Title Prince of Persia Classic Date 07.05.2007 Genre Action Platform Xbox 360 Developer Gameloft Publisher Ubisoft

Pros
+Faithful recreation of the Jordan Mechner original
+Still just as fun to play, and satisfyingly difficult too
+Game benefits from new animations
+Graphically beautiful
+Sounds nice
+Ability to replay levels to gain more time on later levels
+Leaderboards and Achievements to brag over
+Race head to head with anyone in the world

Cons
-There's no way around the fact that it's the same game as the last time around
-The combat learning curve is steep and may be off-putting
-Prince wants his turban back

Almost 20 years ago (1989 to be precise), Prince of Persia blazed onto the gaming scene and was successful enough to create an entire subgenre of games, the Cinematic Platformer. Besides featuring fun puzzle and combat gameplay, Prince of Persia was notable for its fluid animations, with each movement of the Prince and his various short-lived adversaries compared extensively with filmed footage to ensure the most realistic possible animations. To put it another way, Prince of Persia was, at the time, a bastion of graphical splendor, not to mention a not-half-bad game.

So, nearly 20 years on, after two sequels, an entire spin off series that surprised the gaming world (again) during a time when the Prince had disappeared off the gaming radar (and let's not forget the movie in the works), is the original Prince of Persia still worth your time? Gamers got plenty of enjoyment in the not-so-surprise re-release that was "hidden" in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and apparently, someone got to thinking that maybe this all time classic had another release left in it, and so, we come to this. If the hype is to be believed, Prince of Persia has arrived for the new generation. How is it? Let's break it down…

Story
If you're interested in the game, you'll probably already know all about the youth who illegally scaled the walls of the Sultan's palace, laid eyes upon the beautiful princess and instantly fell in love (and, just for a change, had his feelings reciprocated), before suddenly realizing he'd been thrown in prison by a power hungry Vizier intent on marrying the princess himself. Yes, it's pretty much straight out of the One Thousand and One Nights, but is anyone really going to hold that against them? Anyway, the would be Prince of Persia has an hour to escape the dungeons and settle things with the Vizier before the Princess is forced into either marriage or death. And to navigate the depths of the game, he will need...

Gameplay
Let's get one thing completely clear. This release is completely faithful to the original Prince of Persia. If you've played the original Prince of Persia in any of its numerous incarnations, you'll probably notice that nothing has really changed gameplay wise. Each level is exactly the same, with the same gates, and the same loose floor tiles, and enemies in the same places with the same size health-bars as before. Everything that made PoP into the game it was has been preserved. However, recognizing opportunities to add to the game in places, some of the Prince's animations and moves have been expanded upon. As an example of the kind of extremely cool but still completely un-sacrilegious alterations we're dealing with, where in the original, the Prince could turn around on the spot and make a leap, he can now launch straight into a backflip. For all intents and purposes, it is the same move - it will carry you the same distance at the same speed, but it just looks so much cooler, is in keeping with the Prince that the new "Sands of Time" generation is used to (they don't know they're born, do they?), and fits in with the way in which the original Prince of Persia introduced levels of fluidity previously unknown to animation. Of course, fanatical purists can choose to still turn around on the spot and leap, but despite not actually saving any time, the backflip flows so much more naturally and feels like something Jordan Mechner would have included in the original, had he only been able.

The basic controls are the same as the originals (SOT fans may take a while to get used to having to use a button to hold ledges). The left stick moves, and can be used for jumping and crouching, but the face buttons can also be used for these actions. Several buttons can be used for each action - in general you always have a choice of using the left stick, the face buttons or the trigger buttons for performing given actions. When sword fighting, the Prince, as before, can attack, parry or move with sword drawn. Unlike in the Sands games, which featured combo-intensive fights, the original games, and this one, focus on a more timing based system in which you attack, block, counter attack and repeat. As before, the Prince can, with the proper timing, switch positions with a foe and pass them that way, if you can find a gap to run away in. Fighting is tricky, especially in later levels, and takes a while to properly learn, but this won't detract much.

As mentioned before, the Prince has a few new "moves" that remind one of Sands of Time - none of these will drastically change the way gameplay works but they're still fun to use. He can rebound off of walls (useful for grabbing ledges opposite walls), swing off ledges if there's a gap below (to get a running start without having to turn around), the aforementioned backflip, and he has an emergency grab (requires button press) for ledges you don't see coming. The only completely new move available is in combat - if you and a foe attack at the same time, your swords might lock and you will engage in the tried and tested process of mashing the attack button quickly to overpower your opponent to deliver a hilarious sounding punch to the face and a few free hits. Other than that, everything you do in this game, you did at some point in the original.

One quick note on difficulty - as expected, the one hour time limit has been included. You can keep playing after you run out of time, but you can't get the "ending" until you finish the game within an hour. Helpfully, you can replay earlier levels at will, shortening your time taken, until your times for each level collectively total less than 60 minutes. The developers have also added a checkpoint system to ease frustration without sacrificing difficulty. The difficulty settings are intense, but let's hope it doesn't distract you from your admiration of the...

Graphics
There's no two ways about this: POP Classic is a beautiful, beautiful game. The faithfully recreated levels are only aided by the level of graphical shine present. Rather than featuring 3D looking graphics that are actually 2D, POP Classic uses actual 3D environments but simply restricts you to left-right movement and up-down movement. Little details have been added to make the game more interesting - cages hang from the ceilings in the dungeons, water flows from the fountains in the palace courtyard and the windows of high towers offer exceptional views of Persia. Whereas the original featured two graphical "styles" that the levels alternated between (ie, dungeon and palace), Classic features a slightly but still very noticeably different look for each level. Of course, you still alternate between dungeon and palace as before, but with more polygons this time.

The other thing you might notice is that cut-scenes are now shown in 3D. Cut-scenes are sadly limited to the Princess sulking in her room with only a diminishing hourglass and a strangely obedient white mouse for company, occasionally pestered by Jaffar, the Vizier. There's also a nice zoom-in effect when the Prince has a run in with an inconveniently placed mirror.

Other minor graphical changes: The enemy models are all new, some guards are plain-clothes, and some kitted out in full amour, and so on. Everyone's swords shimmer for some reason, floor plates now have yellow and red signs on them (though some are hidden), poison potions are now vividly blue (whereas they used to look very similar to healing potions to add surprise), and health extension potions are no longer kept in corked bottles. The Prince himself is notably without turban, presumably to keep with the Sands of Time image. None of these changes should bug you, except the turban, which really should have stayed.  Anyway, turban or no, the Prince and his beautiful game are a sight to behold, and the splendid graphics are only helped by the accompanying...

Sound
Not overdone at all, the sounds are where you expect them to be and as good as you expect them to be. Tap-tapping of feet, swish and clang of swords, and occasional dying gurgles (impalement is a serious speech impediment). The music from the original, including the title music, the potion jingles and all the other fan favorites are back and re-recorded in a fashion befitting the new console generation.

Features and Live Stuff
Your Microsoft points will get you three modes to play - regular, in which you play the game, Time Attack, in which you play the game quickly, and Survival, in which you, presumably in your insanity, attempt to complete the game without dying. Your performances in these modes are translated into scores and are ranked along with times on a leaderboard, so you can see who's been practicing all these years. You can compare your scores and times on each level with those of anyone else on the leaderboard so you know exactly where you stand.

One extremely cool feature is the ability to have a "ghost" perform your previous best timed run through a level, so you can see as you're going how well you're doing compared with your personal best. But that's not the cool part - as well as racing your own times, you can also load ghosts from anyone on the leaderboard on any level, so you can race head to head with the very best in the world if you feel like a challenge.

Achievements are what you'd expect, with 200 points to get for finishing the game, completing survivor mode, finding life potions, and making sure the spike traps don't get bored.

Verdict
Like a fine wine, Prince of Persia has only gotten better during these years. The next-gen overhaul fixes most to all of the small problems that might have bugged this faithfully recreated classic, leaving only minor complaints to collectively subtract a solitary point from an otherwise perfect total.

Game Score

B+

Reviewed By: Justin Fedouloff