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Video games are often criticized for being derivative with new titles often just being new versions of what has gone before. Sometimes, a new title arrives that makes you look at gaming in a new way. Such a title is Sony's Shadow of the Colossus.

Although the game play is relatively simple, the focus of the game's design is based around creating a unique experience. This is one of the first games to play with the idea of scale, by creating giants of such immense size and setting them in a beautifully rendered and proportioned land, it creates a new experience.

The Japanese development is probably the reason why the game looks and feels so different, at least, that's what the review at 1up.com suggests.

"In the works for nearly four years now, Shadow of the Colossus is clearly the result of different thinking. While Western development teams try to one-up each other in terms of how big their guns are, how interactive their environments can be, how urban their attitude is, and how much their X-treme soundtracks rock, Ueda's studio is cutting its game from an entirely different cloth."

1up.com goes a little over-the-top in its wild enthusiasm for the game

"This game will remind you of why you play video games in the first place. No game makes you soar as high, sink as low, or feel as small as Shadow does, and that equals sheer adrenaline. Not the kind generated by zombies lurking around corners, or being run down by gangstas in a drive-by, but the sort of well-rounded emotional package that could exist only in a world like this. This is virtual reality, this is the great escape, this is a game that takes you somewhere you've never been before, Ico or no Ico. It's a game that dares you to exhilarate while hammering you with consequence. In short, Shadow of the Colossus breaks storytelling barriers none of us knew existed. It's the rare game for which the often overused words "ground-breaking" were truly reserved for, and it's enough to make you regret every stupid coin you ever collected. There's more to gaming than rote cliches and borrowed ideas, and Shadow of the Colossus is kind enough to remind us of what could be. You really couldn't ask for better than that. Besides merely being one of gaming's great moments, this is the experience of the year."

1up.com's special coverage of the new game can be found here.