Sony Gearing Up for Colossus Launch

Sony is pulling out all the stops for the February PAL launch of the PS2’s swansong game, Shadow of the Colossus. SCEE will be bringing this huge and beautiful game to the European gamer in new unique packaging and has just announced that the game will come with some totally new content. Woooooo.

Bizarrely (for Sony) the press release issued late yesterday tells us that with Shadow of the Colossus we will “forget gaming stereotype and look to the future with an experience that offers the cinematography and story that we have been waiting for”. Strange that they didn’t get an English speaker to write it really!

Snide asides aside, let's look at what we're going to get for our thirty quid. Firstly, Shadow of the Colossus is to be released in special cardboard packaging containing four unique postcards each depicting key scenes from the game. SPOnG is now very eager to get our filthy mitts on the box, as we just know its going to be a thing of beauty as its designed in the art-house style of Shadow/ICO creative directors Fumito Ueda and Kenjj Kaido.

The PAL release also comes with a load of new exclusive extra content, including interviews with artistic partners and creative directors Ueda and Kaido-san, a full image gallery (including unseen concept sketches), in game stills and the original trailer to Shadow’s predecessor, ICO.

Usually we would scoff at such DVD-movie style 'extras', seeing them as mere marketing piffle enjoyed only by a handful of gamers with way too much time on their hands. Last minute attempts to ‘add value’ to a game. In this case, SPOnG is just very, very excited to be given anything at all over and above what is promising to be one of the games of the year. Whilst we often knock Sony for being marketing-driven at the expense of providing quality content, in this case we will just stand in line outside Gamestation on the day of release date and drool with all the other gamers.

SCEE has also just announced [URL=http://www.shadowofthecolossus.com/]the official website for the game[/URL] which you can and must check out, which is also playing host to an interesting art competition. Entrants submit their designs for a new Colossus, with the most inspiring design to be hand chosen by Ueda-san himself. The winner will embark on a once in a lifetime trip for two to a surprise destination! Margate perhaps? Huddersfield? Oh go on Sony, give us a clue!

Shadow of the Colossus has been three and a half years in production. Believe us, it has been worth every second. Now, back to that tricky fifth Colossus…