Does Ubisoft's DS spin off live up to the Prince of Persia name?
Prince of Persia: The Fallen King is a handheld spin off of Prince of Persia (2008) featuring the latest incarnation of the Prince. The game has you guiding the Prince as he seeks to summon Ormazd to aid in the fight against Ahriman. Along the way he meets a magus named Zal, who he eventually teams up with. As the game progresses, you learn more about who Zal really is.
Not having played the console release of the new Prince of Persia, I can't say how well his character was translated. The Prince in this game is reminiscent of the Prince in Sands of Time however. His relatively optimistic outlook and cheesy comments brought a smile to my face after bearing through the old Prince becoming emo in Warrior Within. The Prince's sidekick in this outing, Zal is quite a bit more serious than the Prince. As you learn more about Zal this personality is quite fitting for him. Overall the story and character development are weak, but this is a Prince of Persia game, not a best selling novel. I didn't pick this game up for the story, I picked it up in the hopes of the acrobatic game play the series is noted for.
The game is controlled entirely by stylus. Every move the Prince can perform is done by tapping the touch screen with the stylus. To make the Prince move, one simply holds the stylus on the screen in the direction you want the Prince to move. The further from the Prince you place the stylus the faster he runs. Jumping gaps is accomplished by simply tapping the other side and, assuming the gap isn't too large the Prince will leap to the other side. If it is too large the Prince will fall and die or take damage depending on how far he falls. Dieing isn't that big of a deal however as you simply start at the last check point with full life. And the game is quite generous with check points, usually placing them liberally throughout the levels.
The Acrobatics in this game consist of the aforementioned jumping, wall climbing and running, wall jumps and pillar climbing/jumping. All of this control by tapping certain spots on the screen. To climb a wall, simply tap it. When the Prince is on the wall, tapping above him will cause him to wall run up a certain distance and then tapping away from the wall will cause you to jump off the wall. Tapping below yourself will cause the Prince to start sliding down the wall faster. Pillars are like walls in that you can jump onto them and off them, but you can shimmy up and down by holding the stylus above or below the Prince respectively. Also, by tapping the opposite side of the Prince, he will swing to the other side.
Once the Prince teams up with Zal, you also have control of Zal's magic. This is done by holding any button on the DS and then using the stylus to perform various actions. Certain items in the environment can be manipulated in this way by holding or dragging the stylus over them. Zal can also shoot magic energy by tapping the screen with the stylus or shield the Prince by holding the stylus over him with a button depressed.
Combat in the game is simple, reminiscent of Sands of Time, but sparsely placed. To attack, one simply taps on an enemy, or, slashes them with the stylus for a strong attack. You can also use Zal's magic to stun certain enemies so the Prince can attack them. That is the basis of combat, really.
The boss fights are based around gimmicks, requiring the use of techniques learned in that world. This results in fun and unique fights, though they are, once you figure out the strategy, easy encounters. But the boss fights and combat aren't really why anyone plays a Prince of Persia game. One plays a Prince of Persia game for the platforming. And it is the quality of the platforming and jumping puzzles that make or break a game in this series.
The platforming in this title is hit and miss. At times the levels seem inspired and are a blast to play through. This usually occurs though at the beginning of a world where new elements are introduced and you see the style of puzzle they are used in for the first time. After that, the later levels in a world seem to reuse the same puzzles from the earlier levels, making only minor variations to them, such as increasing the length or mixing in an older element. These changes aren't enough though to keep the puzzles from feeling rehashed. The platforming also suffers from inexact controls. There are some sections that require rather precise maneuvers more suited to a traditional control scheme. To say the least, the touch controls can be imprecise and cause allot of frustration during some of the more complex platforming sections.
For each world, there is a map that allows you to select levels. When you have a level selected, at the bottom of the screen the number of treasure chests hidden in the level and whether or not an extra can be purchased is displayed. The extras are additional life and resurrection orbs. The additional life is self explanatory, it simply increases the Princes max health. The resurrection orbs allow the Prince to respawn with full life if killed during a boss encounter without having to restart the fight. When this happens the, or orb is consumed. To get these, they can be purchased by paying coins, which are collected in the levels, at gates hidden in certain levels on each world.
Also hidden in levels are treasure chests, worth 20 coins each. The number in each level varies and some can't be reached on the first play through of the level since they may require techniques not gained till a later level. To buy every upgrade, you will need to grind coins and you must purchase every upgrade you want in a world before taking on the worlds boss since once he is defeated you are moved to the next world and cannot back track to previous worlds.
Graphically, the game uses a stylized 2D animation which looks quite good on the small DS screen. Cut scenes are done in a comic book style with text and text bubbles explaining the story. The music is forgettable.
Conclusion
Overall, Prince of Persia: The Fallen King is an enjoyable, if easy, game if you can get by its two largest faults. Those faults being the sometimes frustrating control scheme and the lack of creativity in some of the levels, which lead to the game feeling longer than it should be... And even with that, the game will only last most players around five hours or so. The story is rather forgettable as well, but I am willing to overlook that since the focus of the game is on platforming.
Score: 6/10
