Customer Reviews

Prince of Persia

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I played the original Prince of Persia on our old Macintosh computer back in the day. I was fond of the Arabian setting, the sword fighting and the overall feel of the game; you're literally anxious and on your toes almost the entire time when maneuvering through tricky level design and simultaneously avoiding the deadly spikes, guillotines and other traps that await you. While I was never able to completely finish that version, and the Mac computer is long gone now, I decided to get the Super Nintendo port and relive a little of my childhood.

The SNES version has several changes, the most significant being instead of the original 12 there are 20 levels in all (some modified from the originals and others completely new) and two real-time hours to defeat Jaffar instead of only one. It's been almost two years since I bought this and I'm just nearly finishing. This thing is merciless and the time limit only makes matters worse. When you die, and you die very often while exploring a new level, you are forced to repeat from the beginning every single time. It's very much a trial and error process. You won't want to spend hours at a time playing this because you will be pulling your hair out. But it's also why the game is so fun since you learn to be patient in timing your movements around the traps and trying to memorize what comes next. When you manage to complete a level and receive a password to write down that saves your progress, there's a sense of relief and accomplishment. You won't find that feeling in many modern games that are more interested in mindless flash and instant gratification.

The visuals are much more richly detailed and colorful in this version with its ornate columns, dark and moody stalactite caves and even some beautiful exterior castle wall scenes in the moonlight. The somewhat gruesome deaths have been toned down to remove blood but this change is barely noticeable and doesn't negatively impact the game in any way. The background music, usually changing after every few levels, adds some good atmosphere during play but it would have been nice if there was an option to disable the music to avoid it getting redundant. The sound effects aren't quite as memorable but they do the job. I was disappointed with the swords clashing and swinging during duels that sound a bit muddy and awkward and not as sharp and metallic as I remember on the Mac but I guess this can be attributed to the limitations in an SNES cartridge. But overall, this is a great presentation and nothing is worth complaining much about.

With this unique version of Prince of Persia, you'll be getting almost twice as much gameplay with neat little twists to the original, added bosses and more deadly contraptions to watch out for. This game is definitely very difficult and this probably limited its general appeal when released back in 1992, but for those who are willing to be patient with this old port will be glad they finally finished. I know I will be. After all, a princess is waiting to be rescued!

You have to be very precise to play this game or you won't make it.The game can be very frustrating.