When Ico came out more than a decade ago, it wasn’t the type of game I could see myself playing. It was heavy on atmosphere, but light on the sports, guns, and action. It just wasn’t the kind of game that a guy sharing a television, gaming system, and house with three other guys would play. After ten years of people telling me how fantastic Ico was, I was finally ready to give the game a go.

Even though I’ve been playing video games for nearly my entire life, there were always games that just didn’t interest me. Over time, I’ve grown to appreciate more genres and styles of games than I would have in the past. Like music, books, food, and movies, sometimes you just need to expand your tastes once in a while to see what else is out there. I had heard for years how great Ico was; that it was such a different experience than what people were used to getting out of a video game. I remained indignant. All I needed was Madden 2002 and GTA III. A game like Ico was boring. It was just a kid walking around a castle with a girl. How could this game be anything but lame? I’m not too proud to admit how naïve I was. To be fair, I probably wouldn’t even have attempted to track Ico down if it wasn’t for the HD remake. I’m just glad it came out at a time when I finally got the gumption to sit down and play Ico.

What at the time looked to be nothing more than a game where a kid leads a princess around a castle ended up being… well, okay, it’s still a game where a little boy leads a princess around a castle. It’s more than that though. Ico puts you in the shoes of Ico, a young boy with horns that’s been left locked in a giant castle as some form of sacrifice. He breaks out, and stumbles upon a trapped princess named Yorda, and he takes it upon himself to rescue her, and escape the castle. There are some slight plot developments that occur later in the game, but for the most part, Ico sticks to a very basic narrative. It’s not that it’s not engaging. Ico is full of wonderful moments, but they don’t have very much to do with story.

Most of what makes Ico so interesting are the puzzles. Progressing from one part of the castle to the next puts your brain to work. There’s not a whole lot of direction given by the game, so it’s really up to you to figure out how to escape all on your own. It does make you feel like you’re in Ico’s shoes as he tries to work out how to traverse the structure. Yorda will always be tailing close behind you, though she doesn’t do a whole lot to help. The only things Yorda’s good for is getting captured by the castle’s shadowy guardians, opening doors, or making you wait for her to climb a ladder. If you thought your real life relationship with a significant other tested your patience, you obviously haven’t played Ico. Trying to get Yorda out of the castle will not only push the limits of your patience, but will also make the bond between you and your better half even stronger. Not because there’s some grand message hidden in the game, but because nothing can possibly be more annoying than waiting for Yorda to climb ladder after ladder after ladder.

There’s some light combat involved when you try to save Yorda from being captured by shadow creatures, but the further I progressed in the game, the less I was concerned for her welfare. The only reason I really kept her alive was because she was the only person of the two of us who could open the castle’s locked doors. At times, it feels like Ico is one long escort mission, in which you are in charge of the safety of a walking, talking key card. Obviously, the game is much more than that. The way Ico naturally presents its puzzles, and allows you to explore and test yourself by continually throwing ambiguous challenges at you, is really amazing. It’s tough to stop playing once you get into a good groove. There are few things as satisfying as completing one of Ico’s puzzles, particularly since there are no real in-game prompts.

I know Ico gets a lot of praise for its presentation as well, and it didn’t really disappoint. Despite being stuck inside the same building for the duration of the game, there’s a surprising amount of variation in the architecture. I’m not certain many of the rooms that exist in this game space would actually exist if the castle were real, though. There’s a lot of square-footage in the castle, and some of the interiors don’t really match up with the exteriors as far as physical space goes. I know it’s a game, and the developers are allowed to break the laws of structure to provide the most compelling puzzles they can, but I’d like to see the blueprints on this place one day to see just how structurally sound this castle really is. But getting back to how the game looks, there’s little to complain about. The atmosphere and ambiance created by the lighting techniques used really gives the world some weight. It’s quite impressive.

Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have given a game like Ico a fair chance. Since then though, I’ve done a little growing up. My gaming tastes have evolved, and there are very few genres or titles that don’t catch my interest these days. I’m glad that I had the chance to finally catch up with Ico, and despite its flaws, I can finally see why everyone was so enamored with this challenging and unique game when it released. I’ll be diving into Ico’s spiritual successor Shadow of the Colossus next, and hope it too lives up to the hype.

Has it really been 100 episodes already? Join the celebration on Endor as the gang plays through all three Super Star Wars titles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yitCxjCu7Oo

A long time ago on a couch far, far away… For our 100th episode, we play all 3 Super Star Wars games!

Every week on Continue?, we sit down to play a random old school game for 30 minutes. We’re talking NES, SNES, Genesis old here. There is one question we are trying to answer – do we want to stop playing or continue?

Starring: Nick Murphy, Paul Ritchey, and Josh Henderson
Shot by: Paul Ritchey
Edited by: Nick Murphy

After the gut-wrenching events of the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, I was happy to see the team scaling back and getting back to basics with Season Nine. I couldn’t wait for it to start. And then the first five issues wound up in my backlog.

We all have that pile. The books we meant to read, the games we meant to play, the things we meant to do. In our new weekly feature Pile of Shame, we’ll be tackling our personal backlogs and seeing if these things were worth the wait, or better left tossed aside.

Warning: Minor spoilers for Season Eight and Nine ahead.

I still remember the day I found out about Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. I was in a comic shop on South Street in Philadelphia, and Buffy, one of my all-time favorite shows, had been off the air for over three years. Yet there she was, Buffy Summers in all her glory, on the cover of Previews. I was elated, until I found out it wasn’t coming out until March 2007. That seemed like so far away.

After three great years, Season Eight concluded in 2011, and I mostly loved it. When it started, it felt so familiar, like seeing old friends again. As cheesy as that sounds, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on the air for seven years. It was there when I was in middle school, throughout high school, and for the first half of college. I was very attached to the Scooby Gang, and thrilled to see them return to action. With Joss Whedon very involved in the series, Season Eight was a smooth, natural progression from the events of the series finale.

However, sometimes the scale and scope of Season Eight were so large that it was hard to feel the same emotional attachment that I had with the TV show. Understandably, Joss treated it as the story he wanted to tell without the limitations of a television show’s budget and scheduling issues, which meant he went all out: insane monsters, varied locations spawning several continents, hundreds of slayers, multi-dimensional boning. I was glad to see that the world had changed after Sunnydale was reduced to a crater at the end of show; it just made sense within the context of that world that all the newly awakened potential Slayers would need something else to do, and that Buffy would be the one to lead them. Eventually, though, the international Slayer army took the story so far away from one of the things I loved about the TV show. These characters were supposed to be relatable, flawed, like us, only with a few extra powers or knowledge of the worldwide vampire epidemic. So after the gut-wrenching events of the end of Season Eight, I was happy to see the team scaling back and getting back to basics with Season Nine. I couldn’t wait for it to start. And then the first five issues wound up in my backlog.

Like most things in the pile, it wasn’t because I didn’t want to read them; Season Eight definitely left me wanting more. Whatever the reasons for slacking on my comic-reading, I’m all caught up on Buffy now. And I must say, I love this new approach to post-television Buffy Summers and company. They’re back in California, working mundane jobs, trying to fit in amongst the normal, non-demon-slaying folk and put the horrors they’ve seen behind them–it really feels like the Buffy the Vampire Slayer I watched almost every Tuesday for seven years.

There are some interesting new dynamics that make Season Nine feel fresh. Big sister Buffy is now the third wheel in her sister Dawn’s relationship with Xander. Without her witchy powers (which grew even stronger during Season Eight), Willow’s making a living as a computer programmer and pulling away from the group–she dumped Kennedy, blames Buffy for sucking all of the magic from the world, and has lost a huge part of herself. And though Buffy still has vampires to slay, she’s just another twenty-something without a college education, savings account, or marketable skills. After dedicating her life (and even giving it, on a couple of occasions) to fighting evil and saving the world, all Buffy has to show for it is a coffee shop job and a San Francisco apartment she shares with two roommates. Like in Sunnydale, she spends her nights patrolling, but her slayer skills are no longer a secret. Thanks to Harmony’s rise to fame as a reality TV star, vampires are admired, while Slayers are considered to be terrorists. Even the monsters are suffering; one, having been stuck in the wrong dimension, has been reduced to hassling college dropouts to repay their student loans. On top of that, the former army of potential Slayers aren’t exactly fond of Buffy, either.

After setting up the new lives of the Scoobies, I’m not really sure in which direction this story is heading, but I’m really excited to see Buffy and the gang attempt to resume normal lives after their Season Eight adventures. I’m planning on picking up the first few issues of Angel and Faith, the spinoff series about the adventures of the bad-girl slayer and Buffy’s one true vampire love, to see how it ties into the story. And starting next month, I’ll be reviewing individual issues of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine. Buffy’s back in a big way, and in my opinion, that’s five by five.

Blast off into the night with a new episode of Continue?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m0tYROqDvA

Boba Fett + Marsupials = Sparkster.

Every week on Continue?, we sit down to play a random old school game for 30 minutes. We’re talking NES, SNES, Genesis old here. There is one question we are trying to answer – do we want to stop playing or continue?

Starring: Nick Murphy, Paul Ritchey, and Josh Henderson
Shot by: Paul Ritchey
Edited by: Nick Murphy

Get funky with Continue? and one of the greatest vehicular combat games of all time. OF. ALL. TIME.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEhnhmgTKpM

If SOPA & PIPA pass, our world could end up like the world of Vigilante 8! Don’t let that happen!

Every week on Continue?, we sit down to play a random old school game for 30 minutes. We’re talking NES, SNES, Genesis old here. There is one question we are trying to answer – do we want to stop playing or continue?

Starring: Nick Murphy, Paul Ritchey, and Josh Henderson
Shot by: Paul Ritchey
Edited by: Nick Murphy

You think Bruce Willis hates asteroids? Wait until you see what he does to the apocalypse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cojx3Rr1A0E

This week’s episode features a special appearance by Bruce Willis & The Apocalypse.

Every week on Continue?, we sit down to play a random old school game for 30 minutes. We’re talking NES, SNES, Genesis old here. There is one question we are trying to answer – do we want to stop playing or continue?

Starring: Nick Murphy, Paul Ritchey, and Josh Henderson
Shot by: Paul Ritchey
Edited by: Nick Murphy

As much deserved credit as Rocksteady gets for reinvigorating not just the Batman video game franchise, but superhero video games as well, recent findings show they weren’t the first developer to take comic book heroes seriously. In 2008, Factor 5 was secretly working on a Superman video game. The studio closed before the game was finished, but concept art from the game has surfaced, and it gives a glimpse into what could have been an amazing Superman video game.

Siliconera came across the works of Daveed Kaplan, who was working on character models for the game in 2008. Codenamed “Blue Steel,” Factor 5′s unreleased Superman game was to be published by Brash Entertainment, but after Brash’s investors stopped, well, investing in the company, they were forced to close down. You might remember that Brash was also hoping to publish a video game based on DC’s Flash, but that game also never made it beyond the early development stages.

The shame of never getting to see Factor 5′s Superman game is that the most recent Man of Steel video game was based on the mediocre Superman Returns, and featured a final boss fight against… a tornado. Factor 5 had a pretty dense rogues gallery lined up featuring the always available Lex Luthor, Superman’s longtime enemy, Kryptonian zealot Zod, and the ruler of Apokoplips, Darkseid. Throwing down with any of those three big bads would have been a million times better than facing off against a natural disaster.

You can check out all the concept art over on Siliconera, and hope that one day some developer comes along to give us the Superman game that we, and Kal-El, deserve.

[Siliconera]

What happens when the boys of Continue? play one of the most memorable comic book video games of all time? Find out by watching this week’s episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IScbDIQ-u1w

Marvel Heroes Paul, Nick, and Josh battle the supervillain Carnage and send out a special challenge to The Completionist!

Every week on Continue?, we sit down to play a random old school game for 30 minutes. We’re talking NES, SNES, Genesis old here. There is one question we are trying to answer – do we want to stop playing or continue?

Starring: Nick Murphy, Paul Ritchey, and Josh Henderson
Shot by: Paul Ritchey
Edited by: Nick Murphy

A new era begins with this week’s Continue? Welcome new co-host, Luke Brown! Enjoy the nightmare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4JjwA2nrxM

Paul loses a bet to Luke and is kicked off the show. It’ll take a Golden Axe Holiday Miracle to save it. Praise Beesus.

Every week on Continue?, we sit down to play a random old school game for 30 minutes. We’re talking NES, SNES, Genesis old here. There is one question we are trying to answer – do we want to stop playing or continue?

Starring: Nick Murphy, Paul Ritchey, and Josh Henderson
Shot by: Paul Ritchey
Edited by: Nick Murphy

It’s the ultimate Star Wars fighting game, and now Continue? is faced with the difficult choice of choosing which side of the Force they’re on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkf5JA6Yo9U

The guys practice the art of “Steel Hand” to become Star Wars: Masters of the Teräs Käsi!

Every week on Continue?, we sit down to play a random old school game for 30 minutes. We’re talking NES, SNES, Genesis old here. There is one question we are trying to answer – do we want to stop playing or continue?

Starring: Nick Murphy, Paul Ritchey, and Josh Henderson
Shot by: Paul Ritchey
Edited by: Nick Murphy