Some people wanted a shiny new PS3 this past holiday. Others were craving the novelty approach of the Wii. Me? I just wanted to catch up on some exclusives I’ve missed over the years by not having a Sony console. God of War, Guitar Hero, Katamari Damacy, Ratchet & Clank…the list goes on and on. Well Santa was good and brought me not only a pristine slim PS2 but also Ratchet: Deadlocked and SOCOM: Combined Arms to go along with it (with a little Guitar Hero follow-up for my birthday the week after). More to come on those titles later but in the spirit of the season I got a care package from Tritone that was brimming with some of the aforementioned console-exclusive goodies.

I swear if I hear one more Austin Powers horny joke, someone’s gettin’ gored

First up on the chopping block was one I’d heard quite a bit of praise for over the years. Ico tells the tale of a boy born with horns, exiled to an isolated castle, who discovers there an ethereal girl imprisoned in a cage. Everything from that point is an attempt to escape with her in tow as shadow creatures try to snatch her down to the underworld. The gameplay is environmental puzzle-platforming with the occasional combat thrown into the mix. The twist is that the girl is largely incapable of traversing the obstacles on her own and will most often require hand-holding (literally) to get through an area.

When people talk about games as art, this should be one of the first titles mentioned. There is no background music to speak of, and the sounds of the wind blowing outside or your footfalls echoing through the corridors completely immerse you in the atmosphere of the world. You are alone in this castle whose very existence speaks of ancient times long gone by. Your only companion is a wisp of a girl who is as much of an enigma as the creatures that hunt her and the stones and machinery that surround you. For a title that came out in the early years of the least powerful console of its generation, the graphics provide breathtaking vistas and a stunning art style that singlehandedly conveys the appropriate amount of age and mystery.

Ico will not be everybody’s cup of tea. Action is almost non-existent and the story is not so much told as it is absorbed. Over the course of the entire game, you get some info at the beginning, an encounter in the middle provides more questions than answers, and the showdown at the end explains little. In between though, you are filling in the blanks and making up the backstory on your own. If there’s something unfortunate to be said about the title, it’s that 6 1/2 hours will get you all the way through it and once you know all the puzzle solutions, replay value is low. The developers originally desired for players to get more pieces of the story over multiple playthroughs but that intent didn’t make it into the final product. I guess the fact that I already want to play it again just to experience the aesthetics is testament enough to its quality. Ideally I’d like to revisit it a few years down the road when the puzzles will seem fresh again, as should all of you.

Tomorrow? Another Winter Games update.