Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Xbox game

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

2004

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

from 1254 members

Prince of Persia is a game that most of us will be familiar with. In its early days it was simply a 2D platform affair, but a classic one nonetheless. And during the Prince's heyday, more than a dozen versions of the game were made, and the formula can even be seen in some of today's handheld offerings such as Tomb Raider. Now the series has made the move to 3D in Sands of Time for GameCube. Though some Prince of Persia purists may not consider it to be the best version available - simply because it?s not a hardcore two-dimensional platformer - that's not say it isn't a great game. However, the emphasis on gameplay remains intact, and is firmly based on the elemental mix that made POP and others - such as Konami?s impossibly good Castlevania - such massive hits. Platform game basics combine seamlessly with combat and a need for exploration and puzzle-solving, generating a Metroid-esque feel, in a pure 3D world. A storyline as formulaic as it is intriguing sees the young prince unleash a whole bunch of nastiness within his father's castle by tampering with a dagger, which his mum probably told him not to touch. He must now rid the vast palace of its new blight, as well as ensure that the integrity of the space-time continuum isn?t breached. The lesson? If he?d have listened to mum, he could be outside now, playing football... a mistake we?ve all made. But the real innovation in Sands of Time lies in the player's ability to control time. Here, you can freeze time, rewind and so on, a mechanic that starts out as a gimmick, but soon becomes a factor central to the gameplay. Quite simply, the possession of time control affords players mistakes. Should players plummet to their death, players can simply freeze and rewind time as they see fit. Time control is limited, but it's a great idea that is implemented well. Sands of Time is undoubtedly a worthy follow-up to the original outings. We look forward to more games like this in the coming years.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time details

Formats:	12 PS2, GameCube, 7 Xbox
Players:	1
Genres:	Adventure, Arcade/Platform, Fighting, Role-playing
Developers:	UBISOFT MONTREAL
Rental release:	20 Feb 2006

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Most helpful review Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

WTF WAS THAT ENDING?!!!!!!!!!!!!!! boom

By jafroboy (6 reviews) from Heathfield , 09 Mar 2009

[Highly rated reviewer]

Yahtze was right; the dagger makes what would be repetitive, and mind bogglingly frustrating platforming, into, well, less repetitive, and MUCH less frustrating platforming, oh yes and fun too - but it cant save the bad combat, all except the final boss fight, which is rather a rebellion against usual game fighting mechanics. The characterization of the prince and his 'sidekick cum love interest' is EXCELLENT and you really start to care about them, which makes you hurt all the more, when that ending comes and FU*#S. YOU. OVER. As though the game suddenly hates you for repeatedly dropping it off a cliff. Camera angle changes can be annoying sometimes but its easy to get over. Better than the last gen version.
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WTF WAS THAT ENDING?!!!!!!!!!!!!!! boom

By jafroboy (6 reviews) from Heathfield , 09 Mar 2009

Yahtze was right; the dagger makes what would be repetitive, and mind bogglingly frustrating platforming, into, well, less repetitive, and MUCH less frustrating platforming, oh yes and fun too - but it cant save the bad combat, all except the final boss fight, which is rather a rebellion against usual game fighting mechanics. The characterization of the prince and his 'sidekick cum love interest' is EXCELLENT and you really start to care about them, which makes you hurt all the more, when that ending comes and FU*#S. YOU. OVER. As though the game suddenly hates you for repeatedly dropping it off a cliff. Camera angle changes can be annoying sometimes but its easy to get over. Better than the last gen version.
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Maybe my expectations were too high

By Prem Kumar from London , 13 Jan 2007

Having relished the MS-Dos version of this game as a teenager, I expected too much from the xbox version. I stopped playiing within 15 minutes...sorry prince.

Good stuff: Descent graphics, quite detailed background, particularly the temples...

Not so good stuff: The camera angles kept readjusting automatically, often changing the direction I wanted the prince to move.. tried to fiddle with the settings to switch off, but I didn't seem to get it. It's probably meant to be a clever feature, i.e. adjust to view/camera, but the movement/direction was relative to the camera angle and this got on my nerves...

Maybe I am being too harsh on this game... I'll reflect the day after..
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