When Prince of Persia was released in 1990, it turned heads and raised eyebrows with its striking animation, elegant gameplay, and innovative style. A sequel, The Shadow and the Flame, quickly followed in 1993, expanding the scope of the original game and improving the look while still retaining the core gameplay that made the original so successful. It came as no surprise that this game was as well received as the first.
But then the Prince entered dark times. While creator Jordan Mechner pursued the graphic adventure genre with the critically acclaimed (but commercially unsuccessful) The Last Express, the Prince of Persia series sat idle. An attempt was made to update the game with 1999's Prince of Persia 3D (known as Prince of Persia: Arabian Nights on the Dreamcast), but a rushed release and mediocre reviews made it a disappointing effort all around.
Things were not looking good for the Prince.
It was 2001 when Ubisoft approached Jordan Mechner with the idea of reviving the franchise. Mechner was reportedly skeptical at first, having lived through the lackluster reception of the most recent Prince title. But Ubisoft's Montreal studio wooed Mechner with early demonstrations of the gameplay they had in mind. After seeing the kind of acrobatics that could be simulated with the newly released PlayStation 2 and Xbox, he was sold.
