When Nintendo first revealed the Wii Remote, voices around the world cried out, "Sword fights!" Other titles have tried to turn the Wii remote into a sword hilt with their gameplay and ended up dull. So how sharp is Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors?

Your adventure begins on your character's 16th birthday when he has to take the Walk of the Worthy, a coming-of-age ritual for all males of Avalonia. You will have to fight enemies along your walk and defeat the "boss" at the end of it. When you get back to town, you will find more adventures to take on. Sometimes you will go alone; other times you will have someone with you. Make sure you talk to people that you meet in town.

The D-pad controls where you move. You will start out at the castle and will be taught how to fight with your sword. Your Wii remote will be held like a sword, although you do have to hold it straight, with the A button facing up at all times. You can slash vertically, horizontally or diagonally, and you can also stab with your sword. Aiming your pointer at a specific enemy or spot and pressing "A" will set a focal point. All of your attacks will be centered on that spot. A short time after you are done attacking, it will reset itself to the middle of the screen. Pressing "B" will raise your shield. While holding "B", you can move your shield to block enemy attacks. Your shield can take damage and eventually can break, but each time you return to town it will be instantly repaired. If you die, you will return to town but lose half the gold you were carrying at the time. If you choose to go back to town, because you're not ready for the battles, you won't lose anything but will have to start the level over. You cannot choose to return to town during a battle, though.

As you gain more experience and receive gold from your battles, you will be able to buy better armor and temper your sword to make it more powerful. Besides needing money to temper your sword, you also need specific materials that you will find on your adventures. After you have enough money and your sword has been tempered a few times, you are able to buy another sword and work on tempering that, so you can have different kinds of swords since some will work better than others at different times during your adventures.

When you are involved in a battle, your health points, experience gauge and master stroke gauge will be displayed on the bottom of the screen. The master stroke gauge fills a little each time you successfully attack an enemy or defend yourself. When it is full, you will be able to perform a master stroke, which differs depending on the type of sword you have.

This game is rated T for fantasy violence, mild suggestive themes and use of alcohol. There is a pub in town, and the dad likes to frequent it and does drink too much at times. One of the girls dresses...well, she used to be a nun trainee, but from the way she is dressed, that is the last thing you would guess. You'll need to know how your children will handle those types of situations before letting them play the game.

I really like that the Wii remote is used as a sword instead of pushing buttons for the attacks. The controls are easy to get used to and make for a very fun-to-play game.