Title: Prince of Persia
Release Date: 7/3/1992
Developer: Arsys Software Inc.
Publisher: NCS (Japan), Konami (NA and Europe)
Prince of Persia is another game that is considered a minor hit and classic for the SNES that I had little to no experience with before arriving upon it with this blog. This game also has the distinction of being a port of another early computer game. Let's jump (over a pit of spikes) in!
Background
Prince of Persia is now a pretty long running franchise that I also have little experience in. In fact, the only game I have played was the most recent(ish, I haven't played the early access roguelike, Rogue Prince of Persia) entry, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which was a metroidvania with intense boss fights and some light maso-core platforming ala Celeste. From my understanding and light research, the game has bounced from genre to genre with the same middle Islamic Golden Age pastiche: sometimes a God of War character action game with time mechanics, sometimes a cinematic 3D platformer based around climbing and parkour, and sometimes just fitting the mold of whatever is hot and popular at the time. This original Prince of Persia is a cinematic platformer based around trial and error, very similar to games like Out of this World or Heart of Darkness.
The story of the game is pretty classic 1001 Arabian Nights: you are the titular Prince (though not a Prince yet), and the Sultan of your land has been betrayed by the Vizier to the kingdom, the wizard Jaffar (apparently just the name of every evil medieval advisor). He wants to rise to the throne, so he has given the Sultan's daughter an ultimatum: marry him and legitimize his rule, or die in the dungeon in two hours. Your hero, who is the actual love interest of the Princess, must save her within that time limit from the dungeons or lose her forever! These dungeons, though, are filled with traps, guards, magic spells, and a bunch of other nasties that will kill you instantly, all up against a fairly strict time limit (though in the original PC release you only had an hour to save the Princess).
The original Apple II game was made by the early gaming icon, Jordan Mechner, the creator of the the martial arts dueling game Karateka and eventually the wildly ambitious train mystery simulator The Last Express. Karateka was known as an early technical marvel for its fluid animations achieved through rotoscoping, where the animators draw their animations over live actors performing the movements. This same style is used here in Prince of Persia: each movement has weight and grace to it, with the animations making use of each and every frame for even the most basic movements. Apparently Mechner based the animations off of recordings of his brother performing stunts and swordplay. It really is something to behold on a game from 1992, and the animation firmly cements this as a cinematic platformer.
The developer of the SNES port was Arsys System Inc. Not too much to really say about them; similar to other workhorse developers like Tose, but on a much smaller scale. They eventually became a company called Cyberhead, and closed in 2001 without too many credits of their own to their name. Another more anonymous company that lent its efforts to ports and other groups' projects.
The Game
The basic idea behind this game is to create the perfect run through each section of the dungeons. The Prince does have a life gauge that allows three minor missteps (sword slashes, etc) but most mistakes will lead to immediate death, and you will be sent back to the beginning of the last checkpoint (luckily this doesn't count against you in the time limit). Due to the animation, movements must be planned, considered, and generally practiced through trial and error, for once you are committed to a movement you are locked in. Your jump has a set length, so when you stop to leap over a pit, you need to make sure you are jumping at just the right distance to clear the gap or grab onto a ledge. This means that the pace of play is quite slow at first, but once you start to memorize the lay out of the stage and begin to intuit the feel of controlling the Prince, you will start to clear the beginning levels of the game quite quickly. The dungeon is incredibly trap filled (especially in this SNES version which is really quite difficult), with spike traps, swinging blades, collapsing ledges and bridges all trying to stymie your progress.
The game also mixes in some sword fighting and combat At first, the dungeon guards are impenetrable sword shields blocking your path with certain death, but in the first level you do claim a scimitar of your own with which to fight. The combat is a bit more elaborate rock-papers-scissors match, where you are matching enemy attacks with side-steps, parries or blocks, and trying to sneak your own slashes past their guard. The enemies, even the final boss, have a three hit lifebar just like you, so you are trying to wear them down quickly while maintaining your own lifebar, as yours doesn't replenish after a battle. As the game progresses and the enemies become more elite, they play much more defensively and will require many parries to open their guard. In the end, the combat is simple but rather tense, as any mistake could pooch that level's run.
There are some red jars of healing potion within the dungeon, but you must also be careful not to pick up blue jars of poison, which will instead take off a point of damage. Some of the potions are in plain sight, but some are hidden in secret rooms and caches, so the game does reward poking your nose into every available corner of the dungeon.
The game also mixes in some light puzzles, usually simple stepping on floor switch and then rushing to the newly opened gate before it shuts on you. Some of these can be quite tricky, as their are almost always traps between you and the gate.
This is basically the entire game in a nutshell, but the game eventually starts playing with this formula a bit. Eventually you face skeleton guards who can't be killed with swords, but instead must be knocked backwards into pits. As well, you have a doppelganger who through a magical mirror and chases you throughout the dungeon, and can't be killed as your lives are linked. He serves as a similar role to the SA-X from Metroid Fusion as his appearances, while deadly, are much more scripted.
The SNES version really increases the difficulty and the length of the game from the original version, remixing many of the puzzles/traps and boosting the level count from 12 up to 20. It can be quite challenging to make it through all the levels in under two hours, and the game even (cruelly) lets you finish out the adventure after you fail the time limit, with your Prince escaping the dungeon with his life, but having failed to save his beloved.
The presentation of the game is all on point. Again, I cannot reiterate how cool the animations and rotoscoping effects are when seen in motion; it makes the game really stand out from the other games from the first half of the SNES's lifespan. The music, too, is appropriate and good, but nothing that I would consider earwormy or memorable after the experience.
Overall
This, while not really my type of gaming experience due to its shooting for perfection and skin-of-the-teeth victories, was an enjoyable experience and I can see how it captured the imagination of people to the point where this became a big name franchise. I did play this on an emulator with the ability to rewind, so you can count my experience as "tainted" if you so choose, but I probably wouldn't have finished this game otherwise. As I played it, though, it was a unique snack of a game! I am glad I can say that I checked this off my list of SNES games I had little to no experience with aside from brand awareness.
