After the success of the first two Prince of Persia games in 1989 & 1993, series creater Jordan Mechner went on to focus on other pursuits while the series was ping-ponged around a few companies. With consoles now being powerful enough in the late 90's to add a third dimension, and the series awaiting a third game, the people at Red Orb Entertainment did what any 90's team would do and released Prince of Persia 3D. The Prince unfortunately was not used to this newly added third dimension and tripped into a mediocre game (supposedly (I haven't played it)) that seemingly put the nail in the coffin for the series.
The Prince's thirst for violence across multiple art styles & dimensions
Two years later, the people at Ubi Soft decided to embrace a bunch of "world-renowned brands" from The Learning Comany, such as Pool of Radiance, Chessmaster, Harpoon and of course, our dearly departed Persian Prince. Around the same time, a young Patrice Désilets is left projectless, being bounced around from project after the release of a (surprisingly decent I hear) Donald Duck game, sits in on a presentation by the team working on a concept for a new Prince of Persia. Patrice goes quackers and asks to be assigned on this project, which was concidentally was lacking a lead designer. This new Prince of Persia of course is The Sands of Time, which ends up removing those nails from the coffin and bringing the Prince back to life.
After the success of The Sands of Time, with no time (or space) to lose, Ubisoft tasks Patrice Désilets and his team with creating a next-gen game in the series that eventually turns into another time hopping series you might've heard of. Meanwhile, just like the rise of 3D in the late 90's changed the direction of the series, the sequel to Sands of Time was struck by the inevitability that is 2000's edge, with Warrior Within, a much darker and more serious (indicative by the Godsmack-heavy OST) game. Though it's amongst my least favourite in the series, Warrior Within perfectly encapsulates what I like so much about the Prince of Persia series, it's aversion to sticking to "the greatest hits". The third game in the series, The Two Thrones, mixes that Arabian Nights feel of the first game in this 3D trilogy, with a small infusion of that mid-2000's edge, for a pretty great, if a little risk-free game.
Guess which one's the edgy one
With neither of the two 3D sequels quite living up to the success of Sands of Time, Ubisoft takes another 90 degree turn and reboots the series with the release of the aptly named Prince of Persia, which of course is the reason I'm typing all of this up. In 2003, Ubisoft released a completely different take on a succesful series with Sands of Time, and it paid off well. After so many different iterations on the world of Prince of Persia, coming up with a new idea that both a) sticks to the core themes of the series and b) is actually good seemed like an impossible task, but somehow the team at Ubi Montreal managed to do both and do it magnificently.
Gone is the trial & error and intense time limit of the original 1993 game, as well as the halls and jungle gym rooms of the Ubi 3D trilogy. Instead, you traversed through this beautifully cel-shaded open-world with a completely reworked parkour system. The "Prince" is a completely different character, voiced by an entirely different but also very prolific voice actor. This risk pays off, although not as much as Ubisoft had hoped. It was well-received and managed to sell a few million copies, but was outshined by Ubi's new baby, Assassin's Creed. It ended up receiving a short DLC that acted as an epilogue to the story.
My favourite thing about the series is how easily you can tell apart the games through screenshots
Despite all of that, the game did the unexpected for me, it managed to match the series peak in Sands of Time. It's not often I find myself thinking the 7th game in the series is one of its best, but PoP08 is that damn good. It was ahead of its time with more of an emphasis on the exploratory nature of games, and less emphasis on difficulty and being punished for failing (something you'd see in Journey in a few years). More importantly, it's the game that's established the series for me as this consantly evolving, comic book-like series, with different spins on a world. Like Spider-Man with its Ultimates and Amazings, the PoP series has its different phases, and there's something for everyone. There's not a single iteration of the series that doesn't have its dedicated fanbase (with the exception of PoP3D).
After the game and its DLC were released, Ubisoft goes on to make an okay movie starring a very not Persian Jake Gyllenhaal. In terms of games, unfortunately in a series first, they decide to very much not take a risk and instead do the opposite of what I liked about the series, and make what is essentially a "Greatest Hits" version of the Sands of Time trilogy, in The Forgotten Sands. Each console got a different game, with many calling the Wii one the best one. They're all good-to-great games, but it was a disappointing direction for the series. This ultimately ended up being the last we saw of the Prince for a long while.
Three of the Forgotten Sandses
Sometime in 2020, an old video surfaced of a cancelled Prince of Persia game that was in development after Forgotten Sands titled Redemption. It seems to borrow from heavy hitters at the time like the Uncharted and God of War games, with a bigger focus on grandiose set pieces. There's not too much information out there so there's not too much to say about this.
To continue this "Greatest Hits" direction for the series kickstarted by the 2010 movie, Ubi announced a Sands of Time remake in 2020 that eventually ended up getting rebooted and is apparently under development by Ubi Montreal. The initial reactions to the trailer were not good to say the least, so hopefully the rebooted remake ends up actually fixes that.
The Unreleased Sands
Thankfully, earlier this year, Ubi course corrected and went with a completely new direction for the series, with The Lost Crown, a 2.5D Metroidvania that, like the best of the series, completely reinvents the series while abiding by its main themes. I'm just excited for a new Prince of Persia game (first proper one in over a decade) and hope it manages to do what Prince of Persia 2008 did for me and prove that the series is unafraid of change (and that change is good!)
From the people behind Rayman Origins & Legends
This turned out to be more of a PoP overview than a PoP08 thread, so share your love (or not love) for the game! Where should Ubi go with the series after Lost Crown?
The Prince's thirst for violence across multiple art styles & dimensions
Two years later, the people at Ubi Soft decided to embrace a bunch of "world-renowned brands" from The Learning Comany, such as Pool of Radiance, Chessmaster, Harpoon and of course, our dearly departed Persian Prince. Around the same time, a young Patrice Désilets is left projectless, being bounced around from project after the release of a (surprisingly decent I hear) Donald Duck game, sits in on a presentation by the team working on a concept for a new Prince of Persia. Patrice goes quackers and asks to be assigned on this project, which was concidentally was lacking a lead designer. This new Prince of Persia of course is The Sands of Time, which ends up removing those nails from the coffin and bringing the Prince back to life.
After the success of The Sands of Time, with no time (or space) to lose, Ubisoft tasks Patrice Désilets and his team with creating a next-gen game in the series that eventually turns into another time hopping series you might've heard of. Meanwhile, just like the rise of 3D in the late 90's changed the direction of the series, the sequel to Sands of Time was struck by the inevitability that is 2000's edge, with Warrior Within, a much darker and more serious (indicative by the Godsmack-heavy OST) game. Though it's amongst my least favourite in the series, Warrior Within perfectly encapsulates what I like so much about the Prince of Persia series, it's aversion to sticking to "the greatest hits". The third game in the series, The Two Thrones, mixes that Arabian Nights feel of the first game in this 3D trilogy, with a small infusion of that mid-2000's edge, for a pretty great, if a little risk-free game.
Guess which one's the edgy one
With neither of the two 3D sequels quite living up to the success of Sands of Time, Ubisoft takes another 90 degree turn and reboots the series with the release of the aptly named Prince of Persia, which of course is the reason I'm typing all of this up. In 2003, Ubisoft released a completely different take on a succesful series with Sands of Time, and it paid off well. After so many different iterations on the world of Prince of Persia, coming up with a new idea that both a) sticks to the core themes of the series and b) is actually good seemed like an impossible task, but somehow the team at Ubi Montreal managed to do both and do it magnificently.
Gone is the trial & error and intense time limit of the original 1993 game, as well as the halls and jungle gym rooms of the Ubi 3D trilogy. Instead, you traversed through this beautifully cel-shaded open-world with a completely reworked parkour system. The "Prince" is a completely different character, voiced by an entirely different but also very prolific voice actor. This risk pays off, although not as much as Ubisoft had hoped. It was well-received and managed to sell a few million copies, but was outshined by Ubi's new baby, Assassin's Creed. It ended up receiving a short DLC that acted as an epilogue to the story.
My favourite thing about the series is how easily you can tell apart the games through screenshots
Despite all of that, the game did the unexpected for me, it managed to match the series peak in Sands of Time. It's not often I find myself thinking the 7th game in the series is one of its best, but PoP08 is that damn good. It was ahead of its time with more of an emphasis on the exploratory nature of games, and less emphasis on difficulty and being punished for failing (something you'd see in Journey in a few years). More importantly, it's the game that's established the series for me as this consantly evolving, comic book-like series, with different spins on a world. Like Spider-Man with its Ultimates and Amazings, the PoP series has its different phases, and there's something for everyone. There's not a single iteration of the series that doesn't have its dedicated fanbase (with the exception of PoP3D).
After the game and its DLC were released, Ubisoft goes on to make an okay movie starring a very not Persian Jake Gyllenhaal. In terms of games, unfortunately in a series first, they decide to very much not take a risk and instead do the opposite of what I liked about the series, and make what is essentially a "Greatest Hits" version of the Sands of Time trilogy, in The Forgotten Sands. Each console got a different game, with many calling the Wii one the best one. They're all good-to-great games, but it was a disappointing direction for the series. This ultimately ended up being the last we saw of the Prince for a long while.
Three of the Forgotten Sandses
Sometime in 2020, an old video surfaced of a cancelled Prince of Persia game that was in development after Forgotten Sands titled Redemption. It seems to borrow from heavy hitters at the time like the Uncharted and God of War games, with a bigger focus on grandiose set pieces. There's not too much information out there so there's not too much to say about this.
To continue this "Greatest Hits" direction for the series kickstarted by the 2010 movie, Ubi announced a Sands of Time remake in 2020 that eventually ended up getting rebooted and is apparently under development by Ubi Montreal. The initial reactions to the trailer were not good to say the least, so hopefully the rebooted remake ends up actually fixes that.
The Unreleased Sands
Thankfully, earlier this year, Ubi course corrected and went with a completely new direction for the series, with The Lost Crown, a 2.5D Metroidvania that, like the best of the series, completely reinvents the series while abiding by its main themes. I'm just excited for a new Prince of Persia game (first proper one in over a decade) and hope it manages to do what Prince of Persia 2008 did for me and prove that the series is unafraid of change (and that change is good!)
From the people behind Rayman Origins & Legends
This turned out to be more of a PoP overview than a PoP08 thread, so share your love (or not love) for the game! Where should Ubi go with the series after Lost Crown?
