The realisation that Christmas had truly arrived came in an MSN conversation between myself and PrattP. You see, as a games reviewer my working relationship with him basically consists of me asking for games he’ll never get, and him sending me games I never like (with the exception of Monster Jam). Naturally, it was a surprise when he asked me, out of the blue, if I wanted to review Prince of Persia: The Fallen King. I nearly jumped out of my skin, because this game, a 2D platformer from Ubisoft that was said to make extensive use of the touch screen, was one I’d been looking forward to and was willing to spend real money on. PrattP claimed that the fact that he was finally sending me a game I actually wanted was a sign that the Christmas season was here. He must have thought it was a Christmas miracle, and I can’t really blame him, because unlike most of the games that have been reviewed for this site lately, Fallen King is actually quite good!

I suppose I should provide a bit of background to this review. As most of you no doubt already know, the Prince of Persia (PoP) series was recently re-invented in 3D, with a trilogy of successful games being released on PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and PC (for the record, Sands of Time is one of my top 10 favourite games of all time). Now, a new generation of hardware has brought with it another re-invention of the series, with a new 3D PoP game on Xbox 360 and PS3 that builds on the success of the aforementioned trilogy while adding a raft of new ideas and next-gen graphics. The big surprise is that the game has also found its way to the DS- well, not the same game, but a re-imagining of the game in a 2D format.

'Why didn't I just take the stairs?'

The DS version appears to take the same story as the console games and give it an alternate timeline of sorts. The story still revolves around the ancient battle between the God of Light (Ormazd) and the God of Darkness (Ahriman). Ahriman has returned and begun corrupting the world, turning humans and animals evil and draining the life out of everything. Obviously, the Prince is not gonna stand by and let this happen, and he heads off on a quest to awaken Ormazd and rid the world of the Corruption.

Unlike the console versions, Elika does not help you here (she does appear in the intro though). Instead, your helper character is a semi-corrupted mage by the name of Zal. Rather than acting as a constant helper, he provides specialised, Corruption-based abilities which are required to unlock treasures, solve movement puzzles and such. Despite his presence, the game is still based around the Prince doing what the Prince does best, and fortunately this is where the game shines.

Controlling the Prince is done with the stylus, and while it may seem tricky at first, moving around the stages is heaps of fun if you can adapt to the controls. Some things take a while to work out, but if you persist you’ll soon be rolling, jumping, wall-jumping, dodging traps, fighting enemies, and all the other things you would do in other PoP games. Fighting is done via the touch screen, but unfortunately, you can’t chain multiple enemies together in a combo like you could in Sands of Time. The fights are essentially one-on-one affairs (despite the fact that you’re usually attacked by two enemies at once) and fairly straightforward, but they do their job well enough. Besides, PoP games are never about the fighting- they’re about movement puzzles, and this element works very well in the 2D setting. Moving through the stages is linear but fun, as it was in the last-gen PoP games, and if you enjoyed the movement puzzles in those games you should feel right at home here. The touch screen controls do occasionally result in some strange crossovers (ie. doing one thing when you meant to do another) but anyone who’s played a stylus-based game before should be used to this by now.

'Well, I'm stumped. You got any ideas Zal?'

The whole game is more reminiscent of Sands of Time than the other last-gen PoP games. It’s full of bright colours, great-looking environments, movement puzzles, and that feeling of magic and wonder. The 2D still frames used in cut scenes look fantastic, and the in-game graphics are done in full 3D, which means that instead of switching to a separate cut scene during a stage, the camera will change to a more cinematic angle to show the event using the in-game graphics. As is the standard with PoP games, the Prince is brilliantly animated, and is arguably one of the best animated characters in any 2D platformer on the DS. The environments are great as well, and while some seem a little bit strange and/or out of place (ie. the wharf), there’s still plenty of deserts, temples, and Middle Eastern architecture to make up for it.

(While we’re on the subject of presentation, I want to make a special mention of the game cover, because it is one of my favourite DS game covers ever. With two great-looking protagonists, a variety of colours and environments, and a majestic Persian temple in the background, it really is an impressive piece of artwork that gets you, or me anyway, excited about the game that is to come. While Australia usually comes off second-best in this sort of thing, getting edited game covers that are worse than the originals, it appears we are the winners this time around!)

If there was one problem with the graphics, it would be that slowdown is quite frequent, but it’s not bad enough to ruin the game. Unlike some games, the slowdown doesn’t result in controls not registering and other things that result in your untimely and very frustrating death. It just slows the game down, bullet-time style, which is annoying but doesn’t affect the core gameplay.

Maybe I can harvest these crystals and build some Tesla Coils! Whoops, wrong game...

Despite the game having a very good story, I have to say that most of the Prince’s dialogue (all text by the way) sucks. His intro dialogue is quite good, but once the game starts he seems completely dumbed down for kids. Despite the occasional good piece of dialogue, he mostly reels off a bunch of jokes and one-lines that aren’t funny at all, not even in a ‘so-bad-it’s-funny’ kind of way (like Spider-Man). The saving grace is Zal, who adds some dignity and emotional weight to the story, and in general provides a nice, straight-faced counterpoint to the kid-friendly comedy act of the Prince. This doesn’t affect the gameplay or anything, but be forewarned- if you were expecting anything like you saw in the last-gen trilogy of PoP games (the pompous royal from Sands of Time, the serious fighter from Warrior Within, etc), be prepared for something different. On another note, I found it extremely funny when the Prince said ‘We can’t change the past’, because, you know, he just spent three games doing just that.

Prince of Persia: The Fallen King is a game that I enjoyed a lot. While I play most review games just to see what they offer, I found myself playing this one purely for fun. Within a few minutes, I was completely hooked on the Prince’s latest adventure, mesmerised by his on-screen acrobatics and eagerly playing ‘just one more stage’ to see what was next. Fallen King is not merely the best game I’ve been sent to review by TNB, it is a very good game in its own right and a late contender for best DS platformer of 2008. Don’t miss it!

By Mr_M

Graphics: B+

Bright and colourful, with great 2D still frames used to tell the story. Slowdown is annoying but doesn’t interfere with the gameplay.

Sound: B+

Solid if unspectacular.

Gameplay: A-

Takes some getting used to, but the stylus-based controls make the Prince of Persia formula feel fresh again.

Overall: B+

An enjoyable 2D platformer that feels right at home on the DS.