Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

by UBI Soft

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009ZVI2
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 18, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,612 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: GameCube

From the Manufacturer

Amidst the scorched sands of ancient Persia, there is a legend spun in an ancient tongue. It speaks of a time borne by blood and ruled by deceit. It is within this war torn land that a young Prince discovers a magic dagger. Drawn to its dark powers, he is led to unleash a deadly evil upon the reaches of his father's vast kingdom. Aided by the wiles of a seductive princess and the absolute powers of the Sands of Time, the Prince stages a harrowing quest to reclaim the Palace's cursed chambers, and restore peace to the very fabric of Time itself. He must tread these dangers carefully, however. Because in this world, there is only one rule: master the Sands, or be buried.

Embody a legendary hero with gravity-defying acrobatics, ferocious fighting combos, and the ability to bend time to fulfill his bidding. Wield the power of the Sands of Time - a force allowing the Prince to erase the past, behold the future, and freeze the present. Uncover the mysteries of a world never before explored in action-adventure gaming. Ancient Persia, mythical and deadly, holds a staggering array of landscapes and kingdoms to explore and conquer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Falls just short, October 3, 2004

By 

Michael Clarkson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (Video Game)

Well, I'd heard very good things about Prince of Persia, so I decided to check it out. I can't say I entirely agree with all the positive reviews I read.

GAMEPLAY: GOOD
Gameplay in POP has three major aspects: platforming, combat, and puzzle-solving. There are not very many traditional puzzles, perhaps three or four. Most are pretty standard, but the "Hall of Learning" light-beam puzzle was fairly entertaining and had a unique and complex 3-dimensional structure. Additionally, in some locations just moving around constitutes a puzzle. In most places, however, gameplay is fairly linear, and generally there is only one way to get through any particular area.

The platforming is the game's strength, and most of the time it's a real treat to maneuver the Prince through the obstacle course that the Sultan's Palace has become. I found, however, that the controls could be difficult -- wall-jumping would inexplicably fail me at times, and also the Prince would occasionally run off the end of a platform (catching the edge) instead of running along a wall as intended. In areas where the platforms were temporary for any reason, this could be a real problem. Also, when fighting in a narrow space, the Prince would occasionally put his swords away and run along a wall if I was trying to guard and the enemy was just slightly too far away.

Of course, the game's special methods for controlling time often rescued me from the control problems. However, there are difficult segments of the game (near the end) where one does not have the ability to control time, and that can lead to a long, frustrating, and boring process of going all the way back through an area just because of a slight mistake near the very end. The "Climbing the Tower of Dawn" section was one place where I had this problem.

Overall, though, the platforming aspect was very strong and pretty enjoyable. It's the combat that really hurt the game. Here again the controls were occasionally problematic -- the Prince would often direct his attacks towards the wrong enemy. This became a major problem during some retrieves, as the Prince would Freeze one enemy instead of retrieving from another. Consequently, not only did I not get to fill up the dagger (and have to kill that guy all over again), I actually used up power tanks when I was trying to save up for Haste.

And you will want to use Haste, because combat is frequently long and trying, with endless waves of enemies. Additionally, the enemies are all very similar; one can roughly divide them into enemies you can vault (easy to kill), animals (easy to kill), and enemies you can't vault (harder). Wall-vaulting and wall-attacking make combat more exciting, but can be difficult to execute. Same for countering.

Farah's presence can be of assistance, but she causes as many problems as she solves, because she'll shoot you plenty of times, and is almost always in need of rescuing.

STORY: GOOD
It's not much of a story, that's for sure. The narrative structure includes an interesting gimmick that simultaneously rationalizes "video game" aspects like saves, and recalls aspects of the "Arabian Nights" tales. The plot of the story being told, however, is pretty bland for the Arabian Nights. The Prince's habit of talking to himself, however, creates some pretty funny moments, and the final cutscene delivers a great closing (featuring an interesting use of the dagger's "Rewind" ability). Overall, pretty standard story content for a game, but extra point for a reasonably good development of the theme of regret and responsibility.

GRAPHICS: SUPERB
The game looks awesome. The environments are spectacular, and little details (like dust shaking free when you swing on a flagpole) are executed flawlessly. The cutscenes look awesome, and the in-game character model for the Prince is looks great. Some of the enemies look very good too -- I thought the hammer fatties and chain guys were particularly well-rendered, not to mention the vultures and scarabs. Model movements look believable also.

However, the Farah model was bland, and I found it hard to believe she managed to wiggle (...)through all those cracks. Many of the enemies look stupid, particularly in close-up. I found the Sand King to be unintentionally hilarious in appearance. The floating pages in the Hall of Learning also looked odd. Additionally, most of the fire in the game didn't look very good, though the water looked quite nice. These are minor hiccups, however, in a really beautiful game.

AUDIO: EXCELLENT
The music was great, I thought, and most of the sound effects were pretty good too. The music generally matched what was going on and did a pretty good deal to evoke an impression of Arabia. I thought it might have been better if it used a little less "rock and roll" and relied more heavily on traditional instruments, but this is more or less forgivable.

Voice acting was very good for the most part -- the Prince and Sultan were excellent, and the others were passable. The volume level on the voices was very uneven and unpredictable, though... at times too quiet to hear, at others almost shouting, often within a few lines. There are also a few places where the producers tried to cut corners by reusing dialogue, to the detriment of the scene. Overall, though, sound quality was very good.

REPLAYABILITY: POOR
There's really nothing new to do your second time around. Which is a pity, because this game isn't really very long. This is one I would recommend letting sit a month or two before you come back to play it again. You can, of course, unlock the entire original Prince of Persia 1 game on here, but that doesn't add all that much.

OVERALL: GOOD (70%)
A very lovely game with good music and entertaining gameplay is frustrated by occasionally twitchy controls and monotonous combat. You will have plenty of fun playing it, but due to its short length and limited replay value, this is better as a rental than as a purchase.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'must buy' title for your gamecube, November 24, 2003

By 

Jeremy "63271864410" (Dublin, US, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (Video Game)

This is a highly polished title that has been implemented very well on the 'cube.

It looks fantastic, from the scenes to the animations and the special effects deployed. The texturing and lighting is well done and there is much atmosphere to the levels.

The gameplay is reasonably easy to learn, progressively challenging - yet also very rewarding. I am finding this to be very playable and enjoyable throughout.

The fight sequences are well implemented and fun. Moves are context sensitive rather than overloaded with combos to pull off moves, therefore it is reasonably easy to perform some very pleasing and satisfying combat sequences. Battles can still be quite frantic as you move from character to character, slaying them and sucking sand from them to power your dagger.

I enjoy the special effects associated with the combat, which are 'matrix style' motion blur, slow motion, etc. I find Prince of Persia to not only execute these effects better than many other games, but also to be a very good game for which it is well suited. There are too many games that introduce these effects for little valid reason other than 'we can do this so why not' and as a result they are often out of place, with little visual or gameplay benefit. In this example, this isn't the case and the general level of polish to Prince of Persia is raised as a result. A whole lot of passion went into developing this game and I applaud those involved.

Although the character is free roaming, the levels and storyline are laid out so that challenges are presented in a totally linear fashion. While could be considered a constraint to the title, it was probably a very good choice as it helps to pull the character through the story. The developers chose to focus a little more on the gameplay issues that mattered, rather than having the player distracted or frustrated by having them deal with seemingly random, unrelated events in the background.

Many of you will have heard that this game also has a unique time travel mechanic. Again, this is well executed, not cheesy and fits well with the storyline and game mechanics. I appreciate being able to undo my recent progress and try again in places where I have not been so successful. I feel this adds a very unique element to the game...in that it can be appealing to replay a recent scene just to do better. This is a different type of replay value, let alone a great mechanic that helps prevent frustrating circumstances with awkward challenges.

You'll find this game enjoyable and I would recommend that you buy it. You'll not be disappointed - this is such good fun and very high quality.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best I've seen since Metroid!!!, November 17, 2003

By 

Bradley (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (Video Game)

This game truly has everything you could wish for. It is extremely entertaining and offers one of the coolest heros we've seen in a long long time.

The Prince is able to bend gravity and time to offer up a high WOW value from your friends, as well as yourself. From running up and across walls to doing acrobatic flips on a pole, this guy's got it all! Also, with the addition of the ability to slow and even rewind time, it causes you to take a lot more chances than you ever would in any other game for the fear of seeing the dreadful words "Game Over." In Prince of Persia, if you miss an amazing stunt, then just rewind time and try again. I love this feature because it allows you to be super daring!

Fighting enemies has a better Matrix feel to it than the Enter the Matrix game. Three zombie looking creatures come at you from all sides. You slice at the first one then spin kick him to knock him away while the other two are closing in quick. You now run up the closest one's chest and kick him in the face in a move that I swear I saw in the Matrix Reloaded movie. Now, your back is turned and you are a fraction of a second away from being stabbed in the back. You are then able to make the Prince do a backflip over the slicing enemy as time slows down and sees you do a backflip with a full twist all while unsheathing your knife to stab the monster in the back of the neck! Truly amazing and suspenseful fighting.

The cut scenes are very impressive with high quality graphics and speech. Our hero also tends to talk to other people and even himself as you are playing. This is the game that will WOW and delight everyone of all ages! A true must have for any action adventure gaming fan!

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