls are more “gesture” than “one to one,” which was how it was (probably mistakenly) described to us earlier. I talked with Lead Game Designer Roman Campos Oriola for a few minutes about the game and his ambitions. He said that early on the idea of a 1:1 control scheme had to go out the window, as much as he wanted to please the swordplay nuts (himself, if his laugh was any indication). Still, he felt (and I agree) that the current scheme is workable and fun, and you do get the feeling that you’re swinging the sword, even though it’s pretty exaggerated . One enjoyable thing was that you really have to swing the sucker to get a solid “strong” hit in, so if you’re a flicker like the guy in front of me, you’ll need to adjust your style somewhat.