What a wonderful game. Truly an example of the phrase "less is more" with this one. Everything from the gameplay to the story and the sound design is done with the fewest possible pieces that result in a tightly wound 60 minute experience.
The platforming, puzzles and traps are introduced and then remixed throughout the game. The combat similarly only features a few enemies but each fight feels like a life or death ordeal rather than dispatching the 200th brainless guard, and every few levels it throws an extra twist at you, chief among them obviously being the creation of your doppelganger.
Visually the game is also limited to a few colors, but manages to create an imposing maze-like feel to the dungeons and the palace proper. Combined with the rotoscoped animations, it has a very distinctive look that also keeps the focus on the platforming and puzzle solving of each screen.
On the whole it's a very deftly put together experience that feels like one long action sequence that would go on to inspire a lot of other cinematic games.
The platforming, puzzles and traps are introduced and then remixed throughout the game. The combat similarly only features a few enemies but each fight feels like a life or death ordeal rather than dispatching the 200th brainless guard, and every few levels it throws an extra twist at you, chief among them obviously being the creation of your doppelganger.
Visually the game is also limited to a few colors, but manages to create an imposing maze-like feel to the dungeons and the palace proper. Combined with the rotoscoped animations, it has a very distinctive look that also keeps the focus on the platforming and puzzle solving of each screen.
On the whole it's a very deftly put together experience that feels like one long action sequence that would go on to inspire a lot of other cinematic games.
saw this game as a kid on a browser games site and i thought this was a fever dream cus of how ominous the game looked but now finally getting to play it i personally think it's surprisingly cool and kinda thought out (still infuriating as any super old game) i appreciated it
Played through this on my cousin’s Mac desktop. I was young enough that when you get chopped in half, that scared me. Sword fighting felt great, and the fluidity of the rotoscoped style.
Que jogaço. Não dá pra acreditar que esse jogo é de 89, muito a frente do seu tempo. Um dos melhores na minha opinião.
Firstly, I am aware that the SNES port of Prince of Persia is not a one to one translation, there are eight new levels, the levels that were already there have been remixed, and the game now gives a whole two hours to save the princess. But, from what I can tell, the original design and feel has been brought over gracefully; the weight in the prince's movement is still there, and the core design philosophy is intact, if not improved. But even with that, I understand if some consider this to be a wholly original entry in the Prince of Persia series; but for me, I am gonna treat this the same as the original, albeit slightly upgraded. Now with that out of the way, here is my review of the original Prince of Persia.
There is a level of detail and precision that comes from a game designed by an individual person. In most modern, big budget releases it is highly likely that each aspect of a game is worked on by different teams of people who all have different concepts that they want to pursue, and when all these ideas are combined they can sometimes stagnant and conflict with each other, take a look at the modern Wolfenstein games if you want an example. Here, though, there is none of that; there is a consistent and coherent pacing that shows through every element of the game. Jumping starts out as just a means to get over a gap, but it soon evolves into tool for spacing; killing an enemy is introduced as a simple obstacle to get through, but it is later implemented into the puzzle solving by having the dead bodies land on switches to keep gates open; the trap floors that fall from away from under the player are used to negate obstacles that you otherwise couldn't pass by letting them fall on top of them. Hell, on a grander scale, the entire game revolves around time, specifically, wasting time. The reason the player stutters when he falls is not just to show the impact of the fall, but to also punish you for making a mistake by wasting your time; rewards like health vials are purposely place out of the way in order to make the player question if they want more time or more health; and sword duels aren't just there as a challenge, but to also stop the player in there tracks so that they lose more time. This type of interconnected, multilayered design can truly be achieved when one person is allowed to be creative and fully understand each and every facet of their ideas.
To close out, while I did really like the first Prince of Persia, I still have a few criticism. I think the combat can be a little cheap, like if your timing isn't perfect the opponent can get like four hits in and you just can't do a whole lot about it. The inputs had a bit of lag with them, like I would press forward and jump, and then after I competed the jump the prince would just run forward again, sometimes into a trap. I don't know if this was the games fault, the emulator, or my brain going faster than the game can process. Other than that I think it is a fantastic game that holds up very well. Highly recommend.
There is a level of detail and precision that comes from a game designed by an individual person. In most modern, big budget releases it is highly likely that each aspect of a game is worked on by different teams of people who all have different concepts that they want to pursue, and when all these ideas are combined they can sometimes stagnant and conflict with each other, take a look at the modern Wolfenstein games if you want an example. Here, though, there is none of that; there is a consistent and coherent pacing that shows through every element of the game. Jumping starts out as just a means to get over a gap, but it soon evolves into tool for spacing; killing an enemy is introduced as a simple obstacle to get through, but it is later implemented into the puzzle solving by having the dead bodies land on switches to keep gates open; the trap floors that fall from away from under the player are used to negate obstacles that you otherwise couldn't pass by letting them fall on top of them. Hell, on a grander scale, the entire game revolves around time, specifically, wasting time. The reason the player stutters when he falls is not just to show the impact of the fall, but to also punish you for making a mistake by wasting your time; rewards like health vials are purposely place out of the way in order to make the player question if they want more time or more health; and sword duels aren't just there as a challenge, but to also stop the player in there tracks so that they lose more time. This type of interconnected, multilayered design can truly be achieved when one person is allowed to be creative and fully understand each and every facet of their ideas.
To close out, while I did really like the first Prince of Persia, I still have a few criticism. I think the combat can be a little cheap, like if your timing isn't perfect the opponent can get like four hits in and you just can't do a whole lot about it. The inputs had a bit of lag with them, like I would press forward and jump, and then after I competed the jump the prince would just run forward again, sometimes into a trap. I don't know if this was the games fault, the emulator, or my brain going faster than the game can process. Other than that I think it is a fantastic game that holds up very well. Highly recommend.
I highly encourage everyone to try out the free SDLPoP port of this game. It has many optional bug fixes and enhancements while remaining faithful to the original.
I'm surprised (though maybe I shouldn't be) by some of the reviews on this page where people seemingly abandoned the game very quickly without even substantially trying to engage the game on its terms. When I put in some effort to learn it, I came away admiring the design of this thing immensely. There's a precision and an austerity here that really tickles my brain. People seem to be frustrated by some unfair deaths, but I believe the game is designed around that well to force the player the learn the levels thoroughly. The way combat plays out is very satisfying to me. Different enemies require different strategies to defeat. Some I could defeat by being aggressive, while others I had to be very patient or bait into attacking and then countering.
I don't put a ton of stock into awarding old games extra credit for being good relative to when they came out, but I am extremely impressed at how well this game holds up. Special mention should be given to the audio/visual design. The game still looks and sounds nice and has some cool cutscenes.
I'm surprised (though maybe I shouldn't be) by some of the reviews on this page where people seemingly abandoned the game very quickly without even substantially trying to engage the game on its terms. When I put in some effort to learn it, I came away admiring the design of this thing immensely. There's a precision and an austerity here that really tickles my brain. People seem to be frustrated by some unfair deaths, but I believe the game is designed around that well to force the player the learn the levels thoroughly. The way combat plays out is very satisfying to me. Different enemies require different strategies to defeat. Some I could defeat by being aggressive, while others I had to be very patient or bait into attacking and then countering.
I don't put a ton of stock into awarding old games extra credit for being good relative to when they came out, but I am extremely impressed at how well this game holds up. Special mention should be given to the audio/visual design. The game still looks and sounds nice and has some cool cutscenes.
Prince of Persia looks incredible and has a very unique feel, but the level design is very "gotcha" and requires a lot of trial-and-error. Although the prince moves sluggishly, I did find the movement to be satisfying in its own way. Similarly the sword fights were very exciting once I got the hang of them. But I can't bear the thought of exploring dungeons with nearly invisible traps that require either foreknowledge or a tedious examination of every pixel of the environment.
This game was hard as hell. My experience was identical to @JimTheSchoolGirl's; I'm pretty sure I never won the first swordfight. But I was obsessed with the graphics; they looked so much better than anything else at the time.
I'm mostly even writing this because this clip from the production of the game was just posted on social media and I want to archive it somewhere.
It really makes me feel lucky to have been born at a time when I pretty much got to see games grow up.
I'm mostly even writing this because this clip from the production of the game was just posted on social media and I want to archive it somewhere.
It really makes me feel lucky to have been born at a time when I pretty much got to see games grow up.
This game is a classic for a reason, truly deserving of its success and legacy. Although it can feel very alien coming from a more twitchy platformer like Mario, the slow and deliberate style of Prince of Persia works very well once you're calibrated to it. The controls are consistent and reliable, which is crucial. The rotoscoped animation is timelessly beautiful, the puzzles and exploration are satisfying without being unreasonably difficult. Great stuff.
i have no idea honestly. i never imagined i'd enjoy this game in any capacity, but the truth is it does a lot right. there's a certain allure to it, much like a lot of the DOS catalogue, and i do totally feel the exciting aspect of the realistic/cinematic platforming this has going for it. it's well-known that it's really difficult, and usually with old games like this i don't quite experience it because of my constant savestate overuse, but since i wanted to experience the original DOS version and did not know anything about dosbox emulation, i didn't have that luxury and was forced to play it the legit way. i kinda enjoyed that! it was frustrating beyond belief, but it felt good to actually get through one of these old ass-clenchers without cheating. this game definitely has its issues and there's a lot i could complain about but it was for sure a worthwhile experience.
As the start of the cinematic platformer, this was pretty neat to experience. . Controls remarkably well, not too hard when you get used to the unique feel (mostly), and it's pretty short to boot.
I think we can all agree there's that one old game of our personal choice that we think people give too much praise due to novelty (presentative quality or gimmicks) and not due to design. You'll hear the term "ahead of its time" a lot in the case of other games, but Prince of Persia fits exactly within the timeframe it was released and yet games still have a lot to learn from it.
There's two core tricks Prince of Persia has up its sleeve that make the retroactive "cinematic platformer" label go from an implication of novelty to a legitimate stroke of design genius. The first is the timer; throughout the entire runtime of Prince of Persia you are constantly fighting the clock to do anything and the entire game was built around this. The reason for the style of movement games like Oddworld would later go on to adopt was not just for the sake of realism alone, but because it makes sense within the confines of needing slow, careful movement that you have to constantly weigh the actual value of applying due to it constantly wasting your time with even the slightest misstep. This drastically changes the game as even grabbing health upgrades could be seen as "too risky" in terms of wasting your time as opposed to just rushing through. The second trick is that Prince of Persia is a game of logical consistency and learning, and not a game of actual precision or high difficulty. Prince of Persia is brutal not because its systems are that hard to master but because what you do and don't know defines everything. The game doesn't give you a single scrap of information so learning what you can and can't do really shakes up how you play it. This is obvious when it comes to things like level layouts with the timer, but the game constantly toys around with how it feeds you information. In Stage 3, you fight your first skeleton, there are not many of these across the game but they serve to teach the lesson of environmental awareness; they must be killed via environmental hazard, thus reinforcing the idea that your realistic movement is a logical consistency and enemies can be killed with the environment due to realistic limitations too; a major factor in late-game time management as enemies start taking longer and longer to kill normally. In Stage 7, you must make a tile fall from the ceiling to reach a new part of the labyrinth. This requires jumping up to bring the tile down as you hit against it, but an observant player will note that every other flimsy tile in the room shakes too when you jump, thus meaning you can pre-emptively spot falling tiles via jumping before you enter a room. In Stage 8, there are several screens you'll enter twice, first from the bottom going right and afterwards from the top going left. As you do this, it'll become apparent there are several guards on the upper side of the screen as you're coming in from the lower sector, and during the process you'll notice the guards shift directions based on where you run. This can become frustrating as often guards will just immediately ambush you when you're going through the screens on the upper sector, but in actuality, this can be avoided by simply using any movement abilities that just don't make noise. An extremely basic game mechanic, but relevant in that anything that might at first seem overtly gamey or archaic ends up being mostly a realistic extension of the mechanics at play, and this focus on knowledge coupled with the time turns Prince of Persia into a very different experience to anything else.
Prince of Persia is a game that wants you exploring its dungeons not just as gamey constructs but as things you need to evaluate and carefully move around while the clock constantly ticks out of your favor. There is a constant consideration going on of what actually is relevant to you and what isn't given the circumstances that mean wasting even a single second is a big deal, as you know you'll probably die further on ahead anyways and be struggling with what would otherwise be a short game because you just don't know the fundamentals of what's coming. This takes Prince of Persia from merely being a platformer into being something... different, it's not just about learning to pull off the tricks, it takes the form of a game that requires genuine problem-solving in a still retroactively unique way. Prince of Persia is a slow-burn as it wants you being completely attentive, and it left me hooked by the end. In spite of how old it is, finally reaching the Princess at the last minute still manages to be one of the more cinematic and memorable moments I've had in a game, and for anyone who wants to have something they can genuinely sink their teeth into without feeling like it was all for nothing, this is the game to play.
There's two core tricks Prince of Persia has up its sleeve that make the retroactive "cinematic platformer" label go from an implication of novelty to a legitimate stroke of design genius. The first is the timer; throughout the entire runtime of Prince of Persia you are constantly fighting the clock to do anything and the entire game was built around this. The reason for the style of movement games like Oddworld would later go on to adopt was not just for the sake of realism alone, but because it makes sense within the confines of needing slow, careful movement that you have to constantly weigh the actual value of applying due to it constantly wasting your time with even the slightest misstep. This drastically changes the game as even grabbing health upgrades could be seen as "too risky" in terms of wasting your time as opposed to just rushing through. The second trick is that Prince of Persia is a game of logical consistency and learning, and not a game of actual precision or high difficulty. Prince of Persia is brutal not because its systems are that hard to master but because what you do and don't know defines everything. The game doesn't give you a single scrap of information so learning what you can and can't do really shakes up how you play it. This is obvious when it comes to things like level layouts with the timer, but the game constantly toys around with how it feeds you information. In Stage 3, you fight your first skeleton, there are not many of these across the game but they serve to teach the lesson of environmental awareness; they must be killed via environmental hazard, thus reinforcing the idea that your realistic movement is a logical consistency and enemies can be killed with the environment due to realistic limitations too; a major factor in late-game time management as enemies start taking longer and longer to kill normally. In Stage 7, you must make a tile fall from the ceiling to reach a new part of the labyrinth. This requires jumping up to bring the tile down as you hit against it, but an observant player will note that every other flimsy tile in the room shakes too when you jump, thus meaning you can pre-emptively spot falling tiles via jumping before you enter a room. In Stage 8, there are several screens you'll enter twice, first from the bottom going right and afterwards from the top going left. As you do this, it'll become apparent there are several guards on the upper side of the screen as you're coming in from the lower sector, and during the process you'll notice the guards shift directions based on where you run. This can become frustrating as often guards will just immediately ambush you when you're going through the screens on the upper sector, but in actuality, this can be avoided by simply using any movement abilities that just don't make noise. An extremely basic game mechanic, but relevant in that anything that might at first seem overtly gamey or archaic ends up being mostly a realistic extension of the mechanics at play, and this focus on knowledge coupled with the time turns Prince of Persia into a very different experience to anything else.
Prince of Persia is a game that wants you exploring its dungeons not just as gamey constructs but as things you need to evaluate and carefully move around while the clock constantly ticks out of your favor. There is a constant consideration going on of what actually is relevant to you and what isn't given the circumstances that mean wasting even a single second is a big deal, as you know you'll probably die further on ahead anyways and be struggling with what would otherwise be a short game because you just don't know the fundamentals of what's coming. This takes Prince of Persia from merely being a platformer into being something... different, it's not just about learning to pull off the tricks, it takes the form of a game that requires genuine problem-solving in a still retroactively unique way. Prince of Persia is a slow-burn as it wants you being completely attentive, and it left me hooked by the end. In spite of how old it is, finally reaching the Princess at the last minute still manages to be one of the more cinematic and memorable moments I've had in a game, and for anyone who wants to have something they can genuinely sink their teeth into without feeling like it was all for nothing, this is the game to play.
No saber caminar el videojuego
Time + geometry conspiring to put hair on your chest.
Prince of Persia has no age, a timeless game, a game ahead of its time.
A hardware and technical masterpiece for that time, the way they recorded the animations, the way some pixels on a screen expressed such an atmosphere and the way the 8bit soundtrack sounded so hypnotising.
I feel like its one of the games we all played at some point in our life.
Crazy to think that if this game didn't exist, neither would have Assassin's Creed existed.
A hardware and technical masterpiece for that time, the way they recorded the animations, the way some pixels on a screen expressed such an atmosphere and the way the 8bit soundtrack sounded so hypnotising.
I feel like its one of the games we all played at some point in our life.
Crazy to think that if this game didn't exist, neither would have Assassin's Creed existed.
This game perfectly encapsulates what does it mean to work under pressure, while teaching you the mechanics and feeling with your own mistakes and experimentations.
Only play it with SDLPoP port with time limit disabled and quick saves. Deliberatly hostile to the player, which might been a neat design in 1989, but, unfortunately for the game, humanity already figured out how to make good sidescrollers by then. Intentionally made the most sluggish and unresponsive character in a history of videogames, which makes Simon Belmont look like a modern prince of persia in comparison. Besides novelty of controlling a character with debilitating physical disability game has nothing to offer: no music, all levels feel like randomly generated, laughable combat which tricks you into thinking that differently color coded enemies have different behaviour (which is a lie).
Que jogaço. Não dá pra acreditar que esse jogo é de 89, muito a frente do seu tempo. Um dos melhores na minha opinião.
O jogo continua sendo um primor de beleza artística. Eu considero um plataforma estratégico: cada tela requer uma abordagem bem pensada pra atravessar. E ainda acho o combate elegante.
It's ok, don't play it.
A disclaimer before I start this review: I finished the SNES port, which has around 10 extra levels including ones in a heavily welcome practice mode to get the controls downpat, as well as much more colours, a new soundtrack, and so forth. No doubt it is the version I rec, but I would heavily advise playing it on BSNES with 2 frames of runahead if your rig can handle it. This is about the only game I can think of offhand (barring rhythm games) where I really felt like I needed it to play the game.
Prince of Persia is one of the most legendary and immersive games of all time. The passion project of a kiddo who grew up loving film and comics, he set out to make a game that could really make the most of his love for their worlds, as well as his love for animation and immersion. It really shows in the visual department, which is what I will be covering first.
Prince of Persia was a real triumph in overcoming hardware limitations, as detailed in depth here: https://youtu.be/sw0VfmXKq54
Essentially, Mechner in a pre-Photoshop world traced footage of his brother wearing all white clothing to rotoscope highly fluid animations such that they could be abstract enough to fit in an Arabian Nights-inspired world.
I am pleased to report that this port was very true to the aesthetic Mechner aimed for. The dungeons are still insanely oppressive, ranging from cracked dusty blue-gray walls with no semblance of lighting beyond torches to clean royal palace interiors lined with red carpet after red carpet to suggest the sheer sense of royalty. The character designs are also much more fitting to create a sense of immersion in the setting than the minimalist original sprites, as if this was the world Mechner envisioned in his mind. Truly one of the most visually impressive portjobs in an era where one could not simply transfer source code from one device to another due to the sheer difference in capabilities and programming approaches between different systems on the market.
To boot, it was given an OST facelift that truly created a sense of mystery and danger to epic degrees. I appreciate how the OST for opening levels feels like a calm before the storm, while later levels have music with instruments harsh enough to strike one with fear as everything on screen is stained bloodred in the hellish inferno.
https://youtu.be/1hSDOPmjojE?list=PLAs1Kha_R9dJHE0nwiK_y6VoT6b89BNgl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ_PBUNAjWY&list=PLAs1Kha_R9dJHE0nwiK_y6VoT6b89BNgl&index=8
I will admit the OST is not particularly something I would listen to outside of the game itself, but damn while it's there it truly gets the job done and sticks in one's head for a while. I do wish there was a wider variety of grunt noises for the battles, however since it can be jarring over the game's span.
The story is very minimalist in its approach, but it is integrated so well with the gameplay. Seeing Shadow Man steal Prince's potions, and therefore extending his health bar, really helps to sell that this asshole is your mirror reflection. And to defeat him, one does not swordfight him to the death, but rather... fuse with him and become one, gaining all the potions he stole in the process. The Shadow Man was created from the Prince's own inner demons and reflected through a mirror, so the Prince defeats him by having the courage to face his inner demons. Without a single word of dialogue, Mechner brilliantly created what was perhaps the first true rival figure in a video game and created one of the most genius story moments in the medium without a single cutscene. I was absolutely flabbergasted to experience something like this in a mid-80s game.
The puzzle solving and difficulty are a mixed bag. There are cool moments to be had such as the otherworldly space warps towards the end of the game, or allowing the mouse friend to save the Prince from the cage to signify to the player that the Prince isn't some wish fulfillment badass who can always take care of himself without any help, but rather an underdog. The battles can be rather repetitive, but damn it's always fun when there are opportunities to kill enemies more easily with traps such as making them get decapitated by guillotines. To say nothing of the hilarious gravity glitch I exploited during the boss rush https://gyazo.com/c4c884dacd0e515bd72a54c88c5c522a
Unfortunately, the jumping, even with the runahead, feels too delayed at times especially given the strictness of some jumps. The Prince also doesn't always have the best handling with turns, and the straightup sword battles can get rather dull by the end. I think if there were a few more bosses with gimmicks to them like the 4 armed motherfucker just creating earthquakes with every jump, I would have felt more positively about the battles overall.
That all being said though, Prince of Persia is a real history lesson of a game and holds up stunningly well being one of the first of its kind, especially with the QOL and aesthetic enhancements on the system. Its influence is felt very strongly in countless later cinematic platformers such as Flashback, Another World, and the Oddworld games. Nothing but respect for this classic masterpiece. If you're a masochist like me who has the utmost love for uber challenging games, and enjoys going through influential games as history lessons of sorts, this is the game for you. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with admiring it from a distance.
Prince of Persia is one of the most legendary and immersive games of all time. The passion project of a kiddo who grew up loving film and comics, he set out to make a game that could really make the most of his love for their worlds, as well as his love for animation and immersion. It really shows in the visual department, which is what I will be covering first.
Prince of Persia was a real triumph in overcoming hardware limitations, as detailed in depth here: https://youtu.be/sw0VfmXKq54
Essentially, Mechner in a pre-Photoshop world traced footage of his brother wearing all white clothing to rotoscope highly fluid animations such that they could be abstract enough to fit in an Arabian Nights-inspired world.
I am pleased to report that this port was very true to the aesthetic Mechner aimed for. The dungeons are still insanely oppressive, ranging from cracked dusty blue-gray walls with no semblance of lighting beyond torches to clean royal palace interiors lined with red carpet after red carpet to suggest the sheer sense of royalty. The character designs are also much more fitting to create a sense of immersion in the setting than the minimalist original sprites, as if this was the world Mechner envisioned in his mind. Truly one of the most visually impressive portjobs in an era where one could not simply transfer source code from one device to another due to the sheer difference in capabilities and programming approaches between different systems on the market.
To boot, it was given an OST facelift that truly created a sense of mystery and danger to epic degrees. I appreciate how the OST for opening levels feels like a calm before the storm, while later levels have music with instruments harsh enough to strike one with fear as everything on screen is stained bloodred in the hellish inferno.
https://youtu.be/1hSDOPmjojE?list=PLAs1Kha_R9dJHE0nwiK_y6VoT6b89BNgl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ_PBUNAjWY&list=PLAs1Kha_R9dJHE0nwiK_y6VoT6b89BNgl&index=8
I will admit the OST is not particularly something I would listen to outside of the game itself, but damn while it's there it truly gets the job done and sticks in one's head for a while. I do wish there was a wider variety of grunt noises for the battles, however since it can be jarring over the game's span.
The story is very minimalist in its approach, but it is integrated so well with the gameplay. Seeing Shadow Man steal Prince's potions, and therefore extending his health bar, really helps to sell that this asshole is your mirror reflection. And to defeat him, one does not swordfight him to the death, but rather... fuse with him and become one, gaining all the potions he stole in the process. The Shadow Man was created from the Prince's own inner demons and reflected through a mirror, so the Prince defeats him by having the courage to face his inner demons. Without a single word of dialogue, Mechner brilliantly created what was perhaps the first true rival figure in a video game and created one of the most genius story moments in the medium without a single cutscene. I was absolutely flabbergasted to experience something like this in a mid-80s game.
The puzzle solving and difficulty are a mixed bag. There are cool moments to be had such as the otherworldly space warps towards the end of the game, or allowing the mouse friend to save the Prince from the cage to signify to the player that the Prince isn't some wish fulfillment badass who can always take care of himself without any help, but rather an underdog. The battles can be rather repetitive, but damn it's always fun when there are opportunities to kill enemies more easily with traps such as making them get decapitated by guillotines. To say nothing of the hilarious gravity glitch I exploited during the boss rush https://gyazo.com/c4c884dacd0e515bd72a54c88c5c522a
Unfortunately, the jumping, even with the runahead, feels too delayed at times especially given the strictness of some jumps. The Prince also doesn't always have the best handling with turns, and the straightup sword battles can get rather dull by the end. I think if there were a few more bosses with gimmicks to them like the 4 armed motherfucker just creating earthquakes with every jump, I would have felt more positively about the battles overall.
That all being said though, Prince of Persia is a real history lesson of a game and holds up stunningly well being one of the first of its kind, especially with the QOL and aesthetic enhancements on the system. Its influence is felt very strongly in countless later cinematic platformers such as Flashback, Another World, and the Oddworld games. Nothing but respect for this classic masterpiece. If you're a masochist like me who has the utmost love for uber challenging games, and enjoys going through influential games as history lessons of sorts, this is the game for you. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with admiring it from a distance.
Eis que você é um jogo de plataforma sincero, desafiador e gostosinho.
Game is fun as hell. Wish the shift button on my keyboard actually worked though
The og Apple II version of this is so gorgeous it's insane. And so beautiful to play something that feels handmade and from one unique artist. To me the difficulty and jankiness compounds that feeling. Stubborn as a diamond.
eeeeyowch this game is quite difficult. It's one of those games where the keys to progression lie in mastery of the less-than-orthodox control scheme and memorization of the levels. Not super trial-and-errorcore but getting kinda up there. The first few hours of playing this were certainly frustrating as I didn't have a manual of any sort to help me understand the full extent of the controls, but once I figured it all out things actually somehow started to fall into place. This game also basically pioneered the "cinematic platformer" genre, so I have to respect the boundary pushing they were going for here in making a grounded, weighty, realistic 2D platformer. I tried out a bit of the ports before settling on the Sega CD version as it seemed to remain faithful to the original PC game while implementing some solid quality of life improvements. This version also added anime cutscenes with a funny bad dub but honestly it was hard to get anything out of said funny bad dub because the audio mixing was horrible and everyone was too quiet to hear. This game was certainly a little more on the painful side to play, but I eventually got the hang of it and can respect what it was going for.
This is a little bit of a cop-out as while I don't know if I love this game, it's a lifetime achievement award for being completely punk rock in it's design and for how great its rotoscoping looks. I see this game vividly in my mind every time it's ever mentioned, and that's worth something.
Absolutely beautiful game. Amazing gameplay, beautiful yet simple graphics (played PC DOS version), and a great story somehow integrated into a platformer without cutscenes. Infuriatingly addicting, yet never for the fault in the game, continuously motivating the player to try and try and try again. The controls take a little bit of time to get used to, especially if just coming off playing something Mario-like. But once you get used to them, there is nothing that could feel any better.
Absolutely deserving of its credit as a best of the best, especially in the time it came out. Especially beautiful as the game is dripping with Persian art influence. Well-deserving of its praise and acknowledged importance to video game history.
Absolutely deserving of its credit as a best of the best, especially in the time it came out. Especially beautiful as the game is dripping with Persian art influence. Well-deserving of its praise and acknowledged importance to video game history.
classic
technically impressive, but the semi-isometric view and long windups for every animation make any movements feel like they have half a second of lag. when you get used to that it's just a sorta trial-and-error trap game. not bad though