Little Bit of History: Designed by Jordan Mechner and published by Brøderbund. Prince of Persia was released in 1989 and started a sub genre of gaming known as the cinematic platformer. Jordan Mechner has said he got the idea for the game from watching his younger brother running and jumping while playing. In fact the rotoscoping used for the animation of the main character is that of Jordan Mechner’s younger brother.
Little Bit of Plot/Story: You play as a nameless protagonist, you are locked in the dungeons of a place to be kept away from the Princess. The Princess is being held against her will by the evil Jaffar who forces the Princess to marry him or be executed. You have to fight your way out of the dungeons and get to the Princess before she is executed all in 60 minutes.
Little Bit of Character: Along with the nameless protagonist and even nameless Princess. There is the antagonist, Jaffar and various nameless guards and even a doppelgänger of the protagonist to contend with.
Little Bit of Influence: While Jordan Mechner has said he was influenced by Arabian Nights stories and the Indiana Jones films, Prince of Persia has gone on to become it’s own successful franchise spawning sequels, reboots and remakes. An interesting note being that the Assassin’s Creed game series was in fact originally going to be developed as a Prince of Persia spin-off called; Prince of Persia: Assassins. Prince of Persia also inspired other similar games such as the Tomb Raider and the Oddworld series among others.
Little Bit of Memories: I still remember the first time seeing this game and thoroughly being impressed by the animation. The game was a joy to play back then with action a plenty as well as offering a fair but tough challenge. Trying to work out how to defeat that darn doppelgänger had me stuck for ages until the obvious answer came to me.
Little Bit of Playability: The game is still a great little title to play now and again but some may find it a little “ropey” by today’s standards. But I urge gaming fans to try the game out or even it’s remake Prince of Persia Classic.
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