Frankly, I love Shadow of the Colossus. Great music, excellent experience, incredible concept and execution.

However.

Programming a Colossus so that it constantly shakes and doesn't allow you to: a) hold on, or 2) hit its weakpoint, is pure wankery. I have just spent the past half an hour trying to take this dude down and no matter what I either get shaken off because my grip meter runs out or I end up getting tossed while trying to stab the weakpoint. In a fit of childish rage I pulled my PS2 controller out of its port, put the disc back in the case and tossed it across the room. Argh. Me break things.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with SotC like this? I am all for challenge, but I don't like it when games do cheap shit to keep you from attaining whatever goal it is that you're trying to reach. Seriously, would it have been too much trouble to make this jerk stop shaking so much for more than a minute so I could hold on and stab him in the head? Sheesh.

Seriously, if a Colossus didn't shake off us, the game would be too easy.

By the way, I loved the game, completed the time attack in both Normal and Hard, and reached the secret garden (beautiful!), yet I really didn't like the music. I know I'm in a tiny minority, but for the most part it sounded like buzz-buzz-buzz.

Which one is #6? I do remember having a bit of trouble during the middle of the game because of shaking. I think it was the gecko-like one had me stuck for a couple days. Really hated the flying one. Great game though, despite some of the frustration.

True, but this was just ridiculous. It wasn't like he was making it difficult; I literally did not even have one chance to knock down his life.

#6 is the Colossus in the underground temple with the goatee. I was trying to climb up him and actually clipped into the Colossus model so I was holding on inside the Colossus. Of course, once I let go I had to climb up all over again.

Some of those guys took me two hours to beat.  Especially the one with the giant knife where you had to drop down into his hand.  I'd get into his hand, and I'd lose my footing and fall.  Over and over.

I actually had a lot of trouble with a lot of them.  Ugh, hard, but so fun.  I didn't know about the secret garden.  I guess I need to check that out!

I had some trouble with that Colossus because I thought that I could only climb on from the palm of his right hand as he hunched over.  Once I realized that you could climb up by grabbing his beard from the front, I was able to take him down.  It was positively nightmarish trying to navigate the cuffs on his right wrist and forearm before that point.  Yeesh.

My main problem with SOTC (aside from how annoying climbing a Colossus can be) is that I lose interest in-between the Colossus fights, especially if I have a hard time finding the next one.  I think I stopped playing the game after beating the underwater Colossus.

It's too bad that beating each Colossus essentially involves grabbing a tuft of hair and striking the sweet spot with your sword.  They don't look very different in terms of their color schemes and the game doesn't give you much else to do in the meantime except look at empty scenery.  SOTC might be a work of art, but as a videogame, I can't say that it's a personal favorite.  I definitely find it to be a bit dull and I hate how Agro slows down on any surface that is not perfectly flat.  I get so tired of tapping the button in order to try and keep him at top speed.  What was fun in OOT becomes a chore in SOTC's larger and more labyrinthian overworld. (I haven't played Twilight Princess, so I don't know how horseriding works in that one)

That funny thing is that falling off wouldn't have been so bad if the swim back to a platform wasn't so freaking slow.  I was definitely relieved to get by that one.

The only one that gave me serious grief was (I think) #9, a land crab in a cave. The method for taking him down is irritation incarnate.

I must've spent hours trying to figure out how to take down the thirteenth one. I'd ride up to the nearby rock formations and try to jump my way to the top of them. I can't remember if I had to read an FAQ to find out but I have one so I probably gave in at some point.

Just spend a little time hunting for lizard tails to get your grip meter up.

Bearded Colossus was actually one of the easiest ones for me to beat.

Sounds sexual.

Sounds like you're doing it wrong.

Dude, the 6th one is like one of the easiest, as jmj already said!
I felled him without any trouble the first time round, and it was one of the easiest to beat in Time Challenge mode.

The third one actually took me a LOOOOOONG time to figure out.
He's real easy once you know what to do though.

The only one that still gives me trouble after consecutive replays is that flying thing in the desert.

I already know what to do, for sure. This is my fourth playthrough. I wasn't having trouble figuring out how to beat him, I'm just frustrated with how much trouble he gave me.

Edit: That's the ZZ Top-lookin' one, right? With the huge beard?

The two small, four-legged Colossi were difficult for me; the one, if only because after you drop him off the ledge and break his armor off, you have a small window of time in which to jump down on top of him, and impale him in the chest while he's lying on his back; if you can't get it done the first time, it's nearly impossible to drop him again in the same position, so it's reset time, and attempt again.

The final Colossus was also difficult, especially when you had to grab onto his hand.

P.S. The game's soundtrack is absolutely LUSHOUS orchestration; too bad I don't listen to it very often; alot of the area introduction pieces are far too short; the meat of the game's soundtrack is in the battle themes; they also included some bonus pieces that were never actually in the game.

Yes.