Prince of Persia's risk pays off

Ubisoft expands on Prince of Persia's successful franchise.

By Derek Reagan

Published Dec. 11, 2008

Most of the time when a developer has success with a game on the scale of something like "Prince of Persia," the developer follows the adage, "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." Thankfully, Ubisoft didn't listen.

Ubisoft has had great success from the "Prince of Persia" franchise and is well-known for the excellent "Sands of Time" trilogy. Even with the success, Ubisoft has taken a risk and completely redone their series with "Prince of Persia" for the next generation consoles. There is a completely new background, design, story and overall feel to the game. After playing the game, it's easy to see that Ubisoft has made this "Prince of Persia" a whole new experience (especially for previous fans) and is once again one of the best platform games (not named Mario) for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

In this game, you start off as Prince, a thief, and get caught up in a new dream world. The story line pairs you with Elika, your sidekick, as you try to rid the world of all of the corruption that has taken over it. Elika is one of the new additions to the game and is a main cog of Prince of Persia. She helps you travel across the world, assisting in jumping, combat and even reviving you from death countless times. The storyline is a strong point for the platformer even though it sounds very generic.

The overhaul in gameplay is one of the biggest risks taken in this new iteration of the series. In the new "Prince of Persia," Ubisoft has made combat much more dramatic and intense with more one-on-one battles that focus on your ability to pull off large move combos. Everything feels like a boss battle waiting to happen. This is a huge difference from the past games that sent crowds of enemies for you to frantically button mash your way through the level.

Another difference from the past versions of the game is the new design and graphics. Out is the traditional aim for realistic graphics and design and in is a game that looks like it was created from watercolor paints and makes you fall in love with the dream world. It's so much different from cell shading or any other design variation that I've ever seen. This change is unique and key to the success of "Prince of Persia."

Some of the disappointments in the game are the lack of puzzles in the story mode and lack of ability to upgrade "Prince." There are a couple puzzles in the game but it's the lack of puzzles that take away from the full platformer experience. Also, when you start the game, Prince has all of the moves and abilities that you will have at the end. This is somewhat of a disappointment since most traditional platformers help you connect with your character by making you improve during your quest.