Review: 'Okami' is even better on the Wii

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BY AIMEE GREEN / Lincoln Journal Star

Back when the Wii came out, I started thinking about games I thought would be good to pair with the system’s motion-sensitive capabilities.

One of those that came to mind was “Okami,” an artistic action game in which you use paint strokes on the screen to perform certain moves. Hey, I thought, painting on the screen seems perfect for the Wii.

Well, here we are a year and a half later, and Capcom has released “Okami” for the Wii. And I was right; it works great with the Wii’s controls.

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"Okami" takes place in a world that looks much like a watercolor painting. (CAPCOM)

"Okami" takes place in a world that looks much like a watercolor painting. (CAPCOM)

In case you didn’t play the original on the PlayStation 2, “Okami” is about the sun god Amaterasu, who is brought to the world in the shape of a wolf to defeat a legendary monster and chase the darkness from the land.

Amaterasu — or Ammy, as his buglike sidekick calls him — has the ability to use the Celestial Brush, a paintbrush that allows him to paint on and change the world.

Holding the B button on the Wii remote freezes everything and turns it gray. The brush appears, and you can hold down the A button and make whatever stroke you want. As you progress in the game, you learn more strokes with different results.

The slash is what you start with, a simple line across the middle of anything in the landscape that you want to destroy. For example, bringing up the brush and drawing the slash across a tree trunk cuts the tree in half. This sometimes reveals a fruit or vegetable, which Ammy uses to increase his life force.

This works really well with the Wii remote and is loads of fun. But that’s not the only reason to like “Okami.” The other is its fantastic art scheme. Everything in the game looks as if it were hand-drawn, with thick lines and bright colors. It’s like running through a painting — or, more specifically, a Japanese watercolor on a scroll.

Lots of third-party developers can’t seem to get a grip on the Wii’s controls, but Capcom has it down. It could have made “Okami” awkward and annoying with the motion controls; instead, “Okami” is made even better. The drawing mechanics work well and fit perfectly into “Okami’s” world.

“Okami,” on Wii or PS2, is a game that shouldn’t be missed.  

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Last week, I wrote about “Grand Theft Auto IV,” a game I gave a perfect score because of its excellent story, lengthy single-player mode and deep multiplayer.

My review provoked some complaints from people who said I was pushing a game that promotes police-killing and ultra-violence. While people have a right to their opinions, I felt the need to respond.

The backlash against the “Grand Theft Auto” series and other Mature-rated games has been heavy, and I think a large part of this is because of some misconceptions.

First, this game (and others) is not meant for children. People complain that it’s corrupting children, but it was not created with children in mind. The Mature rating emphasizes that. Like any R-rated movie — many of which are much, much worse than anything I’ve seen in M-rated games — it’s up to the parents to keep the children away from it.

This brings me to misconception No. 2. Video games are not just for children. As the industry has grown over the past 20-some years, the hordes of children who played the games also have grown up. And they still play.

The Entertainment Software Association recently reported that the average age of gamers is 33. Women now represent 38 percent of gamers. Even more interesting, women over the age of 18 represent more of the gaming population (31 percent) than boys ages 17 or younger (20 percent).

So we can hardly blame the industry for creating games that cater to that older audience. Adults have every right to enjoy a violent video game. I, for one, know the difference between escaping into a video game and performing violent acts in real life. I am one of the most passive people I know, despite my affinity for violent, escapist fare.

As for “Grand Theft Auto IV” specifically, yes, police get shot, but it is not encouraged as some people are led to believe. There are penalties for such actions, and they, in fact, make the game much more difficult. There are also times in the game when the player is given the choice between ending someone’s life and letting him go. It’s not an all-out “kill machine,” and it doesn’t mean I don’t have any respect for police officers and the hard work they do. Quite simply, it’s a game.

What I’m getting at is that video games are just like every other medium: They are perfectly fine options for entertainment in the hands of a responsible adult. Just as with R-rated movies and television, parents need to be vigilant about what their children can access. And of course teach them the difference between real life and fantasy.

If you’re wondering what is OK for your child to play, check out this Web site: www.whattheyplay.com. It provides useful descriptions for just about any game you can think of, along with a recommended age of play.

Reach Aimee Green at 473-7326 or Aimee.Green@lee.net.