Prince of Persia Classic

Game Info

At the end of this review your dream partner awaits. You have just 60 seconds to get through the review. Every time you blink or scratch your nose you have to start again. If you don’t make it in 60 seconds, your dream girl/guy will go out with your least favourite person instead and you will be stuck on this page forever and ever. Oh, to make things more difficult, at random times you will be poked in the eye with a toothpick, so beware.

Prince of Persia Classic is a port taken from the Gameboy Colour – which is a remake of the original PC game – and can now be played on your 3DS. Players get 60 minutes (real time) to get through 12 extremely difficult levels. In terms of old-school platforming PoP is one of the most renowned and has influenced many games that followed its release. Moving through the dungeon players need to avoid spikes, climb walls, battle guards, find potions, and jump through closing gates in order to get through to find the princess.

As in the Gameboy Colour version, players can use the A and B buttons to take a leap or tread carefully. Each needs to be used at the right time and timed to perfection in order to progress. Prince of Persia can be extremely unforgiving. You will no doubt die countless times and as your time runs down panic sets in as you realise you just aren’t going to make it. Thankfully the game once again makes use of a password system which allows players to start from later levels. But only once you have passed them of course.

PoP Classic is a title that, despite its obvious age, still manages to hold up. The graphics were decent when it released in 1999 on the GBC and haven’t been tweaked for the release, which means they are nothing remarkable by today’s standards. But the visuals, along with the music, help maintain a sense of nostalgia when playing the game.

PoP Classic does everything a platformer should, it is unforgiving, but keeps you coming back as the puzzles are seemingly obvious. The time pressure adds to the fun of the game and ensure that you will play the game more than once as you look to better your time. PoP is not an ‘amazing’ game by today’s standards, but so much is owed to it by today’s platformers (and Ubisoft’s series). If you have never played the original this is a perfect opportunity to do so. If you have played it before and want another go at it, ten years later the game is still well worth playing.

If you have survived this review, you may take your prize… and the Princess is not in another castle.