Capcom has announced that Okami has shipped to North American retail stores and is now available for the Wii. The game utilizes the Wii remote control scheme and was previously released for the Playstation 2. The title is rated T and carries an MSRP of $39.99.

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This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

Capcom announced today that they have shipped they critically acclaimed and highly anticipated game, Okami.

Okami tells the story of a Sun God who must restore color to a very bland world. In the game, players take on the form of a wolf who travels the bland lands to restore vibrance with the Celestial Brush powers. Going through the game, you'll unlock new paths, solve puzzles and more with your paint brush.

This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Chuck Landry.

You may not hear the title of Capcom’s upcoming game, Okami, and stop to find out more. But see a screenshot, and I’ll bet you’ll do just that. The game’s visual style looks like a fluid Japanese watercolor. Then you’ll read a little bit about the game, and discover that it’s being made by Clover Studios. Wait a minute – they made Viewtiful Joe. Suddenly you’re even more intrigued. Want to know more about Okami, yet?

I thought so. It’s been in development for over two years now, and is ambitious to say the least. You’ll be controlling Amaterasu, who is apparently a reincarnation of a sun god, but what you’re likely to notice eventually is that you’re controlling a white wolf. The gameplay looks to more closely resemble a Zelda game than anything else, meaning there’s no linear “level” structure. You’re free to explore, talk to villagers, and progress at your own pace. Orochi, it would seem, is a terrible monster who has stripped the world of all its color and left it a wasteland. As Amaterasu, it’s your job to restore it. And if you have to defeat some evil bastards along the way, so be it.

But let’s get back to Okami’s eye-catching visuals. Luckily we have screenshots because it’s very difficult to describe in mere words. The design idea simply came when the development team was creating concept art with watercolor, and somebody wondered aloud how that would look were it in 3D. Okami is the answer. The entire game looks like it’s been torn out of the pages of some centuries-old Japanese storybook. The color scheme starts off pretty bland – lots of greys, browns, and washed out colors. But, as Amaterasu roams around, ridding the world of evil beings, color in the form of grass, flowers, and so on begin to appear, literally sprouting in her wake as she runs through fields.

Like in a Zelda game, you’ll talk to NPCs, help them with their problems, dig holes, blow up rocks to open up passageways, and engage in real-time battles. What is completely new, however, is the "celestial brush". The mechanics of this are still sketchy, but in some footage that has been released, you can see snippets of the brush in action. When you use the brush, the game pauses and becomes a completely 2D sketch. You might have to draw a sun in the sky on the sketch, which will appear in the game. Other footage shows the brush being used to complete a constellation in the sky, and even drawing a quick line through a wooden fence results in the gate slicing into pieces and crumbling. We may not completely understand exactly how the brush will be used, but it promises to be unlike anything we’ve encountered before.

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