East Meets West in the Red Steel Series

I like to prepare for new games by replaying their predecessors. Resident Evil 4 in preparation for Resident Evil 5, Halo 3 for ODST, and most recently, Red Steel for Red Steel 2.

Much has been made of the Tokyo-meets-the Wild West imagery in the imminent sequel, but that idea runs throughout the original too, albeit in a less comic-book fashion. The cultural mixture of the two is apparent through how new media from one side of the globe, Japan, meets the other, the U.S. The fact that the action in Red Steel begins in L.A and then shifts to Tokyo, is no coincidence. It just seems that the videogame medium is great for mixing culture, because it’s comprised of both image and sound, and already draws deeply on pop music and blockbuster film. In the game, the Western aspect comes to the fore when you have a showdown with a Samurai; after swords are drawn, an Ennio Morricone-style Spaghetti Western soundtrack comes up, all wailing guitars and choral aura. Similarly, shootout action is informed by Hong Kong cinema: signifiers of traditional Japanese music are accompanied by Hollywood J-Rock, like something the 5,6,7,8’s would play for Tarantino. From The Karate Kid to Kill Bill, America has been inspired by Japan’s tales of Shoguns, Samurai’s, Ninjas, and later Japanese art like anime and manga. It is through culture that nations communicate, and videogames as cultural products, are no different. Red Steel, thankfully, unlike Daikatana, a similar Japanese-inspired American action game, is still a bit good.

While Red Steel 2 will be loud and visually arresting, kudos go to Ubisoft for setting the original in a believable, real-world environment that we can connect to and demonstrate our ability to exchange and reflect ideas globally.