I love the Prince Of Persia Playstation 2 games. They were some of the best titles I enjoyed during the golden years of Sony's sixth generation system, and ones I spent countless hours being transfixed in due to repetitive combat and addicting gameplay. While were on the subject, it's time to introduce something different - A gaming retrospective! Before that though, here's a slight update related to the topic at hand:
No doubt many of you have heard about the upcoming Prince Of Persia film by Walt Disney Pictures. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan, which is a first for the series as every game never gave a name to the protagonist. According to PoP creator, Jordan Mechner, he chose the name Dastan because it is the Persian word for "Trickster", which suits the character's personality well.
The film's official one sheet poster was just released, and it looks like this:
In terms of appearances, Gyllenhaal DOES look like the Prince, however it's more of the costume from this game:
That's Part II's look. What I'm going to tackle back on is the original itself.
My favorite among the trilogy would definitely have to be the first game, The Sands Of Time, which arguably has the best story and the best feature any videogame could have back in the day - a dagger that allows the user to rewind and escape jinxes, mistakes, and most of all, CERTAIN DEATH. With abilities like those at your disposal... anything was possible. The acrobatic skills of the prince alone were impressive enough... so much so that you had a fun time killing enemies with style and hardly breaking a sweat at all!
This game introduced us to the eponymous title character - The Prince, who conqueres the city of the Maharajah of India alongside his father, King Shahraman and his armies. After looting everything, including two mysterious artifacts and the beautiful daughter of the Maharajah named Farah, the army arrives at their destination, Azad, alongside the man who sold his own city for gain - the evil Vizier. After sharing a conversation with the traitorous prophet, The Prince is fooled into releasing the Sands Of Time from the Hourglass Of Time using the Dagger Of Time, turning the entire kingdom of Azad into a nightmare. Seeking a way to restore everything to normal and gain a measure of revenge, The Prince fights hordes of monstrosities inside the palace in order to stop the Vizier and rescue Farah, who may hold the answers he is looking for.
Catchy Story is just one way to describe this awesome tale. The Sands Of Time can be considered one of my greatest achievements in my long, personal history of playing and beating videogames. Despite the dated looking visuals as opposed to the graphics granted by todays console standards, trust me, this is another classic example of a game that doesn't rely on visuals alone to instill audiences with an excellent plot paired together with fantastic gameplay. The learning curve is not hard at all, and you'll have fun executing death-defying moves and laughing at the face of danger itself when you use the Dagger Of Time to rewind and escape trouble. If you happen to browse through a game shop and see this for whatever platform you own, do yourself a favor and pick it up. With the movie coming out next year, this will school you on what it means to be "The Prince".
Score - 10/10
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