Awards:
Game Developers Choice Awards: Game of the Year, Best Character Design, Best Game Design, Best Visual Arts (2006)
IGN: Best game of 2005 and second best game of the decade
Description:
A prequel to Ico, Shadow of the Collosus is an action-puzzle game that follows Wander on his mission to slay 16 “Colossi” (basically, giants) in order to bring back the soul of his deceased girlfriend. The somewhat bleak landscape within the game is, arguably, a motivating factor in the game. As Konstantin Mitgutsch argues in his paper “Passionate Digital Play-Based Learning: (Re)Learning in computer games like Shadow of the Colossus,” its this unfamiliar style of game play that compels players to notice its infrastructure and, through trail and error, learn to play a game that contains seemingly invincible characters.
Trailer:
Why the library should carry it:
The game itself can be a learning experience for gamers. In Mitgutsch’s paper he also argues that the gaming platform allows players to encounter experiences “heterogenic to his horizon of experiences” and if the user does experience new things, the user "relearns, unlearns or learns anew.”
As one review on Common Sense Media points out, killing the giants elicits sympathy from the player, unlike many games where the player feels vindicated by killing his enemies. As Mitgutsch writes: “This… shows that winning against an enemy, also implies a loss.” Ultimately the game shows that winning isn’t always the goal, that there is suffering in battle and that “winning in the end [sometimes] means losing.” Thus, Shadow of the Colossus may encourage players to think about the fine line between good and evil, and concepts such as sacrifice and love.
