So, we spent a better part of this morning running through Prince of Persia for Xbox Live Arcade. To answer the most obvious question: yes, it is Prince of Persia. Feel free to draw as many conclusions from that as you wish. For many people, that alone should be enough information on which to base a purchase (or non-purchase). For the rest of you, read our impressions after the break.
Prince of Persia is more or less exactly what it looks like: it's the same classic gameplay with some shiny new graphics and a few small but important gameplay tweaks. For those unfamiliar with the game, your task is to escape the prison, evade traps and guards, make your way to the top of the castle, and save the Damsel in Distress®. Adding to your challenge (and your damsel's distress), you only have an hour to do all of this. After said hour is up, said damsel has two choices: 1) marry the evil Jaffar (sans Iago) or 2) die. Of course, it doesn't matter how faithful your lady is, because your game is over once time is up.
The Prince has an arsenal of moves and tricks that help him navigate the many dangers of the castle. Prince of Persia more or less set the stage for modern platformers, so the moves will be familiar to most gamers. You can jump, hang from ledges, creep slowly, and even wall jump. The Prince also acquires a sword early on, which comes in handy for slaying enemies.
The game's levels are strewn with traps like spikes, rhythmic chopping blades, and chasms, all of which mean instant death. Clearing these traps requires a proper mix of running, jumping, walking slowly, and proper timing. You'll also run into guards you have to fight your way through. A tip to new players: guards are just as susceptible to traps as you are.
For old school fans, there are a few changes that should be noted. First and foremost, everything in Prince of Persia has been made significantly faster. This goes for running, jumping, even the potion drinking animation is faster. The Prince also has a few new moves that speed up platforming play. You can wall jump, transition between adjacent ledges, and even turn around in midair to grab a ledge from which you just fell. The game also has a hint system, which you can thankfully disable. All of these things serve to streamline the classic gameplay in a good way.
Fighting has been tweaked and has almost become a mini-game in itself. Prince of Persia adopts the parry system employed in Sands of Time. The A button parries and the X button attacks. Oftentimes you will find yourself alternating between strikes and parries several times before landing a hit. You can also lock swords now, which requires you to rapidly tap X in order to gain the upper hand. We like the change in the fighting system, but it can become a little tedious. It also feels somewhat random at times, but it's generally pretty fun.
So, is it worth $10? As is the case with most retro Xbox Live Arcade titles, that depends on your love for the game. For the uninitiated, Prince of Persia is as fun to play now as it has always been. Modern gamers may be put off by the single hour of gameplay, but constant retries and speed runs (the game includes time attack and survival modes) give the game some replay value. Achievement Whores take notice: there are plenty of easy achievements to grab, many of them given simply for completing the game (we got 10 on our first play-through). Overall, we'd say that $10 is justified for such a limited play experience. Our suggestion: try the first level and see if you get hooked.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-13-2007 @ 6:31PM
Arno said...
I really suck at the sword fighting so I can't seem to get out of the 4th level (I think it's the fourth). Any tips?
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6-13-2007 @ 6:42PM
Paulish said...
I downloaded the demo and was immediately hooked. Purchased the game after completing the demo. It's still as fun as it was years ago with very nice visual update. If you a fan of the game, I'd say purchase it. If not, I'd still give the demo a download. It might change your mind.
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6-13-2007 @ 6:51PM
KineticOnline said...
Downloaded the demo and all I could think was "meh!"
A 2 minute demo with only one bad guy is about as informative as a kick in the nuts.
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6-13-2007 @ 7:53PM
Mathieu Bonin said...
Well I don't know, a kick in the nut is pretty informative about one's weakness in that area.
And just to stay on topic, I think it all depends on what you expect to get for 10 bucks. I mean it's that or a meal. Seriously it's not much.
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6-13-2007 @ 10:28PM
ANt said...
Good but not worth $10....if most of these games were 400 points, the attach rate would go through the roof, cementing XBLM as the number one source for DL content.....just IMHO
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6-13-2007 @ 11:00PM
jsn said...
nonsense, if it were $5 there would be people bitching that it was too expensive and should be $3. Seriously, I don't understand why people bitch about it. If you don't like it, don't buy it. I think $10 for anything that I like is worth it. If I don't like it, I don't spend my money. $10 will get me into a 2 hour movie that may suck. At least XBLA gives me a free trial version so I know what I'm getting. oh yah, I wipe my ass with $10's too, so that skews my view a little....
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6-13-2007 @ 11:47PM
Mikeawesome said...
"To answer the most obvious question: yes, it is Prince of Persia."
Which is exactly why I bought it!
And exactly why sometime toward the end (I didn't make it to Jafar) I realized why it frustrated me so before.
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6-14-2007 @ 12:25AM
DeadPlasmaCell said...
I picked it up and it's great fun.. but for 800pts, I would have really liked the actual "Classic" to be included. It's pretty fun though, I'm not a fan of the glowing deals on the tiles.. just makes things too easy.
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6-14-2007 @ 1:37AM
j said...
HAHAHA i love this game and i left the game on and it ticked ova an hour and i still saved the princess i thought the game was supposed to end after 1 hour
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6-14-2007 @ 10:00AM
Eric said...
I'm not buying it due to the controls feeling way too loose. However, it is a nice recreation of the original game. I had a copy on my very first PC, which would be somewhere in the neighborhood of almost 20 years ago now.
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6-14-2007 @ 1:38PM
chaos_deception said...
Arno I also suck at the Sword fighting. My advice is to use the parry attack until you swap sides with the enemy, then quickly sheath your sword take a few steps back from the enemy and then leg it to the next screen. NB: this only works on Jaffa's soldiers and does not work on the Ogre.
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6-14-2007 @ 3:37PM
Ozymandias X said...
Basic swordfighting: wait till the enemy attacks, defend with A, counter-attack with X and immediately defend again with A (for the very tough counter-counter-attack). That should keep most of the enemies at bay.
It takes a while to get the timing down, since you can cancel your own attack with your defend move, so you'll have to watch out.
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6-14-2007 @ 5:08PM
Gordon Black said...
Looks good and takes me right back but it's the first game I've played that has caused my XBox to hang.
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6-15-2007 @ 5:40PM
MorganX said...
The game is worth 800 points, however, the poor fighting system (random fighting outcome in a game that only allows 1 death is ridiculous) almost ruins the whole experience. It's borderline simply not fun. They made the game hard to live up to its reputation of being difficult by making a simply stupid fighting system.
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6-15-2007 @ 5:43PM
MorganX said...
The more I play, and the better I get at the fighting, the less stupid I think it is. There is too much randomness, but based on the type of game it is and how short it is, its probably appropriate. 8/10, well worth 800 points. Now if only XBLA could get the original Donkey Kong license, I hate Nintendo.
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6-16-2007 @ 11:15AM
James said...
http://www.ebgames.com/search.asp?N=137+59
There are 346 Xbox (1) games that I can get for 10 bucks or less. I guarantee you that some of those I will enjoy for a great deal more than an hour. Don't get me wrong, PoP was my favorite game for the Apple ][ (until Wasteland came out...), but I can play the (un-prettied-up) PoP1 on the web at any of a dozen web sites; it's a great game, but suggesting that it shouldn't be 5 bucks because people would bitch that it should still be cheaper are missing the point. There's clearly a point where people make disproportionately more impulse buys -- look at how well fast food dollar menus are doing.
I'm not poor, but I have a lot of bills to pay too. I have a limited entertainment budget, and I have a tough time convincing myself that any of the DLC on Live (or VC for that matter) is worth more to me than a "modern" (older) game. Examples: one of the Sands of Time series (SoT $8, WW $10), Castlevania ($10, pretty good try at 3D), Ninja Gaiden ($10, will destroy your soul), or even a classic like Genma Onimusha ($4, still aweseom). Unless you're so hardcore you played all the good Xbox 1 (or PS2 or GC, if you have those) titles already, your budget-game dollar goes a lot further with titles from 1 generation ago than 5 or 6 generations ago, dusted off and given a new facade at a price premium.
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