The prince is back and this
time with a stylish cell-shaded
view of the world. “Prince
of Persia” is a revamp of the
Prince of Persia that came out
for the GameCube not so long
ago.
You play, of course, the
Prince of Persia whose sole
goal is to, again, defeat evil
and restore the land to its
rightful glory.
Unfortunately, this prince is
not so likable as his predecessors.
He’s more concerned
about cracking wise and talking
about the vast amount of
money his donkey carries.
His companion Elika is a
princess but the story
revolves more about her and
her quest to get rid of the god
her father accidentally
unleashed.
The relationship between
Elika and the prince is different
than that of any other
game that requires you to use
an NPC companion. As it
turns out Elika is not helpless,
in fact quite the opposite.
While performing some acrobatic
feat that requires the
both of them to be present
Elika will grab onto your
back should you decide to
wall run or gracefully move
out of the way when crossing
a narrow beam.
The fact that she is so interactive
comparatively to other
NPC characters is fantastic.
She actually will save you
constantly. Say you fall off a
ledge; she will gracefully leap
to grab your wrist and save
you from certain doom. This
saving grace will whisk you
immediately back to the last
checkpoint you crossed.
That said, the game will not
try to kill you period. You
will never see a game over or
need to save before a boss
battle or anything like that. If
you’re confused on how to
proceed across a certain
obstacle, Elika will fire off a
magical orb that will show
you the way.
The fact that the game is so
lax on the difficult maneuvers
and the easy-button pressing
makes this one of the, well,
easiest games to play ever.
Since the controls are so simple,
performing what should
be a difficult move proves to
be easy. That’s probably less
rewarding than if the game
required a more difficult
series of button presses.
The graphics in this game
are phenomenal. The cell –
shaded characters and the
artfully depicted levels create
a great-looking game that
makes you feel like you’re
watching a piece of art in
motion.
The fluidity of moves being
strung together as you pretty
much float across a level is
rewarding in that you feel as
though you are one with the
prince. The further you get in
the levels the more you find
these colored orbs which are
needed to move across them.
The collecting of these different
colored orbs allows you to
move across various surfaces
with the same color surfaces,
basically turning you into a
temporary Spiderman-like
player.
The combat in this game is
also different from that of
past. You only fight one
enemy at a time, unlike the
“Sands of Time,” which pitted
you against multiple enemies
at once. The bosses you
face will come at you at least
four separate times before
you defeat them.
The lack of major fight
sequences might turn off
players who are more familiar
with the “Sands of Time”
combat system.
However, all of these things
strung together make a beautiful
looking game that holds
your attention just so you can
see what you have to climb
across or on next to get to
your goal.
This game is definitely a
great pickup for anyone who
enjoys platform games.