10 Critically-Acclaimed Video Games NO ONE Played

ICO is a deceptively simple game. Adopting a ‘subtracting design’ philosophy, director Fumito Ueda crafted the game around a basic boy-meets-girls concept, reducing any element that interfered with that premise in order to create a fully immersive experience.

And it worked. ICO is a deeply emotionally involving game, one frequently cited as an example of video games as art.

But it took prodigious skill to craft that simplicity. The game was praised for the detail of its environments, the subtlety of the characters’ facial animations, clever puzzle design that guided you logically through without holding your hand, and a vulnerable companion who’s very vulnerability made you care about them. All this came together in what one reviewer described as a ‘game of perfect moments.’

Despite earning a Metacritic rating of 90, however, players weren’t sold, because ICO went on to shift a disappointing 700 000 copies from its 2001 released date to 2009. Ueda himself suggested that his minimalist approach may have hurt it, since most games were marketed via screen shots, and with ICO’s sparse interface there was little flash to market.

An HD remaster was released alongside Shadow of the Colossus for the PS3, so if you have an old unit handy and a disc gathering dust, ICO is well worth firing up.