1. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth (N64)
2. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Arcade)*
3. Metal Slug 6 (PS2)
4. Time Crisis II (PS2)*
5. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (360)
6. Shining the Holy Ark (SAT)
7. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
8. Soul Blazer (SNES)
9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)*
10. Warriors of Fate (Switch)
11. Knights of the Round (Switch)
12. Armored Warriors (Switch)
13. Battle Circuit (Switch)
14. OutRun (GEN)*
15. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
16. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
After years of being interested in Shadow of the Colossus, I picked up a PS2 copy in December of 2018. Then after a few a more years, I finally sat down with the game and gave it the time it deserved, motivated by the Summer Games Challenge. I owned a PS2 shortly after it was released, but I missed out on some of the great games for that system, so I've been making an effort to catch up and play through some of the console's best games, and SOTC is an amazing game. I wish I had played through it sooner, but I'm glad I finally experienced it.
Shadow of the Colossus is very minimal in a sense. There's no items to be collected, there's no weapon or armor upgrades, there's no towns people to talk to. It's just you, your trusted horse, your sword, and your bow. The game consists of sixteen boss battles against the colossi, throughout a sprawling world consisting of a few different types of environments. In contrast to the minimalism mentioned, the boss battles are very intricately designed and each colossus has a specific weak point (or points) that you will have to locate and manage to climb on to and attack. Some of the battles are pretty intense, but it all depends on your execution. I found this to be a breath of fresh air, as it doesn't matter if you're missing an item or an ability. You start the game with the few things you'll need for every encounter throughout the game. Another nice touch, is that if you fail in a battle, you can give it another try without having to trek all the way to that boss again.
Before each battle, you will start at a temple in the center of the world map. Even though there is nothing specific to be done here, the temple can be thought of as your hub. To locate each boss on the world map, you will have to climb on to your horse, and hold up your sword, using an ability your weapon has, which will shine a light in the direction to point you in the direction you're supposed to go in. I thought this was an interesting way to implement a feature that shows you where you should go, but doesn't give you the exact coordinates. Also, the way it's implemented fits in with the rest of the game's design, as there is not much of a player GUI. Just a health bar, a meter that measures how much longer you can grip or hold for (this is necessary to know when climbing on some of these huge bosses), and an icon representing what weapon you currently have in your hand. After you complete a boss battle, you will get a notification asking if you want to save, a small cut scene to advance the plot, and then it's on to the next one. The game's ending is also quite a ride and worthy of your efforts.
Overall, Shadow of the Colossus was a great experience. It was fun and intense in the right way. Some of the bosses were a bit tough and I was frustrated at moments, but I was able to get through it with a bit of practice. SOTC is a very unique game and I highly recommend it. Later this year, I plan to play the developer's first game Ico, also on the PS2. Give this one a go if you haven't already!