"Red Steel" received wildly mixed reviews. While IGN referred to it as "the only Wii launch game whose controls seem to occasionally glitch out for no obvious reason" and commented that "the process of turning is disappointingly slow and clunky", reviewers for both GameSpot and IGN found no problem whatsoever with the controls outside of the occasional sword-fighting sections, and GameTrailers noted that the controls are ambitiously complex and take time to master, but otherwise work well. Likewise, while IGN lauded the graphics as technically impressive, GameSpot and 1UP.com both contended that the graphics are in fact inexcusably below par compared to other recent releases, and GameTrailers claimed that the graphics bizarrely vary between the two extremes. Finally, while GameSpot and 1UP.com described the sword-fighting sections as clunky and crude, with GameSpot remarking that they "feel more like two cavemen hitting each other with clubs than like two highly trained samurai going at it.", both IGN and GameTrailers described them as flawed but overall decent, with GameTrailers praising the strategy created by having life bars for both man and weapon. "Official Nintendo Magazine" agreed, saying that the game was "clearly designed with the hardcore gamer in mind. It's slick, addictive and as close to "cool" as a game can get."