Title: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Developer: Ubisoft
Staff Notables:
Jordan Mechner
Publisher: Ubisoft
Date Published: 11/10/2003
Platforms:
Xbox,
PlayStation 2,
Gamecube,
PC,
Gameboy Advance
ESRB Rating: Teen (suggestive themes, violence, and blood)
The story of this game begins with a prince and his father invading a city, in search of treasure and conquest. Through the introduction, which leads you through the basic game mechanics, you stumble across the Dagger of Time. You soon learn that this dagger allows you to travel through time. However, through the double-crossing of the vizier who allowed the invasion to take place, the Sands of Time are released, transforming everybody but you, a princess, and the vizier into Sand Creatures. In this game, you play the aforementioned Prince of Persia in his quest to save his kingdom and the princess from the Sand Creatures and the vizier utilizing the Dagger of Time, your sword, and your nimble self.
The gameplay is thoroughly enjoyable. Do you want to run up and along walls, jump from pole to pole, and even jump off of walls? You can do your best Le Parkour impressions here. Want to kill bad guys in novel ways this noder hasn't seen in any other video game? You'll be leaping over, freezing, and slashing baddies (looking damn good doing it). Not quite sure what to do next? Consult your vision again to get a hint of where you're supposed to be. Worried about missing the next jump? Just take the plunge, and if you mess up, you can always rewind time using your trusty dagger. This game encourages you to take risks, and doesn't punish you overly much if you don't succeed. A major frustration found in most platformers is eliminated by the fact that the game does not allow you to run off the edge of a cliff: You need to actually jump from a ledge to leave it. In fact, there is only one gripe that I had in playing this game, being that there aren't usually too many solutions to a given problem; the game becomes rather linear as a result.
For those of you reminiscing of years past, you can unlock the original Prince of Persia game in the Gamecube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions, and the Xbox version also includes Prince of Persia 2.
This game is but one in a sequence of games:
Prince of Persia - Prince of Persia 2 - Prince of Persia 3d - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time