Ah, the PS2. Nintendo fanboy as I may be, I must confess that the PS2 had the strongest library of all time, aside from possibly the Super NES. There were many series that began – and flourished – on the system, as well as some amazing standalone games that simply went above and beyond what video gaming was seen to be about. There were games on the system that were so artistic and beautiful, yet so simple and elegant. ICO and Shadow of the Colossus are two such games, both created by the aptly named Team ICO. ICO came first in 2001, with Shadow acting as spiritual successor (in some ways, a prequel) in 2005. Both games received high critical acclaim, but both are relatively unknown compared to most “hardcore” games, of both now and then. I’m keeping this review fairly minimum in detail, as to avoid spoilers.

Let’s begin with ICO. You play as a kid named, well, Ico. Due to his horns (considered something of an omen), he is made a pariah of his people and is thrown away into a mysterious tower to be eventually sacrificed. He escapes his captivity after the tower shakes and knocks him free, and begins to journey. He eventually finds and rescues the captive and mysterious Yorda. However, they’re not alone. Through the game, shadow creatures erupt from the ground to try and take Yorda and bring her into the shadow portal they come from. You’ll have to fight them off and prevent this from happening; if they manage to take Yorda into the portal, it’s game over.

Much of the game is seen as something of an escort mission. While neither character has a health bar, exactly, you’ll need to successfully fight off the creatures that attempt to take Yorda with them as well as solve some puzzles to escape the tower. Ico is fairly agile, but Yorda needs assistance in making jumps that Ico can do on his own; for example, you’ll need to move a block next to a wall so that she can get onto the block, and you (as Ico, on top of the wall) can reach below and help her up. What makes this much better than typical escort styles is that you can actually hold her hand and bring her with you for much of the game. She can wonder off, but you can call her from a far distance and she’ll come right to you, so you don’t have to worry about “stupid AI” in that sense. You can also command her to stay still, as well. You’ll need her around though, as she acts as a key for some doors, and she needs to be present as well in order to activate save points.

You’ll find new weapons to make attacking the creatures easier through the game, as some of your weapons will be found nearly useless against enemies as the game progresses. The game is fairly short, though. An initial run will usually take about 5 hours. Upon completion there’s also a New Game+ that allows you to begin the game with your weapon upon finishing the game previously, that allows you to slay enemies faster early on, which will help in shaving down gameplay time. There is, afterall, a trophy that demands you to beat the game within 2 hours. A challenge, to be sure.

Next we have Shadow of the Colossus. The concept is simple. You play as a guy named Wander, who is seeking to revive his lost love, Mono. In order to do this, he must slay 16 giant creatures known as colossi. The game is also quite minimalist, as the only characters that really appear in gameplay are Wander, his faithful horse Agro, the deity Dormin (who can revive Mono), and the colossi. No regular enemies or other characters (aside from Mono), though later on a character named Emon and his army are after Wander; it is never really relevant to gameplay, however. Wander is initially armed with a sword and a bow, with which he can attack from both close and from afar (you can unlock more from completing time trial challenges). Agro will also come in handy in some of the fights so long as she can accompany him (she can’t cross water, for example), but altogether it depends on the colossi themselves. Each of them have notable weak points that can be exploited to make taking them down easier, be it firing arrows from afar or climbing the colossus and getting personal. The game is also somewhat short, though significantly longer than Ico, for sure. 8 hours, maybe?

There’s not much more to say about either game without getting into spoiler mode. They both have a deep and rich story behind them, subtle as they may be. The plots are both quite emotional, a strong point the games have had since they were originally released. The art style also makes it stand out among other games, which is actually quite relevant here, as this title has HD remastering. The graphics are made even more beautiful in high definition, and makes it even easier to just lose yourself in the scenery. It also features 3D support, but unfortunately I can’t comment on that as I’m poor and don’t own a 3DTV. I can kind of see where they would use it, however, and I imagine it looks just as good in 3D, if not somehow even better.

For these reasons they’ve both become cult hits among niche gamers, though if you ask me, everyone should play them. They’re both great games and deserve much more recognition than they got, as they embody pretty much everything that makes video gaming great, in my personal opinion. Simple and serene.

7/7