Okami (For Wii)

You know all those ads around the internets calling Okami "the greatest game you never played"? Boy is that ever the truth. Admittedly, despite hearing how good it was, I never got around to playing Okami on the PS2. Upon hearing it not only featured brushwork as part of a gameplay but it was coming out on the Wii with motion controls for just that, I resolved to buy it.

It was a good decision, and I was certainly not disappointed. It’s an inspired, well-made and artful game, full of wit and humor and many heart-warming moments. It may be an action-adventure open-world game, but it’s so unlike anything else I’ve ever played.

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Super Smash Bros. Brawl

So it’s probably about time I talked about this game, huh? I’m sure everyone on Earth with a Wii owns it by now (and if you don’t and you’re not 4 years old or Australian what the hell is wrong with you?) but I’m going to reiterate the points everyone else has made about it and plus add my own unique perspective. Hopefully.

First let’s get one thing straight: I am under no delusion that Super Smash Bros. is anything but a fanservice game, and I’m fully aware the games would never in a million years be this popular if they didn’t contain famous Nintendo (and now Sega) characters. Also you tourney brats who never played the original on the N64 and just got ridiculously good at using Marth or Zelda in Melee and never use any other characters and now bitch that things are slightly different in Brawl and it throws off your whole whiny obsessive dynamic can go straight to hell! You nearly suck the fun out of everything.

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Video Games and Kids

This post is sort of a spiritual sequel to my oldschool post "It’s the Parents not the Video Game". I was perusing Game Politics reading typical posts about people in the public harping on about 8-year-olds playing games like Grand Theft Auto and acting like it’s somehow the game’s fault entirely for just existing, as if it’s just some malevolent force that materializes in the Playstations of every child in the world. But that’s not the part that got me thinking.

I happened across a comment by a parent saying that they get to decide what games are right for their kids, and if they want to give an 8-year-old an M-rated game that’s their decision and no one else’s. That’s true (even though it causes an endless source of annoyance for gamers and the image of the video game industry as a whole), and if a parent is going to make decisions like that it’s up to them. But aside from the violence, prostitution, strip clubs, criminal activities and all else in the GTA series my thoughts began to turn to an entirely different reason kids shouldn’t play these games.

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No More Heroes

No more heroes has been lauded as the edgy, creative, adult game the Wii needs to hold the attention of non-casual-gamers and keep us from leaving our Wiis to gather dust while we play our 360s. Well it could have done that, if not for the problems.

Don’t get me wrong, No More Heroes is like if Quentin Taratino and Shinichirō Watanabe got together and made an anime. But as I was playing I began to question why they didn’t just make No More Heroes an anime in the first place. The game is in love with its characters and cutscenes but there are strong signs of neglect in other areas.

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Endless Ocean

This game… isn’t really a game. It’s a… I don’t know what it is. But what it is, is, is neat. Sure I probably won’t buy Endless Ocean (known as "Forever Blue" in Japan which is a much better title so why didn’t they use it here?) right away, but I did rent it to see what it was all about. I do like swimming, and I love the sea, though I’ve never been scuba diving for inherent fear of the bends. Endless Ocean will at least give you a pretty good idea of the experience.

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