Ico is a boy with horns. At the age of twelve when his horns grew large enough the elders send him away to be sacrificed to prevent evil spirits from attacking the village. Entombed in a crumbling ancient castle Ico only manages to begin his escape when a freak earthquake shakes loose the vessel he has been locked in.

Ico shortly meets a Princess named Yorda who has also been imprisoned by the evil Queen. Ico must negotiate the puzzles of the ruined castle and escort the Princess to safety. She, as well as Ico, cannot climb or jump, so Ico has to clear or create a path where there is none. Yorda is the only one capable of opening the many magical doors necessary to escape. Ico needs her as much as she needs him, so he must protect her from the many evil spirits that will try to take her away.

Shown through a third-person perspective, mixing action-based exploration gameplay with puzzles, the game has no HUD. Other striking features are the soft lightning visual style, later adapted by many other games, low-key use of in-game music, and conversations through a fictional language, leaving much to the player's imagination. The game takes place in the same universe as Shadow of the Colossus (2005), to which it is a sequel.

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Part of the Following Group

HUDless games

Merchant	Title
	ICO
	ICO
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User Reviews

Action and meditation at once... is this possible?	Unicorn B. Lynx (53164)
One of the Playstation's finest.	DANIEL HAWKS ! (1141)
The Princess and the Draggin'	Terrence Bosky (5239)
Mystical and pretty, and with a bit of retro-cool.	Shazbut (130)	unrated
Annoying for women, pleasant for men!	Melody (119)
The only computer or video game so far that I would unreservedly call "artistic". Also fun and playable	weregamer (157)
Superb environmental puzzles with a pair of characters that you will care about.	Random Fiste (9)
Finally a really really good PS2 game	nullnullnull (1480)

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The Press Says

GamersMark	Mar 28, 2002	10 out of 10	100
GameSpy	Oct 15, 2001		100
VicioJuegos.com	May 06, 2005	95 out of 100	95
Meristation	Feb 17, 2006	9.5 out of 10	95
Gamereactor (Sweden)	May 18, 2003	9 out of 10	90
GameSpot	Sep 26, 2001	8.5 out of 10	85
Game Critics	Nov 13, 2001	8 out of 10	80
EL33TONLINE	Nov 23, 2006		80
videogamer.com	Mar 07, 2006	8 out of 10	80
GameCola.net	Jan, 2003	7.2 out of 10	72

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Trivia

The US version does not contain the the second playthrough bonuses present in the European and Japanese releases. These included translated subtitles (initially indecipherable), the option to have a second player control the princess, a secret weapon, and the option to play the game with a distinct cinematic effect for certain cut-scenes. There are also changes to the shadow generation points and the AI, and the Waterfall and Windmill puzzles are less complex.

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This entry to the MobyGames database was contributed by nullnullnull (1480) on Oct 15, 2001.