Prince of Persia (3DS eShop) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

While eShop offerings started off a little slow the weekly downloads are starting to show signs of promise including several releases using the much publicised Virtual Console. This allows everything from Gameboy Advance and SEGA Game Gear to Gameboy Color titles to be enjoyed on a 3DS, which is how gamers are now able to play this classic version of Prince of Persia. I say 'classic' as the franchise has seen some considerable changes over the last decade not all of which have been successful such as the awkward 'Battles' card game. Thankfully this is the original but has it stood the test of time?

Gameplay

If you haven't encountered Prince of Persia before the goal is reasonably simple: stop the evil Jaffar from marrying your beloved Princess over a series of dungeons and complete your entire quest in 60 minutes or less. Clearly there's a lot of pressure in being a hero. The dungeons themselves are littered with a generous amount of traps and puzzles all designed to stop the Prince in his tracks including spikes, guillotines and even the odd sword wielding guard. Too add to your frustration there's even weaken floors which crumble when you stand on them generally leading to a long drop and death. Fortunately once you do complete a section there is a save feature but expect to spend some considerable time revisiting rooms within the same dungeon before you get it all just right.

Controls

While moving the Prince around is just as intuitive and responsive as you remember the same can't be said of the combat. This feels broken and not only suffers from some rather questionable collision detection and dumb enemy AI but also a problematic attack mechanic. This renders a sizeable portion of the game far less challenging and therefore enjoyable and we're not entirely sure what happened to the game during its journey to the 3DS but we would like it fixed.

Graphics

You do have to keep reminding yourself that this was a Gameboy Color title and, for the time, this was a pretty good-looking game. What is apparent though is the reduced framerate and while we all remember Prince of Persia for is smooth rotoscoped animation, the Prince seems far less fluid here or maybe he's simply showing his age.

Sound

While you will be treated to the classic theme music, during the menu screens, the rest of the game is almost absent of any audio at all except for the footsteps of the Prince as he navigates around the various dungeons. You do get a short piece of music when the Prince meets his demise but this does get a little irritating as you'll hear it so many times.

Final comments

Prince of Persia will always be a platformer that is recognised for laying down the blueprint as to just how the genre should be tackled and over the years many titles have 'borrowed' from the Jordan Merchner classic. I'd like to say that this is a version of the game that everyone should have and while the automatic save (as opposed to a password) is a great addition you're only likely to be entertained here for a short time and not the hours you'll remember being glued to the original. It's still enjoyable but if you really need a fix of platforming nostalgia why not try the computer or superior SNES versions.

Pro: The Classic Game Just as You Remember it.
Con: Poor Collision Detection and Controls During Battles.
Final score: 6.8

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