Zero Punctuation: Red Steel 2

[MisterColeman]

You are now forgiven for FF13. I'm sure you care oh so much.

 

[adderseal]

Yes yes yes yes! Calvin and Hobbes reference! You are my hero. This is one of the best ZPs ever done. The air traffic controller had me in stitches

 

[Anaphyis]

Pretty much any game could be superior with motion detection given some basic ingenuity on the side of the developer unless it is either a shooter or a platformer, aka the bread and butter for the EXTREME HARDCORE GAMERZ. So yeah.

Aside from the typical Wii bashing and the hypocrisy it entails and I've come to expect from Yahtzee I still have to ask why Nintendo is getting flak here when the title in question was developed and published by Ubisoft. No one in their right mind would blame Sony for Stormrise after all.

But hey, most oft the reviews for Wii titles also degrade into all-purpose Wii bashing, you nothing new here either.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

For some reason, by looking at the title and the cover art i was actually hoping for this game to be good. -_-

 

[Dancing Rick]

Loving the Princess Bride reference at the end there.
And I may or may not get this game, depends whether or not I decide the Wii is worth more than playing bowling on.

 

[blankedboy]

Heh, I kinda want this game.

But I don't have a Wii, so I get to save about $50.

 

[Andaxay]

You mean the sensor bar doesn't go up the nose? No wonder I wasn't getting much response.

Yeah, I traded my Wii in so I won't be getting this one, nice to know the Motion Plus is actually doing something semi-decent for the first time, though. All the other games released for it seem bland and mediocre (save perhaps a couple of the Sports Resort Plus games).

 

[gillebro]

good one. these last few have been particularly good, i reckon.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

I think that "Hindenburg" line is the hardest I've laughed at a ZP in a long time.

 

[reiem531]

Having Hobbes in there made me smile. Really really big.

 

[NeutralDrow]

While I do absolutely love this game, I have to admit this was still pretty funny.

Also, Hobbes cameo for the win. And yes, I do love that move...though really, I'd almost think upgrading the shotgun to automatically break armor is more of a gamebreaker for standard enemies (if not bosses).

oh wow, somebody else who agrees with me, the tiger (even fully upgraded) isnt as effective as he says it to be, and definately not as useful against bosses as he claims

but the full upgrade + special for the shotgun and sidewinder rifle are much worse, especially since even if an enemy is blocking, the explosive round of the rifle can be shot at the ground by them, and knock them over, then easily pop them again while their down, you can even 1-hit katakara if you get a headshot, though its somewhat remedied with the fact that the rifle rounds are rare, and max capacity is like, what, 20 or so rounds?

Hmm, I'll have to try that. I just finished fully upgrading my guns (just got the game a few days ago, so I'm still playing through Easy), and I'd yet to find a use for the explosive rounds...and yeah. 24 round max capacity, and ammunition few and far between. But damn do I love the rifle's Shot finisher. Even more than the revolver's throat shot.

Reading between the lines of the review, that's probably a wrong response. I'm probably supposed to be saying "that makes the game too easy!" instead of "holy shit, new way to be awesome!"

yea, this would have been funnier and better if it wasnt for the wii trashing, or rather, the WM+ trashing, he is completely dishonest about what the WM+ does...

I dunno...it seemed more like he was delivering a backhanded compliment than bashing it.

Not so sure about the upgrades, though. Even if you don't upgrade your katana strength, all you need to do is force the enemy into a weak position and finish them (personally, I love the Guillotine->Matador and Matador->Shot combos). The complaint seemed to be that some of the automatically unlocked moves are rather overpowered.

well, maybe, with yahtzee i suppose its hard to tell, at least when it comes to anything wii related (take that backhanded comment at the beginning about the wii being a home for innovation, for example)

Same here. Still strikes me as being incredibly shortsighted...but he's still entertaining, so I'll take that.

well ive been playing though on ninja, with weapons vanilla (except for revolver accuracy, its horribly off shot in the beginning) and pacing my special moves unlocks, and the game is significantly harder (if you input the nihonto hana code, its even harder, because its a wakizashi)

Another thing I'll have to try! Was that one of the pre-order codes or something?

but it also seems to vary by fighting styles, Jason V, the director says he has noticed people have distinct fighting styles, and apparently "the gamer" or, the guy who doesnt give a damn, and rushes in to kill everything, tends to have an easier time with the game, because he is so focused on raging through the whole fight, he seems to almost become bulletproof, hahaha.

im a bit similar to you though, but without the guillotine, i spend alot of time moving from one enemy to another, taking down immediate threats, and chipping away at armor and health as i dash around the room, then once i get an opening, i use the reaper, the matador, or the shot to finish them off.

I think I saw someone in a thread somewhere describe this game as "first-person Devil May Cry," and I do like playing it as such (hence, I will always secretly know "The Rush" as "Stinger"...and using The Shot with the shotgun is "Gunstinger"). But yes, anything stylish works, regardless of speed. If they have three points of armor, Guillotine, Matador, Rush, and deal accordingly...or if they have four, Guillotine, triple-slash, Matador, Shot. Or...

Well, you get the idea. And I just love the Guillotine, for some reason. And I have to admit, some of the fights have been pretty nerve-wracking so far. Like the first time fighting off two of those large, hammer-wielding Jackals...

the reaper and matador are EPIC against shinjiro, and if you use the eagle, you can start a short mid-air battle

I haven't gotten the Reaper yet (just unlocked Cobra), but I'll keep that in mind...

 

[NeutralDrow]

For some reason, by looking at the title and the cover art i was actually hoping for this game to be good. -_-

It is good. Weren't you listening?

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Interesting, seems to be the closest thing to a Wii game Yahtzee has actually LIKED somewhat since No More Heroes. Taking into account the fact that Yahtzee's reviews make everything sound 3 times worse than they actually are, I think I might check this out after all. When I have the time and money of course.

Oh yeah, and considering his end point about what kind of "hardcore" gameplay you can do with motion control, our very own MovieBob in his other life as the Game Overthinker just recently released a video [http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/2010/04/episode-34-waggle-war.html] on the implications of the upcoming Project Natal and PS3 Move and discusses Sony's attempts to be "hardcore" at the end. His thoughts were quite interesting.

 

[Olrod]

*squee*

There was a mention of ReBoot!

This is officially the Best. Review. Ever.

 

[The Iconnorclast]

Good to see my abandonement of the Wii was smart. Good review as always.

 

[Aptspire]

haha. Guide the Hindenburg do-OH, THE HUMANITY!
jk
good review, Yahtzee. good comments on RS1 too ^-^

 

[FoolKiller]

Awesome review. Loved all the jokes but you are NOT Inigo Montoya and I only have 5 fingers per hand.

 

[MB202]

It's funny, I actually recall there being fans of the original Red Steel and those who really looked forward to Red Steel 2, but whatever.

I like the tutorials and instructions in the games, because I'd rather go in knowing exactly what they Hell I'm doing than risk going in blind.

 

[Xanthious]

Great Zero Punctuation this week. Let's see. The Wii is a Gamecube with a gimmicky controller. Wii 3rd party support is still garbage. It's good to be reminded of these things from time to time. However, it does seem that the motion control is somewhat improved. Although that still does nothing to fix the problem that Nintendo doesn't have a proper next gen console. I guess when your raking in money by the truck load it really doesn't matter what your detractors think. For my money though in five years the Wii will be right up there with R.O.B, The Power Glove, The Power Pad, and The Virtual Boy regardless of it's success. The only difference will be that this poorly done gimmick was able to turn a profit.

 

[Quicksilver1111]

ugh, another clueless wii review. I like how he mentions that the difficulty doesn't increase, despite actually saying the bad guys kind of get armour and powerful swords that require strong attacks to break. It's also only three times you have to pull off the move, which is good for me, because it's handy to know the moves off by heart if you want to actually win in the later boss fights. All his bashing, and he failed to mention the only thing I didn't like about the game - the ending. I liked his Princess Bride reference though.