Vintage Game Review: Prince of Persia for PC/DOS

It seems that the love being given to retro games is neverending these days, with old 8-bit classics being remade left and right.  Games like the revamped Metal Gear & Alone in the Dark series, as well as the upcoming Bionic Commando redux, are only a few tiny fish in a growing sea of upgraded, flashier remakes.

Prince of Persia

Another fine example is the Prince of Persia franchise.  More recently, they've become glamorous 3-D adventures in the spirit of games like Assassin's Creed, branching out to the PC, PlayStation 3, and XBOX 360 with Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and other titles.  There's also smaller installments on the DS (Prince of Persia: The Fallen King) and PSP (Prince of Persia: Rival Swords.)

Truthfully, I haven't played any of these titles... not even once.  And frankly, I don't care to.  Not because I'm assuming they aren't good games, in fact, I think quite the opposite based on reviews and player feedback.  I'm just a retro kind of guy.

Which brings me to the fantastic original that inspired it all back in 1989, a beautiful gem by designer Jordan Mechner.  It broke boundaries then and still impresses me now - an elegant, difficult platformer that entertains to this day.

Storyline

Prince of Persia

The protagonist is imprisoned because the princess has fallen in love with him... and Jaffar doesn't like that.  He gives her an order - marry him, or die in an hour.  Playing the nameless hero, you must escape your prison, defeat Jaffar, and rescue your love.

In a nutshell: save the princess, of course!

Gameplay

Prince of Persia

Your romance-driven adventure is comprised mostly of spelunking through corridors, avoiding nasty traps and skewering angry, turban-clad palace guards.  It is in this simplicity that the game truly shines, not only in presentation but also in ambiance and play control.

There's no music to speak of, which really adds to the mood.  You're alone in this fight, no fanfares or heroic soundtrack.  Just the sounds of pressure-plates activating spike traps, sword clangs, and fleeting effects heralding significant events only.

The difficulty is well adjusted, in my opinion.  Very challenging but not so much so that you throw it down in frustration.

Play Control

The play control is elegant and easily learned - simply use the arrow keys to run and jump.  You'll only need two action keys - the space bar (for swordfighting) and the shift key (for holding on to ledges and taking careful steps.) 

Prince of Persia

This can result in the mundane, i.e., running along a simple corridor, to the completely insane, i.e., running along a simple corridor with a warrior chasing you while you leap through a trap that almost slices you in half before you jump over a ledge and fall down one full screen before grabbing onto and swinging from a single ledge suspended over a spike pit.  Sweet.

Oh, and you don't ever really die... you just run out of time.  This is good, 'cause you'll die a lot trying to figure out what to do and where to go.

Art and Animation

While the gameplay was excellent and the action was intense, the glue holding it all together was the advanced art and animation experience that Prince of Persia had to offer.  Mechner used "rotoscoping," or basically, drawing over recorded film (of his younger brother in a white shirt, no less) to create the amazingly lifelike animation you see in the game.  At the time, the use of color was pretty astounding as well - as I stated previously, I was used to pizellated 8-bit graphics... the lush opening screen made my jaw drop.

The Bottom Line

I wouldn't be able to say it enough... you have to play this game.  It was one of the first truly great action games I played on my PC, and a defining moment in my gaming history.  It's one of the classic games that I actually thoroughly enjoy playing, rather than just popping in once in a while for posterity.  It's worth mentioning as well that a re-make has been made of the original... Prince of Persia Classic, which was released on the XBOX Live Arcade in 2007 and more recently, in 2008, on the Playstation Network.  It looks quite good, and as soon as I pony up the cash for an overpriced XBOX 360 hard drive, I'm in!

Plot and Storyline: 2/5

Scores an extra point for utilizing the classic "save the princess" plot, but there's really nothing of substance in the storyline here.

Graphics and Sound:  4.5/5

Graphics were stellar at the time and still excellent now, all things considered.  No music, but that was a good thing.  Digitized sound effects were also a bit rare at the time, and they were nice to hear in Prince of Persia.

Challenge: 3/5

Difficult the first time, but lack of permadeath takes the "price" away from dying.  This game is meant to be an experience, not an exercise in frustration.  Once you memorize the maps,it's possible to beat the game in well under the allotted hour.

Play Control: 4.5/5

Another medal on the highly decorated uniform of Prince of Persia.  Simple yet functional, the game controls respond tightly and accurately.

Replay Value: 2/5  

PoP scores low in this category for me... even though I love to play this game, there's no randomness to it.  Once you know where everything is, it's the same experience.  Still worth going back and playing, though.  Now, a randomly generated dungeon crawl/Prince of Persia hybrid?  Sign me up!

Retroliciousness: 4.5/5

This game has a high retroliciousness factor due to its revolutionary graphics and animation and the defining experience of playing it when it was new.  It spawned several subgenres (BlackThorne and Out of this World are two examples) and remains a true classic.

Overall Pete Rating:  4.5/5

Retro gaming doesn't get much better than this.  Prince of Persia, in my opinion, should be a little more iconic, as it virtually defined its own genre, making great advances in graphics and gameplay along the way.

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