Kotaku previewed Red Steel 2 this week. Without sticking his neck out, here’s what editor Brian Crecente had to say:

The game’s controls take a bit of getting used to, but once you come to grips with the fact that your motions are essentially triggers for the animation on the screen, like a fancy button push, the game becomes a lot more fun… Its combination of broad and precise motion, its colorful aesthetic, come together to deliver an experience far more fun than the original Red Steel.

Disclosure: I won’t bat an eyelash at this game if it doesn’t get raving reviews. Red Steel 2 arrives Mar 23.

Ubisoft, via the latest trailer for the sequel to their Wii launch title, has revealed that Red Steel 2 will be dropping stateside on March 23, whilst us across the pond will have to twiddle our thumbs for another 72 hours.

I’ve no idea about the rest of you but I’m actually quite excited for Red Steel 2.  I know the first game wasn’t exactly incredible but I thought it was a solid launch title and whilst it’s mainly been collecting dust since I picked up Medal of Honour Heroes 2 and later, The Conduit, I still got a decent amount of enjoyment out of the shooter.  The promise of Motion+ swordplay combined with some of the best visuals my eyes have had the pleasure of gazing upon on the Wii (which kind of remind me of XIII) has me seriously considering picking it up on launch.  Check out the trailer after the break.

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Wii MotionPlus exclusive Red Steel 2 has been pushed back to March 2010 for unspecificied reasons, Ubisoft confirmed today.

The delay announcement arrives just as Ubisoft was pointing fingers and assigning blame for a substantial drop in sales in the U.S. and the U.K. Key amongst the excuses were “the economy” and “piracy.” Not present in his repertoire was “the fact that we make a lot of shovelware finally caught up to us.”

Nevertheless, Ubi’s fall lineup remains strong, even without the highly anticipated Red Steel 2 cutting things up with MotionPlus during the holiday season. Rabbids Go Home, Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage, Academy of Champions and TMNT Smash-Up are all still scheduled for a fall release, Joystiq reports.

Jason Vandenberghe took the stage at Ubisoft’s E3 Press conference to give us a sneak peek at Red Steel 2, and boy howdy did it come across as positive.

“We were the first to jump on the Wii with Red Steel,” Yves Guillemot said earlier in the conference. “…now with Wii Motion Plus, Red Steel 2 will go even further.”

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Back in 2006, while pundits were snickering about the console’s name, publisher Ubisoft threw caution to the wind and devoted substantial development time and marketing to the Wii.

Exclusive titles, shovelware, rush jobs like Red Steel that were panned by critics yet managed to carve out a cult following—Ubisoft touched all those bases in its quest to become the de facto third party Wii publisher that year and the next.

And now, it’s doing it again with a decision that is arguably the riskiest yet: Red Steel 2, when it arrives later this year, will be MotionPlus-only.

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