Okami. A critical darling that nonetheless sold like coldcakes (that's the opposite of hotcakes, right?). Despite lackluster sales, the PS2 original was ported to Wii, where it also received critical acclaim (except for the oft-sketchy motion controls) and again, mostly unimpressive sales (developer Clover Studio went out of business shortly after the PS2 version was released due to the lousy sales numbers.) Despite all this, a spiritual successor (I don't know why they don't just call it a prequel/sequel) is coming to the DS as Okamiden.
Put simply: if you loved Okami, you'll probably love Okamiden. In much the same way that Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories took the home console version and shrunk it into something as awesome as the original - but portable - Okamiden has done the same with the original Okami. All the gameplay is here. The characters are mostly the same (albeit a little younger). The touchscreen capabilities of the system seem to be what the paintbrush mechanic was made for. The biggest difference is the child on the wolf's back.
Remember Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, where you played as Yoshi and had a crying Baby Mario on your back the whole time? This is like that. Well, kind of. This baby can speak, and when you pull it off your back to lead it around the screen in simple switch puzzles it'll actually do what you say.
There were a few different brush strokes to learn in the demo. You push L or R to bring up the painting screen, then you can use the stylus to draw a circle around a tree to add life back to its withered branches, or you draw a line through an enemy to slash it, or you fill in the missing section on a broken bridge to magically bring it back to full bridge-i-ness, or you can kick your baby off your back then lead it around with your stylus. Make sure you reunite before you leave the area, however!
Besides the thrill of seeing the already-solid Okami gameplay on the small screen, there weren't a lot of big surprises in the demo at the Capcom booth. We'll have to see what DS-specific gameplay features come up when the game releases early next year in the U.S.
