Prince of Persia® Classic Review
PROS
- A complete port of the amazing Prince of Persia remake for XBLA and PSN.
CONS
- The iphone control scheme is too loose and lacks the fidelity to make this an enjoyable experience.
VERDICT
While a fantastic game in its own right, the iPhone port lacks the tight controls that made this such a joy to play on consoles, making this a frustrating experience.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
The original Prince of Persia by Jordan Mechner was a gaming classic, with its fluid animation, exotic setting and adventurous gameplay. The game was remade for the XBLA a few years ago, updating the graphics, adding more animations, and new modes along with achievements. That version was amazing and now has been ported to the iPhone. Can the touch screen deliver as wonderful an experience as a controller however?
The answer sadly is no. Part of what made the original and the remake great was the flow of movement. Leaping over spikes, scaling walls, back-flipping across crevices and only momentarily stopping to skewer a guard with your sword before continuing on your way. The touch screen has lost some of that fidelity. Movement is handled with a slider bar and jumping, crouching and picking up objects are represented by three buttons on the bottom right of the screen. The buttons work well but the slider bar feels too loose. Instead of zipping from screen to screen you have to take a more cautious approach as you may overshoot or undershoot your jump or inching up to a trap. Now yes the game has many moments where you have to slow things down to evaluate your situation and take a measured approach to what lays in front of you, but now the whole game feels like this, which completely ruins the pacing.
If the controls are not as great an issue for you as they were while reviewing the game, you'll be happy to know that everything else is fantastic. The graphics and animations are breathtaking, and the sound effects and music cues represent solitude, danger, and triumph respectfully. Along with the normal game, there is a time attack mode where the game ends on a more final note once the hourglass runs out of sand, and survival mode which gives you one try and one try only to make it through the dungeon and palace.
If only the controls of Prince of Persia Classic gave the player the feeling of, well control that its console counterpart had, we'd be recommending this without a second glance. As it stands, we recommend the console version instead, but if you can come to grips with guiding the prince through this mobile adventure, all the power to you for sticking with and learning to enjoy a fantastic piece of gaming history.
Screenshots
$1.99
