You need to play Okami on the Nintendo Wii. As a matter of fact, I don’t care where you play it; on the PS2, PS3, Nintendo Switch, or your granddad’s old Compaq laptop—all you need to do is play it. That’s because Okami is one of the greatest video games of all time, and not enough people talk about it. And those who do talk about it diminish its greatness to being just a Zelda clone. To those who say that, you should be ashamed, you know this game is so much more than that—get outta here with that nonsense. 

Okami is the brainchild of legendary writer and director Hideki Kamiya, the man responsible for Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 2, and the Bayonetta series. Initially conceptualized with a more realistic visual design akin to the then-newly introduced engine for the RE franchise in mind, Kamiya and his team at Clover Studios would eventually get inspired by the classic sumi-e style artwork whose dominant technique utilizes Japanese watercolours. It paid off because Okami, to this day, is widely recognized as one of the most gorgeous games of all time. Seriously, just look at this: 

Beyond the visuals, though, the game itself is a wondrous journey across Japanese mythology and folklore. Playing as the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, you’re tasked to journey across the lands and rid them of darkness with your powerful godlike abilities, most notable of which is your Celestial Brush. On the Wii or Switch, performing these gestures with the brush with the Wii Remote or Joycon is so satisfying and makes for a far more kinetic gameplay experience—even when the Wii-Mote forgets to register your inputs 20% of the time.

In my opinion, the game does overstay its welcome for a few extra hours, and the final boss was a tad underwhelming. Nevertheless, those are minor nitpicks to a game that remains an all-time classic and deserves to be on your playlist–especially seeing as a sequel is now on the horizon with Kamiya back at the helm.