Sometimes less is more.  ICO's really kind of amazing, it's like the anti-MGS.

lol, yeah well i dunno, this is just what i've heard from reviews and other fans who like it. but i have finished SOTC, and there is an atmosphere in that - you feel a solitude within this long forgotten land, and gameplay wise i think it couldve been better, but i did like the originally of it. and the HD rerelease would be better imo for the quality of visuals.

Ico becomes interesting when you begin to identify with and empathize with the characters. 

Ico becomes interesting when you feel Ico's struggle as he climbs walls impossibly high.  When you grow frustrated with Yorda and want to leave her behind but need her so dearly.  When vertigo plants  fear in your heart for taking that next leap.  When you are afraid because monsters come to take away your ticket out of here and you are nearly powerless to stop them.  When you go outside and the warm sunlight shines through spring green leaves and you have a sense of hope that you may make it out this dark and dreary castle yet.

If you aren't connecting like that it wont be interesting because how well those emotions are conveyed is the best part of the game.  It's not about the simple puzzles or the shallow combat, it's about being there and having their struggle become your own. I thought the animation and art direction made it easy to do.  Apparently not the case for many.  

God bless Fumito Ueda and his sense of game design.  While it may not be for everyone it is most certainly for me.  This despite many people's detractions is still one of my favorite video games of all time.  At what it exceeds I feel few games come close and one of them is of course the prequel.

This game is only for us losers who dislike to "kill faggots in online shooters"

I haven't played ICO (I will get the Collection) but Shadow of the Colossus was a fucking amazing game.

bear in mind, no game will satisfy EVERYONE. 

I'm sure some people won't like GT5...

Well you can say that about any game with a shit plot. Mario becomes interesting when you feel Mario's struggle as he climbs walls and jumps impossibly high.  When you grow frustrated with Yoshi and want to leave him behind but need him so dearly.  When vertigo plants  fear in your heart for taking that next leap.  When you are afraid because monsters come to take away your ticket out of here and you are nearly powerless to stop them(by the way the monsters are useless and are easy as shit to beat).  When you go outside and the warm sunlight shines through spring green leaves and you have a sense of hope that you may make it out this dark and dreary castle/cave/whatever board you are in yet. You can make the arguement with games from the 8 bit era and pretend there is more depth to a game than there acutally is.

The characters arent built at all. You dont know anything about them. You never learn anything about them. Marios games would be shit if it werent for level and art design. Ico (while I stated has good art direction) has less challenge than a Mario game, much less gameplay diversity and even less of a plot. It feels like a half completed game. Games that have come out 4-5 years before ICO did what ICO did and did it much better.

It should have been interesting the first 5 mins of gameplay. That's all it took for me to fall for this game. Beat it in one day. As others said if you don't like it by now you won't like it later. What game actually changes that much from the first hour or two of gameplay anyway?

I'm not pretending there is depth.  I was aesthetically moved to caring about them as all good art should do.  First off Mario doesn't climb anything he jumps.  He certainly doesn't climb like a 10 year old boy using every ounce of his strength.  You hardly ever NEED Yoshi except to get a few secrets(you cannot complete the game without yorda and the game stops the moment you lose her), The static 2d environments of Mario hardly create a sense of vertigo where as a birds eye view perspective of a gigantic possible fall does.The monsters in Mario are easy to beat as well and don't create any sense of fear.   There is almost nothing dreary about Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom for me to feel such profound sense of hope that I will make it out to something better(quite the opposite I wanted to find every nook crevice and secret).  

I do think most 8 bit games have more depth than games that are mostly still copying them today.

How well do you know Mario? Has his character been built up at all over the course of all the games he's been in for the past 25 years?  

God forbid that some people enjoy moody and atmospheric romps that are light on the challenge but great at eliciting emotional response.  Ico didn't need much of a plot(Mario only barely has one itself). All I needed and cared about was the premise of getting out alive. There wasn't much diversity in gameplay but all the gameplay that was there helped reinforce the relationship of the characters and their world.  I prefer that to variety for it's own sake which can often lack focus and thus the emotional heft.  You may look at Ico as half a game but i think it's better than most because of what it leaves out.

 I've played games long before Ico ever came around and it's great that you feel that other games have done better but  I and many disagree.

It becomes interesting when you find out people are willing to pay $20 for it on ebay and try to figure out why.