Publisher: Sony
Developer: Team ICO
Rating: T (Teen)
Available: Now

In the age of HD gaming, backwards compatibility is a mixed blessing. While it makes for a “nice-to-have” feature on the back of the console’s box, the truth is many of your old favorites are more visually pleasing when revisited in your mind’s eye. Once you get these ancient treasures running on spiffy new hardware, and splashed across a pristine 1080p widescreen, all those ugly blemishes once hidden by reduced resolution tear at your peepers. So, the loss of backwards compatibility on later iterations of this generation’s consoles is not that big a burden when you consider the care and craftsmanship that Sony has implemented in spit-polishing some of the PS2’s most prominent releases. Taking a long-awaited place alongside the previously released God of War and Sly Cooper collections are two of the PS2’s crown jewels – the sublime Ico and Shadow of the Colossus – fully remastered for a new generation to play and the past to covet.

A few years ago, gamers waged a no-win battle with film critic Roger Ebert over his blind faith assumption that video games could NEVER be art. It’s classic oil versus water with two sides coming at the debate from completely diametric viewpoints. At one point, Bioshock’s creator, Ken Levine, inserted himself into the dialogue offering up a sane and rationale bid for cease fire. Why does anyone care if games are art, he questioned in an editorial. While he makes a great point, many gamers pointed to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, two modern classics, that had done more than entertain them. Through the course of sending their heroes, Ico and Wander, through their motions, gamers had forged an indelible bond with a pile of pixels. A plaything had done more than entertain, it had aspired to something greater. Many who played these epic adventures reported the same findings. They had been affected at an emotional level and while the definition of true art remains elusive and subjective, the fact that these games had charmed their way deep into the collective soul of a whole legion of players was all the supporting evidence they ever needed.

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are works of art. At least that’s my opinion. Reviewed individually, at the time of their release, I would slap them both with a 5-star, spoiler free review and lead readers just far enough along to entice them to dive in and draw their own conclusions. Taken as a whole, both titles share kinship with the same developer, Team Ico, who carefully embraces gaming archetypes of the past to give gamers something new. The intrepid young hero facing seemingly insurmountable odds is the same story trope that drives the treasured Legend of Zelda series; a vaunted property that equals these two games in their shear unbridled creative craftsmanship.

In both games, Team Ico wove simple story threads through a remarkable feat of world-crafting tapestry, plopping the player down into massive, haunting landscapes that looked lived-in and long since forgotten. It’s this attention to atmosphere that elevates their work, and both titles possess a transporting quality. This is true role-playing that focuses less on stats and experience and instead pulls all of the elements together, from the taut narrative to the intricate puzzle solving and awe-inspiring art direction, to make players forget the cares of this world as they quest in another. People can argue whether these games are art but there is no question, they are fully formed experiences that my life would be lessened without.

That’s really all you need to know about my take on the games. Ico came first and it shows as the experience is slight when compared to the brawny Shadow of the Colossus. While Ico is the foundation upon which Colossus was built, the two co-exist in seemingly interconnected worlds. Toss away the lofty artistic aspirations and at their core both titles exist as compelling adventures. With the focus primarily set on exploration and environmental puzzles, both games frequently tax the brain more than the trigger finger.