Nintendo Wii Fanboy

We already know it's coming, but Ubisoft has officially denied any announcements about Red Steel 2. Inpact Virtuel originally reported that Ubisoft had confirmed the game at the Interactive & Digital Entertainment Expo in Cannes.

However, following a call to Ubisoft, they have found that nothing has been announced. At the moment, we have a game that we know people are working on, but officially doesn't exist. Spooky! It's like a ghost-game.

[Via GoNintendo]

For a lot of people (read: people who are not obsessive gamers like us), the boxart is their only real window into what a game might offer. That tends to make it a little important in the grand scheme of things. And when it comes to selling an entire system, the boxart of a few key games becomes doubly important.

Nintendo is facing something of a challenge when it comes to winning so-called "hardcore" gamers to its side in this round of the console wars, and this box for Red Steel may help shift the balance. There's nothing about this title that is juvenile in any way, but the same could be said for many GameCube games, and yet the notion that Nintendo is 'just for kids' lingered. Having this box prominently displayed next to the spankin' new Wiis come November 19 could win a few more fans for the House of Mario and their new benefactor Ubisoft. It's simple, yet gives the impression of frenetic motion -- something that is often seen on the covers of the better class of Hong Kong action films.

How does it strike you? Give us your impressions.

We were pleased to learn that Red Steel is actually a full length game (shocking!) and not just the same level we've seen dozens of times, with dozens of guys bouncing around a set and waving the Wiimote. Can't they find a woman for one of these? Where are your Frag Dolls now, Ubisoft? Or please, get the intense guy again. He was our favorite.

And while this new video is quite the sizzler, we're insulted by the fact that the actor left perfectly good sushi just sitting there in favor of picking the game back up. Find the pause button, son. It's all about priorities.

Keep going to check out the video.

So how did a game like Red Steel come about? IGN has the answers, in a new in-depth feature that covers the artistic side of the development process. There's some discussion as well of the power of the console, and the artistic director, Stephane Bachelet, reports that while the graphical capabilities of the Wii were somewhat limiting, it spurred them to create a slick 'game noir' style that is heavy with shadows and framed in bright neon lights.

Artistically, Bachelet says, they were shooting for something that would communicate the culture shock of a Western man thrust into a foreign environment, and how that shaped the atmosphere and setting. Look for a lot of traditional Japanese symbols not from a Japanese perspective, but from a Western perspective. Sounds a lot like what we've come to expect from Hollywood -- which is perfect for an action game so obviously inspired by action films.