Ico at Eurogamer
I’ve been wanting to write a piece about Ico for a long time, but I’ve always been intimidated by the challenge of putting that experience into words. Tom and Kristan tackle the subject over at Eurogamer, in the wake of the game’s recent UK re-release, and many of their comments are spot-on. Tom’s description of Yorda’s compelling presence rings particularly true:
Nothing Yorda says is explained in English until you have completed the game. And yet she is nimble, childlike, dainty, lost, afraid, at times impish and at others cautious, and often confused. I’ve seen grown men overwhelmed by the enormity of her incarceration - its unfairness articulated by little other than way her feet patter on the ground as she runs and her hand flaps behind her as Ico pulls her along. It’s not FAIR. Me - I actually had to turn the pad vibration off because, when I ran and held her hand tightly, jerking her along stride by stride, I felt like I was hurting her.
Both writers highlight exactly what I experienced a few weeks ago when I sat down with the game for an evening: Ico’s impact, unlike so many games, hasn’t lessened with age. It’s still as breathtakingly beautiful and conceptually elegant as it was half a decade ago.