Okami

Ōkami is a 2007 PS2 game (2006 in Japan), developed by Clover Studios, which sadly was closed down in 2006 after Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya and Shinji Mikami left the company.
They went on to found PlatinumGames, and made such games as Bayonetta and Nier:Automata.

The game is highly influenced by Japanese culture. Even the title itself is a bit of a pun in the Japanese language, although more so in the western releases, since it uses the roman alphabet.

The original title is written as 大神, which referrers to a major deity. The protagonist is Amaterasu, the sun-goddess; one of the most important deities in Shintoism.
Well, in this game Amaterasu is possessing the body of a wolf.
Ōkami written with the following kanji: 狼, means wolf.

The story and setting of the game is largely based on traditional Shinto myth and Japanese legends. Largely the Shinto record Kojiki, which is the oldest preserved Japanese book concerning Japans ancient history, and Nihongi.

Amaterasu emerging from the cave Ama-no-Iwato
(A famous story from the Kojiki)

The art style is based on traditional Japanese ink drawings and calligraphy.

The gameplay it self is very much what you would expect by an action adventure game in the spirit of such series' as Zelda.
You explore an open world with random enemy encounters, and interact with various npcs that offers help and sometimes side-quests.
The game is largely linear with main quests such as exploring dungeons and defeating bosses. But you are of course free to return to previously explored areas to find things you missed, or couldn't access earlier.
As you would expect from such games, you get progressively stronger, new weapons and skills becomes available and so on.

To not give to may spoilers the story is basically about a weakened Amaterasu-Ōmikami (The Shinto sun-goddess) inhabiting the body of a white wolf in order to revive a dead Nippon and defeat the evil eight-headed serpent Orochi (Yamata no Orochi in Kojiki and Nihongi).

Orochi as depicted in the game

What sets this game apart however, other than the graphics, settings, and story drawing so much inspiration from ancient Japan, is the use of "the heavenly brush".
This is an ability to draw on the world to create change. The screen pauses and becomes monochromatic to remind of a parchment and ink.
In the beginning you get abilities such as making trees and flowers bloom, and later on you can even turn night into day by drawing a sun in the sky.
These abilities are used to solve puzzles, and progress the story, as well as aid in battle.

The game may not be very rare, but many people I know seem to have been mostly unaware of it. This could of course be that they where put off by the unique style and inspirations that is so characteristic for the game.
For anyone who finds the artistic style appealing this is truly a treat.

I was lucky enough to get the game for PS2 when it was new for really cheap.
The game was later ported to the Wii which had much stronger colors, but apparently the controls where a bit more difficult (which I find rather strange; it would seem like the Wii remote would be perfect for the calligraphy interface).

It will get a HD release for PS4, XBox One and PC in December of this year (2017).

Both Wii and PS2 copies costs around €14-30

Zen - Intergalactic Ninja

"Zen - Intergalactic Ninja" is an action platformer for the NES, published by Konami in 1993, based on a somewhat obscure comic book series first released in 1987.

You might feel that the story is rather camp, but complaining that the story of a NES game is too camp is rather like complaining that sugar is too sweet.

Instead of typing out the story I leave the intro to the game here:

You get to choose one of four stages that you can play in any order, this makes it feel a little bit like a Mega Man game, although the theme of ninja and mutants (well aliens actually) makes me think about TMNT and Shadow Warrior (Ninja Gaiden outside of Europe).

Between the stages you get to play bonus stages featuring the "Recycled Heroes"; the side-kicks of the protagonist.
Essentially you knock garbage of five kinds into a furnace, each kind is represented by one of the five heroes:

Plants - represented by Lawn Ranger. Gives a bonus of 10000 points.

Paper - represented by Pulp. Gives a bonus of Ultra Intensive Meditation.
Using the Ultra Intensive Meditation restores your health.

Bottles - represented by Bottle Bandit. Gives a bonus of Shield.
The Shield makes it able to be hit by enemies without being harmed, but of course depletes the Shield.

Cans - represented by Can-It. Gives a bonus of 1up.

Electrical equipment - represented by Lights Out. Gives a bonus of Life Max Up.


At the beginning of each stage Zen gets his instructions from an alien race known as the Gordons.

Each stage has different objectives and played in slightly different ways.

Acid Rain Forest stage is a side-view stage that is probably the smallest in the game. The boss, Sulfura, is available almost immediately, but you have to keep going back to hit the withering flowers with your stick to keep them from dying or you loose the game.

Slixxon Oil Rig is a side-view stage where you have to rescue oil rig workers from fires by using fire extinguishers, then climb to the top of the oil rig to defeat the boss: Oil Slick.

Biggs Toxic Factory stage is played in an diagonal view in a pseudo 3d style. This stage has a time-limit, as Zen has planted bombs to blow the plant up. The boss of this stage is Smogger.

Runaway Railway Car stage is also in a diagonal view, but you will be riding a railway car that moves forward automatically in a maze that you have to navigate to find the boss: Garbageman.

After you have completed two stages, instead of a bonus stage you will have to rescue Jeremy from Lord Contaminous by jumping from wall to wall (like in Sahdow Warrior).

Once all four stages are beaten you get to play four more stages in a set order: The Cavern of Crud, The Cesspool, Scrap Heap's Haven, and The Impostors Hideout, before facing off in the final battle against Lord Contaminous.
Of course in classical Japanese final boss manner, you have to beat the final boss twice.

While playing the game at Normal difficulty, I found it a bit easier than TMNT (1989), or Shadow Warrior (1991), the later of which I never managed to beat despite probably a thousand tries.
Luckily if you can choose Easy or Hard mode. Personally I found Normal mode to be an adequate challenge; not insanely hard, but not so easy I could just breeze through. But if you are a real monster of a gamer that actually find Shadow Warrior (Ninja Gaiden) to be to less of a challenge I doubt you would get a lot of enjoyment out of this game even on Hard mode (but then, you probably think all games are too easy).

Personally I found the game very enjoyable given the variety of game-play and the well balanced difficulty.

Although the game was released in Europe I never actually saw it for sale in Sweden (where I live), I actually got it at a vacation to Germany, which makes me think this is a somewhat rare game, despite being released in Japan, U.S. and Europe alike. It wouldn't be too strange considering the obscurity of the Comic book and toy-lines it is based off of.

The pricing also suggests it is a somewhat rare game:
Loose cartridge ~€58
Complete ~€66
New copy ~€431