tomhudson's Journal: [Wii] Prince of Persia

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Prince of Persia - Rival Swords

The original Prince of Persia was something else for its' time ... true vga graphics, well-done animation, a solid story line, sound that was good enough to justify spending $200 on the original soundblaster card ...

So, 2 decades later, what does the Wii version bring to the table? Thanks to the Wii remote and nunchuk, it's a lot easier to move around in than the old keyboard combinations ever were, for one :-)

This is a game where you don't have to read the manual or play some dumbed-down intros for an hour just to get through the "learning sessions" - just select easy mode, wait a few minutes for the opening cinematic to set the story, and start playing. The graphics are up to date, the interaction user interaction via the wiimote and nunchuk are well done, and the extra features such as map overview and game save (both of which require you to be in specific locations, so you need to plan your moves a bit, and can't just save every minute) are well thought out.

You quickly get used to twisting the Wiimote left or right to rotate your point of view, though you still have to use the up and down on the cross-pad to change your plane of view - this is because the other Wiimote motions are mapped to using your weapon to slash, stab, etc.

About the only complaint I have is that it doesn't hook into the Mii system, so when you save your game, you can't associate it with YOUR Mii.

Too bad the story line doesn't lend itself to multi-player mode - it's a single-player game, so you won't be playing this with a group of friends, unless you do the "hot-seat" thing - when you die, the next person takes the controls. For a couple, that could work - or lead to a few fights ("you wouldn't have figured it out if *I* hadn't done all the hard work and then died!" :-)

Recommendation: True to the original, and worth the price.

WTF

[Corporate Troll]

True to the original

This original? [wikipedia.org]... Which was maddeningly hard, by the way.

Re:

[tomhudson]

Yes it was hard - that's why we all loved it so much. For the time, it was really well done, and hard enough that it kept you coming back because it was such a challenge. Never did finish it.

Re:

[Corporate Troll]

Neither did I.... Well, okay, I edited the savegame files. That was easy ;-)

Re:

[tomhudson]

I only did that on Silver Pinball ... my sister couldn't figure out how, after weeks of playing, nobody in her family could break 80,000,000, and in less than half an hour (the time for her to go to the store and back), I had 2,000,000,000.

Re:

[Zeriel]

It's true to the original in the same way Metroid Prime was--"Holy crap, it's in 3D and yet it's got exactly the right feeling."

Re:

[Corporate Troll]

I can't really relate to Metroid Prime... Never played it....

Re:

[Zeriel]

If you liked Super Metroid, you owe it to yourself to pick up Prime from gamestop (it's maybe $10 these days)

Re:

[Corporate Troll]

But I never played Super Metroid either. I know, where is it again that I need to hand in my Geek card?

I never had a Nintendo... Well, now I have a Nintendo DS which I bought for my wife (in pink!) but she doesn't play with it. Neither do I....

Re:

[Zeriel]

Heh, hard to have nostalgia for something you never played, I suppose.