Prince of Persia

aka: Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia, Pers Prensi, PoP, Prince de Perse, Prince of Persia Retro
Moby ID: 196

DOS version

Over a decade later I still find myself jesting with the butter knife when alone.

The Good
Just about everything in this game is worth a big clap.

Graphics Firstly the animations, I had never seen anything so real in my life. When I lernt that the animations were copied from actual clips of some guy doing the movies I went "Woah!" The graphics still look smooth and fluid and very good for the age that it came from. The enviroments chagned as you traversed the levels, from the blue dark dungeons to the shining and pretty higher levels of the palace to the mysterious upper towers of Jaffa's chambers it all worked well.

Gameplay The sword fighting was very easy yet very hard. You had to hit the up key at the right time to block then hit him in the side. Also when you blocked you went back a step so losing ground was a problem in some cases. Traps were good if limited. Floor spikes, chompers (Blades that sliced you in half) loose floors and guards made the game more challenging. The guards were good too, they got harder each level and every now and then a extra hard one was placed for fun. Also who could not forget the shadow, the fat guy, being saved by a mouse and the hidden path.

Sound A little limited. But the realistic foot steps from the shuffle to the run was all in. The sword fights were done with clings and clanges and the prince went "oomph" when he ran into a wall.

The Bad
A few things, the save games were annoying, you could only save when at the start of a level or at a certian point. The gameplay was a bit too much of key mashing at some points and some levels had too much back tracking,

The Bottom Line
A must play, It's blend of action, tiny bit of puzzle solving and a time limit (1 hour) makes this a game to keep safe.

by Sam Hardy (80) on June 23, 2001

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