Lumbering toward me was the Sleeping Giant. And giant he was — at least the height of a 50-story skyscraper, I reckoned.

So, I'm supposed to kill this thing? That's what I was told, in order to revive a dead woman in the new video game "Shadow of the Colossus" (T-rated, $39.99, PlayStation 2).

Feeling like an ant battling an elephant, I charged in with my bow and sword.

The monster threw down his stone weapon to squash me, but I dodged the blow seconds before impact.

Realizing this may be my only chance, I ran up the weapon now lodged in the ground and proceeded to scale up the creature's furry arms. I crawled around its shoulders to the back of its neck and held on to a patch of fur for dear life as it tried to shake me off.

The creature paused just long enough for me to run to a glowing symbol atop its head, a weak spot. A few strikes of my sword, and somehow, victory was mine.

This is but one of the exhilarating encounters offered in this creative game from Sony.

It's mix of brawny action and brainy puzzle-solving, make it one of the year's most engaging games.

You play as an unnamed hero who travels with his trusty steed to a magical temple with the hope of bringing a woman back to life — if you can slay the Sleeping Giant and 15 other Colossi.

The story gets rather fuzzy from there, but it's so dreamlike that I didn't have much trouble dealing with all the unanswered questions.

From sweeping plains to haunting lakeside ruins, the visuals are simply gorgeous, if a bit devoid of plants and animals. The graphics apparently were more than the PlayStation 2 could handle.

Still, t

his game is unlike anything else out there.

Three stars out of four.