Since Shawn left us all hanging with the Plenty for Twenty series, I thought I’d pick up the ball and run with it. So, today, I’ve got a game for you that is under twenty bucks and still a lot of fun, Shadow of the Colossus.

Shadow of the Colossus, developed by Sony, the parent company that brought you games like God of War, Ape Escape, and ICO, released this game for North American and Japanese release both in October of 2005. That being said, it means that while it isn’t a brand new title, it can probably still be found on the shelves or in the used bin of your local game store. I know I picked my copy up for about twenty bucks brand new.

The game focuses on an unnamed character, usually referred to in walkthroughs and on Wikipedia as “Wander” since the Japanese title translates out to “Wander and the Colossus”. He travels into a forbidden land in the hopes of restoring life to a girl who has been killed, sacrified at that. Pretty standard stuff so far, right? Well, not exactly. In order to restore life to this girl, you have to travel around this forbidden land and slay 16 giant creatures, called colossi.

Unlike most action-adventure games Shadow of the Colossus does not have towns to visit, characters to speak with, and no random battles. It feels more like a puzzle or strategy game as each colossus has weaknesses that must be found and exploited in order to defeat it. Instead of finding villages to gain information, you’re given a riddle when you return to the temple after each battle and your sword tells you where to find the next colossus. So you’re, in effect, going from one boss fight to the next after travelling for what may feel like an eternity on horseback to find your next opponent.

You travel through the game on the back of your trusty horse, Agro. Who not only acts as a mode of transportation, but aids you in some battles. However, there are certain places that Agro can’t reach and you still have to go it alone.

The further you get into the game, the more you will have to make use of your surroundings. The battle areas become less like stages and more like tools as the game progresses. From climbing walls, to tricking colossi into altering the terrain in some way that you can use to your advantage, it’s all necessary in order to defeat the colossus and progress to the next battle.

As for the colossi themselves, there’s a trick to defeating them. That being, you have to climb them. That’s right, you have to scale them like the mobile mountains they are. Each colossus is covered with fur and armor, the fur being pretty much the only place you can crawl. Once you have exploited one weak spot to its full potential, it will fade and you will have to find the next spot on your opponent to attack. Hence, being more like a strategy or puzzle game.

While some of them may be slow, they will shake violently to try and break your grasp. You may also have to attack a weak spot in order to get to yet another weak spot, this game is all about critical thinking.

While the gameplay is a lot of fun, all that glitters is not gold. You will find yourself cursing the shotty camera angles and they tend to be your biggest enemy, as well as Wander’s inability to get to his feet very quickly after being hit.

There also seems to be a distinct lack of back story in this game. Very little is explained about the relationship between the dead girl and Wander, or anything of the sort. You kind of feel left in the dark in that respect. So, the storyline is pretty weak. Still, if you can stomach a very weak storyline and horrible camera work, this game is a lot of fun.

As a side note, according to an interview in March 2006, Fumito Ueda, the game’s director and lead designer, admitted that Shadow of the Colossus and ICO are connected. Specifically, Shadow of the Colossus takes place at an unspecified time before ICO in the same world, as well as other connections that may risk being spoilers.

Shadow of the Colossus can now be found as a Greatest Hits title for Playstation 2 and can be found on Amazon for under $20.

Rating:
Visuals: 4/5
Audio: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Story: 1/5
Controls: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

If you liked that, try...

1. InnerGeek: Shadow of the Crab Louse
2. Plenty for Twenty: Devil May Cry 3
3. Plenty for Twenty: God of War
4. Plenty for Twenty #1
5. Plenty for Twenty: Final Fantasy X-2

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