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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
This Prince is the king of updated classics.
by Susie Vee
| PLATFORM:
PS2,
XBX, GC, PC |
| PUBLISHER:
Ubisoft |
DEVELOPER:
Ubisoft |
GENRE:
Action |
ESRB:
Teen |
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One of the first games that made us sit up and take notice way
back in the early days of modern gaming was a side scroller called
Prince of Persia. What made this game different from Super-Mario-Brothers-style
2D games was its trap-filled levels -- which forced you to think
as you went along -- and its innovative use of rotoscoped animation.
It was one of the first games to effectively mimic human movement.
Never a huge hit or a major franchise, Prince of Persia
nevertheless maintained a cult status for years. Now it’s
been revived, the same as many old games from Metroid to
Frogger. Taking the basic premise of an adventuring prince
wandering a trap-filled castle and adding elements from games like
Tomb Raider and Max Payne, Prince of Persia
is one of the few classic game updates that is so good, it makes
you forget it’s a remake/sequel/cash-in.
 As
a young prince following your father into battle, you, of course,
end up unleashing some kind of monstrous evil. It turns almost everyone
around you into a sand zombie, bent on death and destruction. On
the bright side, somehow you’ve also gained the power to control
time. And trust us, that’s a pretty useful power to have.
Sounds basic enough, but its tight pacing and excellent production
values keep Prince of Persia from becoming just another
clichéd Tomb Raider knockoff. For one thing, levels
are cut up into easily digestible chunks. Generally, you get a handy
save point once you make it through a room or set of hallways. And
with each save point, you get a “vision” of what’s
coming up, to give you a few clues about how to get through the
next area.
You’ve also got a bunch of cool powers to help you out. The
most impressive of these is the ability to rewind time. Depending
on how much power your magic dagger has, you can back up 10 seconds
if you, say, misjudge a jump. For a game with a lot of jumping and
even more booby traps, it’s a welcome addition. Especially
because – as years of Tomb Raider games prove –
most of the time, bad camera angles and twitchy controls are more
responsible for your untimely death than you are.
 But
even better than that is your ability to run along walls for short
times – kind of like Hong Kong wire work. It makes impossible
jumps easy, and you’ll use that skill all the time. You can
also learn a few more tricks with your dagger, like speeding up
or slowing down time, but they’re less fun than running up
walls or turning back the clock.
The game is at its best when you’re puzzle solving and trying
to figure out how to get from one room to another. The combat, against
the sand zombies, seems mostly tacked on busywork. And since you
have to knock them down with your sword, then whip out your dagger
to finish them off (like the Buffy games), you’ll
end up doing a log of button mashing.
You’re also joined for part of the game by a bow-and-arrow-wielding
princess. She’s initially in a bad mood because you sacked
her castle (and unleashed the evil forces), but you two team up
and trade some amusing banter. She’s cool, and we wanted to
see more of her -- a princess of persia for the next sequel perhaps?
She would make a more interesting protagonist than the bland-as-sand
prince.
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