Memory Lane: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
The games industry is moving forward; new games and new consoles complete with better graphics, huge game maps, and a fully functional interactive environment letting players do almost everything they want to with just the push of a button. With so many new titles coming out, it's easy to forget about the games that came before. So many consoles have come and gone, how many of them do you still have in your possession? Those Sega Genesis games you just could never put down, that Nintendo gun controller, or even that old Dreamcast which, although its time was short, still had some pretty awesome games to play.
I for one still have my Sega Genesis and my Playstation 2. It's hard for me to part with any of them. But even so, I tend to neglect my old games for awhile before finally going back to them in order to relive that great gaming experience I had when I first played them. So, basically, that's what this feature is about. Going back through our collections and reminiscing about a game that we used to play nonstop.
There is one game in my collection, well, was in my collection before someone borrowed it and never gave it back [/grumble], that I would have no qualms about breaking out and playing over and over again even though I have opened all of the secret areas, know all of the spoilers, and the puzzles.
For those who do not know a lot about it, the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time series revolves around the adventures of an unnamed Prince who becomes the sole owner of a special dagger which is used to control time. The first game starts when the Prince first finds the dagger and then is tricked by the maharajah's evil Vizier into releasing the sands of time. By doing this, the sands then curse the city and turn all of its inhabitants into monsters. The only 3 who are protected by the sands are the Prince by his dagger, the Vizier by his staff, and a mysterious princess named Farah by her medallion. It's up to the Prince and Farah to stop the evil Vizier and seal the sands of time once again.
What captured my interest initially was the incorporation of time manipulation. Never before had I played a game with this kind of mechanic and I must say straight away I almost wish every game had it. How this operates is the Prince must collect sands in order to fill up his sand meter. The Prince can do this by either killing enemies, breaking vases, or sucking them from various areas where you see sand coming from the floor. With the sands, the Prince is then able to reverse time, speed up time, or slow time down. In some cases you can even use the sand to freeze up enemies and kill them in one hit.
The Prince will earn most of these abilities over time, but the first one he learns is the reverse time ability which is definitely my favorite. Often in games, I'll get too big for my boots and I try to speed through things as fast as I can which often leads me to my death. With the reverse time ability, I can instantly reverse time from my last mess up and then continue forward. This has helped me out so many times and I tend to get pretty dependent on it. This made the game a lot more fun to play whereas if I had to go back to a checkpoint miles away every time I died, it would just make things so much more frustrating.
One critique I will mention about the first game is that the combat system is very redundant. You have one button to do attacks with and there is no real variety. I tended to get a bit bored with the huge boss battles because of this. However, in the second and third installment, they improved the fighting style extensively offering many more fighting options.
The environment is pretty interactive as it's one of the first games I played where you need to utilize your environment by finding places to climb or jump in order to move forward. I loved the setting of this game since it was all set within a very beautiful Persian kingdom decked with gorgeous sculptures and golden tiles. Also, as a side note, I loved Yuri Lowenthal's voice work as the Prince. His voice is so wonderful to listen to in this game and his witty dialogue is well presented.
The reason I choose this game is because this is one of the only games and franchises that I was ever really dedicated to. After playing this first one, I went out and bought the second and third installment both of which I have played through multiple times. The first game has romance, an entertaining gameplay style, and a wonderful environment to roam through. Although the graphics are quite dated, everything else in Prince of Persia Sands of Time makes up for it.
So if you're feeling a bit nostalgic or are just curious about it, I highly recommend checking out the Prince of Persia Sands of Time series. For those who do not have access to a PS2, do not fret. Ubisoft has released a special high definition version for the PS3 in Europe and a digital download version for those in America. This version includes trophies and more so definitely check it out!
