5/5 ★ – RawMetal's review of Ico.

System: PlayStation 2 Started: June 2015 Ended: July 2015 Flashback Review I played Shadow of the Colossus because of its high popularity. Most of my colleagues from my game design major praised the game for its story, and there was even a remake for the PlayStation 4. I wasn’t disappointed, and Shadow of the Colossus is still one of my favorite games of all time. However, after playing Team Ico’s first game, simply titled “Ico,” during the summer of 2015, I actually liked this game more than Shadow of the Colossus. I faintly remember seeing a gameplay demo from a PlayStation 2 kiosk at an electronic store back in the early 2000s but couldn’t remember where. Eventually, I found a PlayStation 2 copy of it at a local GameStop back then when they sold old PS2 games during the Seventh Gen of Game Consoles. Seeing that crappy North American cover art, I can see why Ico was ignored. On the bright side, Ico is an underappreciated game that everyone rarely talks about while Shadow of the Colossus hogs all the glory. Ico is a simplistic game of escorting a girl to safety by escaping a dreaded castle that’s been ruled over by her mother, who is the Shadow Queen. You need the girl to escape, as she can open cryptic doors with her powers. You think it's nothing but a platformer-puzzle, but Ico is also an action game in which you use a wooden 2×4 and eventually a sword to protect the girl from these shadows that have been coming from dark portals to capture her, and they come in varied sizes from small-looking critters to even humanoid and winged versions of these shadows. By the end of the game, you'll find out what these shadows really are. The story of Ico is one of those games that relies on showing rather than telling, as it contains very little dialogue. Players must piece together the narrative, understanding why the main character is in the castle, who the shadows are, and their simple objective: to escape. This game has a great setting on how deserted and eerie the castle is. It has that mystery and desolation at the same time. Its game design is also great with its barebones structure it demonstrated, as there are no health bars in this game. You mostly get a game over if you fail to rescue the girl who is getting dragged into the dark portal by the shadows or just by falling from fatal drops. Ico is a short game, but it is well-suited for its type. It rarely has any boss fights except for the very end, and it took place in a small castle. The game has minimal combat or action gameplay, focusing mainly on puzzles that involve pulling levers, climbing ladders, ropes, and chains, and pushing blocks. If I have to say anything bad about this, it's mostly the North American cover art for this game. It just doesn’t look as good compared to the far superior Japan cover. Even Europe has the Japanese front cover. That alone would have made people not want to pick it up and play it for themselves, which was why I got this game cheap at a bargain bin at GameStop. It's unfortunate that Ico didn't get a remake for PlayStation 4, while Shadow of the Colossus did. Then again, it’s not optional for a remake, as it already has a remastered version for PlayStation 3. Personally, I prefer Ico over Shadow of the Colossus. The atmosphere and the adventure of escaping from a ghostly castle with the girl and the queen drew me in. I would also add that Ico had a better ending than the melancholic ending of Shadow of the Colossus. I understand why Shadow of the Colossus was more favored due to defeating stone giants. If you're interested in Team Ico games, this one is a must-play. I still consider it my favorite, and I recommend playing it first since it's the initial game in the Team Ico series. Plus, the team is named after it.