Okami: Wii EditionFollow

tl;dr version: 9/10 game which is greatly enhanced by the laser precision of the wii. Definitely buy this if you've never played it, and consider it anyway even if you have.

Okami is the best game I've played for the past year (previous year was Twilight Princess, no surprise there.) I didn't own it on the ps2 (only got to play at friends house) and I can hardly find fault with it. If you played the ps2 version of Okami then you probably don't need to buy this one, but if you have not, then this one is probably definitive. It's just simply fantastic, and it's not short either; there's a good 40 hours of gameplay in it and probably another 5-10 if you want to 100% it. Concept, for people who don't know, is basically an adventure game with a ton of exploration and questing. You're Amaterasu and are attempting to purify the land of evil.

It's sort of a Japanese game in the sense that God of War was Greek... but if God of War actually had made any attempt whatsoever of being accurate to its source material. I'm not a Shinto expert but from what I do know of the tradition (more than I know about ancient Greece at any rate), the game seems quite true to it's material. The emphasis on purification ritual is obvious, and it's a nice adaptation.

The graphics are, of course, beautiful. It's one of the most eye-pleasing games I've seen ever, but it's hardly realistic (meaning if your concept of good visual is Gears of War's extremely realistic three color pallet, then disregard.) The only true fault that I can find with the game is that you have to read an item description every time you find one; if I've found 900 holy bones already why do you have to tell me that it restores health? In any case, a minor complaint.

-Wii Differences-

As far as I can tell the only real difference is the brush, but considering how much you use the thing, it's a large one. The remote-laser paintbrush adds a lot of good changes not present on the ps2 version, and it controls like a dream, basically the same way re4 was enhanced by changing from analog to laser. You can also alter the size of the brushstrokes easily by moving a bit forward or back from the screen, letting you alter the strength of the brush techniques very easily.

You also dodge by swinging the nunchuck and attack by swinging the remote.
Attacking works well; dodging in a particular direction is dicey, but I normally just jump to avoid attacks anyway. Other than dodging the control is precise and extremely intuitive.

The Wii edition gives me a good excuse to finally pick up this game.

^

I've never heard anything but high praise about this game. I will definitely have to pick it up.

I've never even heard of this game, but I'm gonna pick it up now - just to try it. If I don't like it I'll cry! ;p

Picked up the game for the Wii, and I am presently enjoying it.

My main complaint so far is about the controls. The brush works well with the Wiimote, but attacks and dodging have been highly problematic for me. Pulling off a basic 4 hit combo is a very difficult task, and even activating the second hit of the combo is inconsistent for me. I'm still trying to understand why, but I do know that "pausing" the game with the brush system after each hit allows me to pull of the combos flawlessly. From what I can tell this problem stems from the software's differentiation between an input jerk and continuous movement. Whatever the problem may be it is certainly avoidable as Twilight Princess had a similar control setup that worked perfectly for me. Dodging with the nunchuk works, but only occasionally in the direction I believe I've inputed.

I've also noticed the game is quite similar to the Zelda series, in character design and in game play.

So I have perhaps encountered the most frustrating part of the game yet, Blockhead Grande. After getting it "right " three times without him acknowledging my accomplishment I decided to start cheating. I placed tape marks on the screen to help align myself to the exact location of the marks. The game seems just far too particular. I can get the pattern right every time, but if one mark is more than half a centimeter off its invisible center I have failed to actually mark it. Test my abilities and test my skill, but don't test my luck.

My favorite thing about this game is how the IGN logo accedentally made its way onto the cover.