Wednesday, October 19, 2011

EXP Podcast #145: HD Recollections - Ico

Somewhere in a forgotten castle in Japan, where the sound of ocean waves can drift through the remains of ancient keeps, Fumito Ueda is hard at work crafting The Last Guardian. The only tenable flavor of that otherworldly realm must come from the recent launch of the Ico and Shadow of the Collosus HD bundle. This week on the show, at the request of listener Chris Rickard, we take a look at the first half of the collection and revisit our time with Yorda, Team Ico's management of camera angles and scales, and the evolutionary tree of platformers. Surely you have played the game before (If not, get on it!), so be sure to leave your thoughts on the game in the comments section below, as well as your feelings towards the HD conversion. If you liked this show, come back in two weeks while we discuss Shadow of the Collosus.

Discussion starters:

- If you played Ico at launch, what were your first thoughts?
- Does the game hold up? Does anything stand out?
- What has been the impact of Ico on the games industry at large?


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Show notes:

- Run time: 37 min 22 sec
- Music provided by Brad Sucks and Michiru Oshima from the Ico Soundtrack.
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3 comments:

  1. JeremyOctober 20, 2011 at 11:33 PM

    Oh, alright. I'll try.

    But those sparse checkpoints and easy deaths due to wonky hit-detection (eg grabbing chains) are going to make it difficult.

    I think I'll go through SotC again first. My god that game is good.

    Although I'm feeling even worse stabbing the Colossi in the head than I did five years ago.

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  2. ESPOctober 23, 2011 at 6:32 AM

    An excellent discussion as always. Nice work, fellas. Ico is in my top three; I love it love it. I wrote about it last year.

    You may also be interested to read the novel, which presents some very interesting backstory and character development.

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  3. Scott JusterOctober 26, 2011 at 8:02 PM

    @Jeremy

    I recommend playing Shadow after Ico; think of it as a reward! ;-)

    I'll be interested to hear what you thought of Ico this time around.

    @ESP

    Thanks for the kind words! Also: nice post.

    I had no idea that there was an Ico novel, but it's going right on my reading list. I'm somewhat worried, but also excited about what it be like...

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