Reviews

This award-winning adventure game was something of a hidden gem on the PS2. Due to numerous requests from a large fan base, the makers eventually relented and ported it to the Wii, which is the perfect place for Okami's uniquely beautiful landscapes. Here you can literally change the face of the earth; using your remote as a celestial brush that makes flowers sprout in the ground, or chops a man clean in half with a single stroke.

A rather lengthy but wonderfully old Japanese 'sumi-e' silhouette animation tells us of a battle that took place 100 years ago between the eight-headed demon Orochi and a warrior named Nagi. Working with Nagi was Sun God Shiranui (from Shooting Stars perhaps?), a white wolf who acted as the protector of Kamiki village. Together they managed to kill the demon, but 100 years later Orichi is accidentally reawakened and the wolf - reincarnated as Amaterasu - returns to stop it.

Grrrr...snarl....slobber

With the help of Issun, an artistic bug in need of anger management, Amaterasu prowls the village slaying demons so that the land will flourish once more. Okami's director, Hideki Kamiya, has openly admitted that The Legend of Zelda games were a huge influence on Okami, but because of the game's beautiful design and a positive environmental theme, you never feel short-changed. True, like Zelda you often wander around talking to villagers in order to find objects needed for your quest - and you're a wolf - but Amaterasu is his own character (Okami literally translates as 'wolf').

If anything, Okami is even more directly concerned with the environment than Zelda, since you use your celestial brush to plant flowers, rejuvenate dead trees, clean the water and literally create sunlight where there was darkness. Your brush also comes in handy when it comes to fighting demons with bongos (?!), so slash them in half or grow a tree in front of them to counter their 'evilness'. Yes, flower-power is making a comeback.

Slash. Ha-ard. You'll save every one of us.

'Praise' is given to you based on how fast you kill enemies in each battle, but also for doing good deeds like feeding bunnies or ridding possessed fauna of evil spirits. Your Praise can then be used as a currency for buying feed for the cute little birds/animals or beefing up your own powers - powers which get stronger after each of the 13 celestial gods are released with a dab of your brush.