With Rival Swords released today on the Wii and a new Prince of Persia installment announced for the Xbox 360 in the future, Destructoid.com have created a comprehensive guide to what has happened in the series so far.
They focus on the recent trilogy from 2003 onwards and complement it with a good selection of video clips at the crucial points from the three games.
Note if you haven't played The Sands of Time, Warrior Within or The Two Thrones then this article will contain spoilers!
Edgar writes: "Back in the early 2000s, Prince of Persia was the franchise to beat. Parkour-like traversal, intricate puzzles and intense combat: what's not to like? Earning flattering review scores and numerous awards, The Sands of Time established itself as the prime action-adventure game. But how does one follow up something so flawless? Two words: Warrior Within."
This game was really hard! It took me over a year to beat and one of my friends just couldn't do it. I wish I'd known at the time about getting all the collectables in order to kill the Dahaka.
That game was pretty unique, the Dahaka is one of the best bosses in video games ever, the battle mechanics really felt like aerobics.
"Whether you’ve never played it or haven’t touched it in a while, sit down and let the Prince tell you a tale unlike one you have never heard." - Blair at Electric Bento
I love them all. The Two Thrones is really underrated. A good mix between Sands Of Time and Warrior Within with hugely improved boss fights, better platforming and the Dark Prince but the ending was a bit weak.
Sands Of Time is probably my favourite but the more gory combat and switching back and forth between the past and the present in levels was awesome in Warrior Within. SOT and WW have very different aesthetics and atmospheres but I appreciated both of them. SOT feels more mystical and focused on relationships. WW is very Gothic and lonely. The Dahaka chases were fairly intense as well: https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Edit: I forgot to say that POP 2008 is also way better than most people give it credit for. The Forgotten Sands is decent.
Personally, I'm not sure a remake would really add much to the enjoyment of those games. Their controls are perfect and they still look quite good considering their age. The HD remasters on PS3 did the job. I just want a new POP game. It's been so long. Same for Splinter Cell.
I actually remember most people hating how edgy Warrior Within was compared to the first. Never got around to playing it myself, but played the first and third ones.
Assassin's Creed is the spiritual successor to the Prince of Persia games. Ubisoft pushed out "The Forgotten Sands" in 2008 that, despite being a good game, was quickly forgotten. By then Ubisoft was fully engaged with developing the Assassin's Creed series.
I had the Forgotten Sands. Despite IGN giving that game a score higher than a 9, it remains to be a staunch example of not letting a review dictate your purchase. No matter what, you could not DIE in that game. If you jump into a hole, the girl would autmatically save you every single time.
Til this day, im still disappointed i purchased that game for $60. It's a solid 8 at best
AssCreed is very mediocre compared to PoP games. The combat is dumbed down and platforming is repetitive.
The empty open world full of "checklist" is also designed to pad out the experience.
UnSelf, sorry I meant to say that "Forgotten Sands" was released in 2010, not 2008. The 2008 Prince of Persia "reboot" of sorts was artistically beautiful and elegant but not much of a game, if it could even be called that. Absolutely no challenge whatsoever.
Alex S. from Link-Cable writes: "Over the past few weeks we have been talking a lot about video remakes. Which are great, which are bad and whether or not the industry as a whole is better off with or without them. Well today it all comes to a head as we count down the Top 10 games that we would love to see remade! Some of these are classic gems, that are still perfectly playable today while others are games that could definitely use some sprucing up to fix nagging issues that have kept them from reaching the next level but the one thing they all have in common is that we would love these classics to get a fresh coat of paint."
Call me a hypocrite, but I would love to see what MDK could do with optional duck and cover mechanics. With a risk/reward leaning your head over/around the cover whilst sniping, also minecrawlers were inspired, I'd love to see trundling interior city tanks in HD and it would need an equally epic soundtrack. MDK is one of my favourite games of all time. MDK2 was...okay.
Would I like remakes for most of those games on the list? Sure.
Do I trust any of the companies which own those IPs, to make anything even remotely worthy of the original? Not a f****n chance.
Except maybe Zelda II and Kid Icarus for obvious reasons.
says who? did you not see the sales for crash HD? we want old games which are remade/remastered done right. DMC HD collection is a straight up port of ps3 version of HD collection anf doesn't even support 4k or HDR so we don't want but than when a game like SOTC is remade by bluepoint it sold well
we just don't want old games via BC where you have outdated controls instead we want games to be remastered using betters textures, frame rate and overall smoother game. don't get me wrong i want BC as much as the next guy but not at the expense of releasing newer games. that's what MS has done just keep re releasing older games instead of investing in new IP's
and MS fans(which is you from your original comment) keep bring up SOT and PUBG sales to make their argument of having exclusives which are selling while when the sales argument is used by us sony fans we are told it's not about sales. Make up your mind because you can't use the sales argument when it favors y'all and when it's not good for you simply says sales don't matter
just like last gen it was so important for MS to release sale numbers for xbox360 to brag and now they much rather give useless stats like hours played
Old games are old games remasters or not
Sony fans are the biggest hypocrites on the Planet
Red alert or red alert 2 remakes would be amazing but they aren't going to happen as EA completely ruined the franchise. Even if EA decided to remake it, it would have microtransactions and probably have mobile construction yards or something stupid like CNC4 did.
EA ruined this franchise and its a damn shame... We won't see it ever again unless they make a mobile game out of it full of microtransaction goodness.
Great read and some excellent history of the Games to-date . . Looking forward to The Price Of Persia on Next-Gen, I have it listed in the Xbox360 2007-8 Games Listing, and do believe it will be much better than the earlier ones, especially now te developers can harness more of the Xbox360 and the other next-gen consoles.
Always like great articles to have links to for my Games Listing, thanks for this . . .
Neutral Gamer nice news post...very helpful with the quick history lesson you gave regarding POP. I will love to get my hands on the next-gen POP.