MOBILE GAME REVIEW
Prince of Persia: Warrior WithinDo you have it within you to fend off time and become immortal? |
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The concept of being held accountable to a higher power – God, Rupert Murdoch, your Mum, whoever – isn't anything new. Do something to cheese them off and you'll hear about it and experience the ramifications first hand, pocket money usually being the first casualty. So playing Warrior Within, you'll feel a mite sorry for the Prince, who's managed to tick off the Empress of Time. This is all due to events that took place in previous instalments of the Prince of Persia series (this is the third) in which the Prince found a way to manipulate time, effectively freezing it so that he could avoid death. Like an ill-behaved child, this wasn't going to go unpunished, so the Empress has sent the Temptresses of Time to go and teach the Prince a lesson, namely that you don't mess with the Miss.
And so you embark on your quest to survive the onslaught of soldiers and other ne'er-do-wells despatched by the Temptresses in a series of lush, cartoon-style sideways-scrolling levels. You play as the Prince as he leaps, rolls and generally clambers around, over or under the ten obstacle-strewn levels while fighting off the various enemies that come your way. Controlled with the joystick, the game intelligently knows what you're trying to achieve and tailors your input accordingly. From the very first level – set on a burning galleon – you'll find yourself leaping from masts, chains and platforms like an over-active monkey. The manner in which the Prince is drawn on screen is equally impressive with fluid animations and movement. This is a great help because later on you need to be sure where you're going to end up; precise leaping and jumping is a necessary skill to master.
However, puzzles and perils aside, this game is more about fighting and combat than anything. It's much more than a basic hack'n'slash style of game though, as you're encouraged to string together combinations of moves to create a deadly (and usually fatal) attack, known as a combo. These combos are things of beauty yet are relatively easy to pull off, certainly more so than those found in similar fighting games. Each level a new one is introduced, but all are based around performing no more than three button presses which appear in three mini-windows in the upper left of the screen. Fill up the three windows with the right combination of buttons and voila, you turn into a whirling dervish of dismemberment.
There's no exploitable chink in Warrior Within's armour at all. The violent nature of the game may put some people off (it's certainly more visceral than the Tomb Raider games for instance) but if you're looking for a world-class action/adventure game, you've found it. In fact, if you're looking for a world-class game, period, this is it.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within |
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A supremely entertaining game that brings console-like qualities to the mobile arena
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Joined:
Sep 2005
Post count:
276
Even better than Tomb Raider
Joined:
Jan 2007
Post count:
23
To my mind, this game is the standard to which all other platformers should be compared. The best in the series.
Joined:
Nov 2006
Post count:
572
Agree that it's a decent game. The Two Thrones is also good!
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