Reviewed: July 2, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Ubisoft
Developer
Gameloft
Released: June 13, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1
9
9
9
8
9.2
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
It seems all my favorite games are reappearing these days, either with next-gen remakes or simply getting re-released on Xbox Live Arcade or on the Wii’s Virtual Console. It’s a great way for older gamers to experience a part of their past and younger gamers to see where we’ve been and how far we’ve come.
Back in the late 80’s I had just purchased my Adlib soundcard and though I was the hottest gamer in the frat house. I was rocking out with all my favorite games (mostly Sierra adventures) that supported this new technology. Then the guy a few rooms down the hall picked up this new sound card called the SoundBlaster. It did the same thing as the Adlib with one small exception – it supported digitized sound samples.
So why am I boring you with a history lesson on sound cards? Well, it was this little game from Broderbund called Prince of Persia, an action-based, sword-fighting, side-scrolling, adventure that was the first to make use of digitized effects and the SoundBlaster, and once I heard the difference between a digitized sample of a steel blade chopping me in half and the synthesized version of that same sound, I just had to have one.
Both SoundBlaster and Prince of Persia have stood the test of time and are still popular products. SoundBlaster has evolved into the quintessential standard for PC audio, and Prince of Persia…well, he’s been absorbed into the Matrix performing righteous gravity-defying moves that would make Neo and Trinity envious. But if you want to see where the Prince got his start, Ubisoft is bring this classic to the Xbox 360 in a next-gen remake with updated graphics, colors, special effects, and a few new tricks, traps, and puzzles. Welcome to Prince of Persia Classic.
It would have been so easy to take the original Prince of Persia game and merely “make it work” on the 360, but developer, Gameloft took the high road and completely redesigned and enhanced the original content, totally bringing it into a new generation while retaining the classic look and feel of the core gameplay. They’ve even carried over the unforgiving 60-minute time limit, creating an awesome sense of urgency tempered only by your own sense of caution at what unknown traps lie ahead.
Prince of Persia is at its core a side-scrolling action game where you run, jump, grab, pull-up or drop down, tumble and dive through traps, all the while engaging in visceral sword fights with all sorts of unsavory thugs leading up to the final showdown against the evil Vizier, Jaffar, who has taken over the kingdom and given the princess 60 minutes to decide to marry him or die. Funny – that pick-up line has never worked for me. Maybe I need to carry a larger sword when I go bar hopping.
Anyway, what this means to you, the unnamed Prince, is that you have that same 60 minutes to make your way through a labyrinth of creative level designs full of traps and enemies if you want to save the kingdom and marry the Princess. For veterans of the original game, especially those with good memories, you’ll be pleased to know that the maps and levels designs are near-perfect replications of the PC verison, thus the “Classic” part of the title. Everything else is clearly next-gen.
The original game had you playing with a keyboard, which made precision running and jumping, not to mention sword fighting a bit haphazard at best. The fluid and precision control of the analog sticks makes the Prince move and react like a dream. Combat has been enhanced, and while dueling starts off deceptively easy, it gets rather challenging near the end, and don’t even get me started on the final duel with the Jaffar. The combat is very much based on real sword fighting so you’ll need to master the art of evade, thrust, and parry to have any hope of finishing this game.
The duels are merely diversions for the platforming core of Prince of Persia. Bloody spikes leap from hidden floor pockets, spears stab out from the walls, and crushing meat-cleaver steel blades chew anything that passes through their bloody teeth. Oh yeah, we can’t forget about the bottomless pits and the ever-present danger of plunging to your demise. With so many ways to die it’s fiendishly cruel to tempt you with the Achievement points for completing this game on a single life.
Prince of Persia quickly becomes an exercise in level memorization, not only for the optimum path through all 14 sinister deathtraps, but also in finding all those crumbling ceiling tiles that lead to secret screens and hidden treasure. To make things a bit easier, the designers have added a mid-level checkpoint and included a butterfly that flutters around each screen showing you where to go. This feature is optional and I highly recommend turning it off for maximum enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment.
Prince of Persia Classic clings to its old-school roots while totally revamping the graphical presentation. What used to be a totally 2D experience (admittedly with a little bit of perspective depth) is now a quasi-3D title. It’s still shown from a 2D view but you can tell the game is modeled in 3D with gorgeous textures and some of the best animation of any XBLA title. Everything from running and jumping to the cool sword fights is realistic and looks like it was mo-capped. It rivals many of the AAA titles out there.
Colors are rich and vibrant, the warm light of a torch flickers off the stone walls, and dungeons get dark with sinister shades of blue and gray as you delve deeper into these levels. The blood doesn’t flow as freely as it did in the original game but we didn’t have the watchful eye of the ESRB to “protect” us back then.
The cutscenes are gorgeous and artistic and even the menus are stylish. There is even support for high-def TV’s making this one of the best produced XBLA titles in the entire collection.
There is a wonderfully authentic score full of Persian flavor and instrumentation that sadly ends when the game begins, so enjoy it for as long as you are in the menus. While visually stunning, the story sequences remain unspoken, so you get to read all the dialogue.
Most of the game is reduced to environmental effects, the reverb of footsteps, the grunts and oomph’s of the Prince as he jumps and climbs around, the crumbling and breaking of stone, and the metallic clang of sword on sword in the duels. They even brought back a lot of the signature sounds of the original – those same sounds that forced me to purchase my first SoundBlaster audio card more than 17 years ago.
By design, Prince of Persia Classic is only a one-hour game, but don’t expect to finish it on your first pass. In fact, if by some miracle you do win the game, you still have a few incentives for replaying, assuming you want to find all the treasure or attempt the miraculous feat of saving the Princess on a single life. And even if you don’t manage to save the Princess in an hour, you can still continue the game and save her on your own timetable. Just don’t expect to get the fancy 10-second bonus movie when you do.
It probably took me a month to master this game when it first came out on the PC and I was pleased that I had remembered so much, but even so, this new Classic version still took me about a week of casual gaming to master, and it will certainly be an adventure I will try to revisit at least once or twice a year.
Once you have mastered the levels you can then take your shot at the Time Trial mode, where you race through the game trying to best your previous top times. There is even a ghost of your best effort you can “compete” against. It’s pretty cool, but probably not enough to get most gamers to replay the game after they have finished it once or twice.
Achievement points are as easy as finding the sword on the first level to simply winning the game. Some get really nasty, like trying to win the game on Survival (one life) mode or finding all the potions. 800 points equates to about $10, which might seem steep for a game that offers a one-hour experience, even if you do end up playing it several times, but just think how much you spend on a two-hour DVD, and you can easily justify this addition to your XBLA library.
In case you haven’t figured out from either the text or the score, I really loved Prince of Persia Classic. It was more than just your typical “enhancement” we find in so many other XBLA titles, yet it remained totally true to the source material while cleverly working in a few elements from the more recent console games.
This is a game that transcends generations, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few father-son duels taking place for the rights to the 360 controller. And who knows, with the ghost feature and Time Trial mode, dad might just have a chance to win for once.