Prince of Persia

~ PRINCE OF PERSIA ~

Broderbund / Hudson Soft / Argent

Super CD-ROM

1992

PoP was ancient even at the time of its release for the Duo, and there are a million other versions out there. But this is a nice-looking rendition of the classic, with a quality soundtrack (by T's Music) to back it up.

I liked this game a lot when I first bought it years ago, but I find myself annoyed with a few things when I replay it these days. The combat is horrible: every fight (including the battle with the last boss) can be won in the same manner, except sometimes you have to parry twice instead of once before landing a blow.

The controls are shoddy, as they always have been, but people used to accept them because of how phenomenal the animation was back in the day.

And the trial-and-error gameplay becomes wearisome, as you end up replaying boring battles and simple stretches just to take another shot at a particularly tricky leap or puzzle.

I still think PoP is cleverly designed in a lot of ways, and I still think it's a good game all in all, but there's better stuff to play now... like Sands of Time or Warrior Within.