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I own ICO and Shadow of the Colosus. I haven't played the latter, but I can comment on the former. Basically, with both of these games, it's about whether you look at them as "games" or "experiences." I know that's a horribly cliche thing to say about these games, but hey, it's true!

On the one hand, ICO as a game is, well, less than impressive. It's too short, Yorda's completely helpless/useless, and most of the puzzles, with a couple of notable exeptions) boil down to "push crate, pull lever." Then there's the battle system, so unnecessary and repeatitive. In the last area, the game actually deterorates into just jumping from platforms and swinging across chains to get from point A to point B. The only good thing I can say about this is that there are some clever parts where ledges and platforms are integrated into the environment, like when you have to grab onto the blades of a windmill to carry you up to a higher level. I also like that puzzles revolve around what your character can and can't do physically instead of relying on endless inventory items and lateral thinking; this just wasn't implemented as well as it could have been. All in all, it's at least playable.

On the OTHER hand, the game has a great atmosphere. The contrast between the dark insides of the castle and the bright outside areas is stunning, and the castle itself is breathtaking. The music, though there isn't alot of it, is pretty good. The one thing that kills the atmosphere is, once again, the battles. They come out of nowhere, and instead of being threatening or nerve-inducing, all this does is bring your adventurin' and puzzle-solvin' to a grinding halt. Then you get to hack at nearly identical enemies for ten minutes! Yay?

One of the things brought up during discussion of this game is the unspoken relationship between the two protagonists. Because Ico and Yorda speak different languages, they rarely speak. Instead, their relationship is developed mostly through animation. For example, when you save, you save on magic benches. Ico and Yorda sit down together, and so much is said in just the animation. Or when you need to assist Yorda across a gap, and you can feel the tension as Yorda jumps, and will she make it? Then Ico reaches out to catch her. The animation tells you all you need to know about the characters. HOWEVER because there are so few cutscenes of dialog or story advancement, the animations are the ONLY character development you get for a big chunk of the game, and because it's the same animations for the same actions over and over, there's a big part in the middle of the game where it feels like that nothing's happening story-wise. You just kind of tune out the animations after you've seen them so many times.

But the ending, oh the ending is worth playing through the so-so game to see what happens. It's very effective and emotional. It's really too bad the last area of the entire game is so bland and annoying, but the final battle, the only "boss" in the game, is pretty cool.

So yeah, it's a nice "experience" and I'm glad to have played it, but I would hesitate to call it "art" because of some repetitve puzzles and bland game design. For a game to be considered art, it has to be more than aesthetic or story-wise, it has to be art in its disign and gameplay, too.

For the gameplay I give it a: glass of warm milk.
For the experience, I give it a: happy-fluffy kitty cat.