PS3

The ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection

PlatformPuzzleAdventure

Time to beat: about 14.8 hours
Plays offline: Yes

Overview

The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (known in PAL regions as Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Classics HD) is a 2011 video game compilation that contains high-definition remasters of two PlayStation 2 games, Ico (2001) and Shadow of the Colossus (2005), for the PlayStation 3. Developed by Bluepoint Games, who assisted in the remastering alongside Japan Studio and its division Team Ico, the bundle provides support for high-definition monitors, higher frame rates, stereoscopic 3D, and additional features for the PlayStation Network. The two games, while fundamentally different in gameplay and story, are thematically connected, with Shadow of the Colossus considered a spiritual sequel to Ico. Both games were critically acclaimed on their original release, while the remastered collection itself was praised by reviewers.

Prior to the announcement of the Collection, two other remastered collections of PlayStation 2 games had been made for the PlayStation 3: the God of War collection, and the Sly Cooper collection. There had been strong interest by Fumito Ueda, the project lead for both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, to prepare such a collection for the Team Ico games. Initially, Ueda was not "too excited" about porting the games, given that they were designed specifically for the PlayStation 2 hardware. Ueda also noted that such a conversion may be difficult due to the complexities Team Ico had to create to push the technical limits of the PlayStation 2, but felt that it was still possible.

Work on the conversion for the collection was done by Bluepoint Games, who had previously performed the remastering for the God of War collection. The staff of Team Ico assisted in the process. Ueda considered Bluepoint Games "real craftsmen" in this porting effort, due to their understanding of the fundamentals of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and passion for the games. Though it was Team Ico's idea originally to provide stereoscopic 3D, Ueda praised Bluepoint for their work in fine tuning the 3D effect, taking advantage of the scale and camera provided by the existing games; Ueda stated that the developers "made it into something beyond what I imagined". Team Ico considered adding new game content to both games.

The collection received strong positive praise from critics on release, based on the original titles as well as on the improvements made in the high definition port.