I’ve been interested in the Prince of Persia series since experiencing the original game as a kid. And it’s hard to downplay the its influence on platforming games, both in 2D and 3D. The original (that hopefully may get the “The Making of Karateka” treatment someday, along with the sequel) established the methodical and precarious cinematic platforming that shaped the early platforming focused 3D action adventure games, most notably Tomb Raider. While Sands of Time established a new standard for 3D action adventuring, that can still be felt even in the recent releases. But the current rights holder of the series, Ubisoft, haven’t made any new Prince of Persia games for over a decade, with the last release being The Forgotten Sands in 2010 (a ironically titled game that is quite good, but, indeed, often forgotten). Instead, they focused on the franchise that began its life as a next Prince of Persia game – Assassin’s Creed.
Or at least they did until 2023, when Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was announced. A completely new game that is going back to 2D platforming, but this time with a metroidvania-style world design, like in Warrior Within and PoP 2008. I was very excited about it, waited out the half a year of timed exclusivity on PC for EGS and… This was one of the most miserable experiences I’ve had in a while. And if not for the Prince of Persia title, I would’ve stopped playing pretty early on. That said, I won’t be surprised if there will be people with a mostly opposite experience to mine. A difference that will boil down to a simple question – do you like precision platformers?
