Girlfriend dead? Not to worry, chum, stick her on your horse and spirit her away to the nearest forbidden place where a disembodied spirit will let you know how to bring her back to life: namely by slaughtering 16 bloody enormous beasties roaming the land.

Such is the simple premise behind Shadow of the Colossus. But first, a little history lesson.

Back in early 2006, the PS2, at the tale end of its life (the PS3 was released the same year) witnessed a landmark in software with the release of SotC. The second title set in a mystical land by visionary Fumito Ueda, following the sensational Ico (although it serves as something of a prequel), Shadow pushed the PS2’s hardware to places few thought possible and won huge acclaim.

A third title in the series, The Last Guardian, was slated for release in 2011 but would take five years and a further console to emerge blinking into the sunlight. Guardian may not have eventuated in 2011, but a spruced-up Shadow did, porting wholesale the PS2 version with bumped-up definition.

Now, for the PS4, Shadow has been given a little more than a lick of paint, and thankfully offering a revamped control system, although controlling the blimmin' horse is still a weeping sore in the backside.

PS4 Shadow doesn’t lean anywhere near as heavily on its hardware as its older PS2 brother. Indeed, I expect this wouldn’t be beyond the realms of the PS3.

Nevertheless, the basics are present. Sad boy gallops off on loyal horse and plunges blade into the soft parts of gargantuan foes. Dark magic. Mysterious ruins. Death and demons.

No power-ups, no side quests, no crafting... no clutter.

A bona fide gaming classic which deserves to be cherished.