Ico – Mini Review

For well over a year Ico has been sitting in my cupboard gathering dust. It was bought well after Shadow of the Colossus captivated my brother and I and we knew the original was something special. Yet it was tucked away, secluded and unloved. When the trailer for the third Team Ico game, The Last Guardian, hit at E3 I decided that I needed to see what the fuss was all about. With the PS2 set up in my brother’s new room I started my adventure.

The first thing that struck me was how beautiful the game remains after eight long years in existence. It’s nothing short of staggering that despite the obvious limitations of the system that the world remains as memorable and lovely as it is. This was my first journey into that world so if anything the fact the visuals had such an effect is even more impressive. There is a wonderful simplicity, most obviously in the characters and lack of them. It tells a classic, basic tale of a young boy saving a princess but does it with minimal dialogue and using gameplay to tie players to the characters and make them care about them, in particular Yorda.

Yorda is the princess that the player escorts through the world. Holding the R1 button down for the vast majority of a game doesn’t sound appealing but after as little as an hour’s play I had a strange attachment to that button. Holding her hand as you run through the beautiful world comes as a relief after tense scraps with the dark monsters that attempt to steal her back for the queen. The tension is perfectly handled. There’s a mad panic when Yorda is carried away beyond the screen and a frantic pressing of buttons to get her back, pulling her out of the abyss and away from harm.

Raw emotion is what makes the game. The gameplay mechanics are anything but perfect, combat in particular doesn’t extend beyond button smashing however the players own need to protect Yorda makes the frantic attacks realistic. As the game progresses everything builds to a great finale. It’s a true masterpiece and I’m glad I pulled myself together and see it for myself. A master class in game design.

9/10

For well over a year Ico has been sitting in my cupboard gathering dust. It was bought well after Shadow of the Colossus captivated my brother and I and we knew the original was something special. Yet it was tucked away, secluded and unloved. When the trailer for the third Team Ico game, The Last Guardian, hit at E3 I decided that I needed to see what the fuss was all about. With the PS2 set up in my brother’s new room I started my adventure.

The first thing that struck me was how beautiful the game remains after eight long years in existence. It’s nothing short of staggering that despite the obvious limitations of the system that the world remains as memorable and lovely as it is. This was my first journey into that world so if anything the fact the visuals had such an effect is even more impressive. There is a wonderful simplicity, most obviously in the characters and lack of them. It tells a classic, basic tale of a young boy saving a princess but does it with minimal dialogue and using gameplay to tie players to the characters and make them care about them, in particular Yorda.

Yorda is the princess that the player escorts through the world. Holding the R1 button down for the vast majority of a game doesn’t sound appealing but after as little as an hour’s play I had a strange attachment to that button. Holding her hand as you run through the beautiful world comes as a relief after tense scraps with the dark monsters that attempt to steal her back for the queen. The tension is perfectly handled. There’s a mad panic when Yorda is carried away beyond the screen and a frantic pressing of buttons to get her back, pulling her out of the abyss and away from harm.

Raw emotion is what makes the game. The gameplay mechanics are anything but perfect, combat in particular doesn’t extend beyond button smashing however the players own need to protect Yorda makes the frantic attacks realistic. As the game progresses everything builds to a great finale. It’s a true masterpiece and I’m glad I pulled myself together and see it for myself. A master class in game design.

~ by Ben Skipper on June 27, 2009.