It was probably the wrong day to get imprisoned. The queen-to-be is in a quandary, and our held-up hero has been forced to leave the rescue mission to the last minute.
Captured by throne-envying vizier Jaffar while her father is off galavanting and waging war, the princess has been given a choice: get married or die. She's got 60 minutes.
Beginning from the depths of the prisons, the procrastinating prince must clamber, jump, dodge, and fight through 12 parts of the palace to reach his beloved and stop the treasonous Jaffar. Each stage hides a button that unlocks the stairway to the next area.
Arabian KnightPrince of Persia is distinctive by virtue of its toughness, each death sending you right back to the start of the current level. It employs a more realistic approach to platforming, which goes hand-in-hand with its impressive rotoscoped character animation.
You can't just leg it to the edge of a ledge before leaping, hoping to soar gracefully. You need to time it so that there's ample space for the prince to push off ground. Similarly, you can't swing your sword haphazardly in the numerous blade battles. You have to carefully alternate blocks and thrusts to avoid being pierced.
Sometimes it's advantageous – and more entertaining – to push a guard towards a trap rather than to go through the ordeal of a full fight. Or you could just take a cowardly back step off-screen.
The prince is quite the agile mover. He's able to jump from a standstill or a run up, grip onto ridges to scale up and down chasms, and he can even employ a light foot to creep around.
Conquering the many obstacles – pits, spiked floors, loose stone slabs – is impossible without appropriate use of each.
Thankfully, the controls are responsive the vast majority of the time, though there are occasional timing troubles during runs across multiple screens.
Sands of TimeBut Prince of Persia's real difficulty comes with its hook: the princess's hour counts down in real time, giving you just 3,600 short seconds to complete your mission before it's Game Over. The timer continues through deaths, so every step counts, every mistake hurts, and each return to a level's opening is a brutal impediment to ultimate success.
Your movements need to be near-perfect if you're to stand a chance of besting Prince of Persia. Frankly, you deserve to be crowned if you can beat it in a single sitting.
In lieu of a save system, mere mortals can utilise the password system that rattles out a code at the beginning of each level. These record how much time you have left, which stage you've reached, and how much life you've built up.
The atmosphere comes from the smaller details, such as blood spatter on a blade or the sparse soundtrack that elevates above the sound of the prince's footsteps only in crucial moments - after emerging victorious in battle for example.
One of the first games with a cinematic quality about it, Prince of Persia features set-pieces like collapsing walkways, leaps of faith, and deadly encounters over stretching bridges. The excitement of these still holds up today.
Prince of Persia is a vicious alumni from the old skool of game design, and as such it isn't for everybody. If you think you're up to the challenge, though, it's a title that every platforming fan should try.Prince of Persia
Though the Game Boy's Prince of Persia lacks the visual finesse of other versions, it's a faithful conversion of a challenging platformer that will leave you with a lifelong disdain for hourglasses
Mike Mason
When Mike's parents hooked him up to a Commodore 64 at a young age, addictive side-effects were to be expected. Though nowadays Mike enjoys a slightly saner game / life balance, be warned: he's still prone to relapse if Bubble Bobble is in the vicinity.