The Last Guardian

I couldn't be more excited about this game. Have been since I saw a trailer for it two years ago. All I needed to hear was "Team ICO" and I knew enough already to consider it a definite purchase on day one. Of course Tokyo Game Show 2010 is currently running at full speed and so theres a megaton of game news coming out, especially on sony's side, them being a japanese company and all, it makes sense.

Team ICO made a name for themselves early on in the playstation 2's life cycle with the release of ICO. ICO put you in control of a boy born with a pair of horns named Ico. These horns are considered a bad omen by the people of his village and so he's taken to a castle surrounded by water as tradition in the village and left there to pretty much die... in a sarcophagi. Of course it wouldn't be much of a game if he didn't escape shortly after now would it?

Eventually you meet a mysterious girl being chased by shadowy creatures that come out of the floors and walls, and she speaks a totally different language. Amazingly enough this language barrier is the first of many obstacles to overcome as you traverse the puzzle-ridden castle with your new female companion constantly in tow via holding your hand. There was a connection made between player and characters I'd yet to experience in a game before. I never thought something as simple a gameplay mechanic as hand holding and dependancy could have such a huge emotional impact in a game. In fact I'd never felt anythign liek it in any other game. This is the one and only game I could truly consider art. That was until Team ICO's next game...

ICO - 2001

Shadow of the Colosus was a spiritual succesor to ICO, completely unrelated plot wise but had the same look and feel but with a much darker tone than its predecesor, this time you were utterly alone in a place known as the forbidden zone with only a horse as your companion while a maiden lays in eternal slumber, with the promise from a mysterious figure that the only way to revive her is to defeat the Colossi. Which is easier said than done.

Another first for me in a video game is admiring the scale and beauty of the colossus. Usually I can't wait to dispose of my target enemy. The games iconic evil. Like entire moving levels themselves, everytime you eventually made your way to one you had to climb up its body, almost obstacle course like in nature, and finish it with your sword in its weak spot. But of course theres a price. You have to watch these things die and I have to say my first victory felt more like a defeat. I never felt like I took a life in a video game before but let me tell you, everytime I killed one I felt extremely bad. And thats what this whole game was about.

They just seemed so peaceful and didn't seem to be hurting anyone at all. It made no sense to me why I had to kill such rare gigantic creatures for the life of one girl. Of course that became more apparent in the end and I felt betrayel and 'pissed-off-edness'. Without spoiling too much lets just say you were tricked big time. Well that is a big spoiler I guess. Ah well screw it, your own fault for not playing this great game yet!


As you can see my obsession and appreciation for these games is a bit on the fanatic side but thats what has me so excited for their new game. The Last Guardian looks to be another beautiful unique game that will make puppetry of my emotions and finding out its still another year away is a killer. I want it now! But the good news is ICO and SotC are being released early next year under the Team Ico Collection for ps3. And they're looking better than they ever did!

ICO - 2011

2011 is looking like its going to be good to my nerdy side and so I'll leave it at that and a new trailer for The Last Guardian.