Cerise Magazine

The first time I played this game, way back in the twilight months of 1992, I thought Persia was a fictional country, filled with the dragons and elf warrior princesses that occupied my imagination at the time. Until my mother saw me playing the game and informed me that, no, there aren’t any dragons in Persia, but that it was a real country once upon a time. It burst my bubble but I continued playing anyway; plenty of other imaginary kingdoms to pretend to rule!

When I told a friend of mine that I was going to do Prince of Persia for this review, he laughed and said, “Oh, the unbeatable game, right?” This game is a classic in many ways, but mostly for its incredible difficulty. I was a video game prodigy at seven, but even this game proved to be a little too hard for me. To this day, in the year 2007, I still have never beaten this game… without using a cheat code, that is. I know, I know. It’s on my list of things to do.

The Story

The story is pretty basic, even for the 80’s/90’s. You are the unnamed Prince of Persia, and you have been thrown in jail by the evil Grand Vizier Jaffar. (It’s always for no reason, isn’t it? The first time I played this game I thought my character had done something wrong; I was too naïve to believe that people go to jail for no good reason back then!) In exactly one hour, he is going to marry your beloved, who I assume is the Princess of Persia, and it’s up to you to break out of the prison, stop him, and ensure that peace reigns again. Sounds easy, right? It’s just a video game, You can do anything!

The Unbeatable Game

Now, here’s the catch: the entire game really does take place within one hour. A by-the-minute timer counts down at the bottom of the screen, constantly reminding you of the urgency of your situation. There are several levels of the game, from the bottom of the dungeon to the chambers of the Grand Vizier, and every time you complete one you’re given a password. That sounds all well and good, but the password also saves your time. Add this to the fact that you can die pretty much any second, and the difficulty increases even more: The floor crumbles, revealing a forty-foot drop onto spikes, and you start the level over. You sit for a minute gauging a jump, only to realize that it’s farther than you thought, and you plummet to your death, starting the level over. You run down a hall, only to see a guard there who stabs you immediately, and you die a gruesome death and start the level over. The good news, I guess, is that you get infinite lives, and eventually you get a sword. Good luck!

Stunning Visuals

Despite its difficulty, I continue to be drawn to this game. Why? Simple: its graphics. They are simply stunning, especially considering this game was made almost entirely by one person, Jordan Mechner. Instead of animating the sprites by frame as with most games made in that day, he chose instead to film his younger brother running around and jumping up and down, and use that as the model for his sprites. It’s a technique called rotoscoping, and is still used today: check out the films Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly; they were animated exactly the same way, creating much more lifelike movement than animating the film by hand. It adds so much more depth to the game; seeing how realistic his movements are, you realize that you really are just a dude in a white smock in a dirty dungeon with an hour of traps, guards, and certain death ahead of you.

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Retro Review: Prince of Persia

August 2007 Issue

Features

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Odds 'n Ends

The Story

The Unbeatable Game

Stunning Visuals