It all started back in the early 1990 when Broderbund Software released a small platform game for Apple ][ and PC on a single 3,5’’ disk. The storyline covered by it was quite trivial and something you would usually find in aclassical fairy tale from 1001 Arabian Nights: set in ancient Persia, the good Sultan leaves out for a war leaving his only daughter under custody of his Grand Vizier, who turns out to be an evil ego-maniac striving for power himself. Obviously, the evil Vizier would not be evil enough if he hadn’t tried to force the Sultan’s daughter to marry him. Hearing a refusal, he gives her 1 hour to change her mind, meeting and untimely demise otherwise.

And that, dear player, is where your adventure starts. You, being the princess’ lover, are on a mission to save the princess from her captor and live happily ever after with her. The difficult part is that you have been captured by the Vizier and thrown into the palace dungeons, which adds an element of survival to your quest. Escape the dungeon, fight through the palace guards and the Vizier to save the princess and enjoy happy life as a married couple. And do it in less than 60 minutes. Sounds like a piece of cake! It sure is! ….. not.

However, it was not the simple storyline that made the game obsessively addictive. Prince of Persia was one of the first games, that introduced smooth character animations and a completely new approach to platform game puzzles. Just imagine: you start off in a dark and musty prison cell, with no apparent way out. You take a couple of steps forward jumping off a high ledge and get immediately impressed by the realistic movement of the “prince”, that you control. But the amazement doesn’t end there: you take a couple more steps and suddenly a piece of floor falls down, opening a passage to an entire network of dungeons, traps and hostile guards. This is where the real fun began!

Prince of Persia is a typical slash-and-run game. Very often you have to jump your way through series of traps, while the floor is collapsing under your feet, which results in an instant increase of blood pressure and excitement. This is definitely not a game for people with weak nerves: not only because of the gameplay that’s at times very fast. This was honestly the first game that made me scared when I accidently fell into a trap: be it falling from a large hight, getting impaled on floor spikes or being cut in half by the metal jaws trap. And the best part was: you could do the same to the palace guards!

While running, jumping, climbing and catching your breath, the game introduced a couple of elements that would stray you away for a bit from a regular gameplay. This invloved an enchanted immortal skeleton guard, a very skilled fatman swordsman and the enchanted mirror (think “Alice in Wonderland” here). The latter would haunt you later throughout the rest of the game in the form of your own Shadow, who tries to make your life as difficult as possible by closing the gates in front of your face, steailng your life potions and challenging you to impossible swordfights which can be won if you think on what both you and the Shadow have in common….

The sound and graphics part were quite advanced for the early 1990s. There was virtually no music during the game (except the intermissions, introduction and ending) which added a lot to the atmosphere of the gloomy dungeon lit only by a meager light of torches. All over the place you could find scattered bones of other prisioners and every now and then you would see intermissions with the princess waiting for you by the hourglass, as the sands go by and by while the clock counts down. On the very last level, just before the princess’ tower you have to face the Grand Vizier Jaffar himself, engaging him in a swordfight and winning… or dying trying.

To sum it up, Prince of Persia is an excellent classic platform game that has a great replay factor, mostly due to its amazing atmospehere and nice sound and graphical effects that accompany the player throughout the entire game. If you're looking for a great platform-game experience and want to see what a true game of this genre should be, this is definately a title for you!

 
Sound – 4/10 – While the sounds themselves create a great atmosphere (mainly due to lack of music, which perfectly fits the grimmy dungeons), they're quite scarce and of moderate quality.

Graphics -7/10 – Amazing for their time, the game showed amazing real-life animation capabilities on slow home computers of early 90's.

Overall - 8/10 – Prince of Persia is defnately a milestone in the history of computer gaming. Furthermore, it has a great replay factor and can be surely enjoyed even today, after all these years.