Ico

Ico​ is an action-adventure video game designed and directed by Fumito Ueda who wanted to create a minimalist game around a "boy meets girl" concept. Originally planned for the PlayStation, Ico took approximately four years to develop. The team employed a "subtracting design" approach to reduce elements of gameplay that interfered with the game's setting and story in order to create a high level of immersion.

The titular protagonist is a young boy, born with horns his village considers him a bad omen. Warriors lock Ico away in an abandoned fortress and during his explorations Ico encounters Yorda, the daughter of the castle's Queen. Ico seeks to escape the castle with Yorda, keeping her safe from the shadow-like creatures that attempt to draw her back. Throughout the game the player controls Ico as he explores the castle, solves puzzles, and assists the less-agile Yorda across obstacles.

Ico introduced several design and technical elements, including a story told with minimal dialog, bloom lighting and key frame animation, that have influenced subsequent games. Though not a commercial success it was critically acclaimed for its art and story elements and received several awards including "Game of the Year" nominations and three Game Developers Choice Awards. Ico is listed on several overall top game lists, and is often considered a form of art. The game was reprinted in Europe in 2006 in conjunction with the release of Shadow of the Colossus, the spiritual successor to Ico.

Source: Wikipedia, "Ico," available under the CC-BY-SA License.

2-Player Mode:
Upon completion of the game in the European and Japanese PS2 editions or the North American HD Remastered PS3 edition, the player has the opportunity to restart the game in a local co-operative two-player mode, where the second player plays as Yorda, still under the same limitations as the computer-controlled version of the character.

Trivia:

A user found that "libarc", a library licensed under GNU GPL (not LGPL) was in the Ico source code. If this is true then Sony Computer Entertainment would be guilty of not having made public the source code as they must do according to the GPL license rules. In December 2007 SCE made the comment that "We were not aware of the GPL infringement suspicion, and are looking into the matter", but as of February 2008 Ico has stopped being printed and is officially out of print. Only the existing copies are available and acquiring a new copy is next to impossible."(Translated from the Japanese Wikipedia: Source: Wikipedia, "ICO_(ゲーム)," available under the CC-BY-SA License.)

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Ico & Yorda ("Ico Fan")
Ico Title ("Ico Fan")