Prince of Persia: The Fallen King's stock is rising

by JC Fletcher { Jul 22nd 2008 at 10:15AM }

Okay, so the character art for Prince of Persia: The Fallen King falls between chibi and noooooo. And the bright, colorful environments don't fit in either the new, serious-business Prince of Persia franchise or the classic side-scrolling series. And, in fact, it doesn't look all that hot in stills.

Despite all that, and against all odds, The Fallen King looks amazing in motion. It's somewhere between the original Prince of Persia and a Mario game, with stylus integration (the one part about which we aren't quite sure). The smooth movements recall the famous rotoscoped animations found in the original game, the levels look interesting and varied, and the aesthetic actually gives the whole thing a sort of storybook feel that fits with the concept of The Sands of Time.

It's kind of too bad: we were so comfortable hating this game.

Gallery: Prince of Persia: The Fallen King

Tags: platform, prince-of-persia, the-fallen-king, ubisoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jimmijam @ Jul 22nd 2008 12:28PM

I loved the original PoP (1989) and it's sequel, Shadow and the Flame. I also enjoyed the 3D variants of recent, but for entirely different reasons... Kinda like the difference between top-down 2D GTA v.s. the current lot of 3D GTA.

A good 2D PoP would certainly be welcome (think Metroid for the GBA), especially if it can capture some of the essence of the original. Drama, adventure, mystery, etc. Damn, those originals were good.

ArakniD @ Jul 22nd 2008 1:06PM

WTH.
Was that a Raving Rabbid that I heard?
"Yuraagh"
Like a scream?
Happens maybe 5 times in that footage.

Weird.
Game looks neat though.

chispito @ Jul 22nd 2008 1:14PM

Looks kind of like Aladdin. I used to love the original shareware PoP.

supa_s @ Jul 22nd 2008 2:15PM

Doesn't look bad at all. Though the prince sounds like a 15 yr old for sum reason 0_0 might pick it up.

Venom @ Jul 22nd 2008 3:24PM

I hate it. Aladdin + chibi = ew. I'm not saying it should be all like Warrior Within, dark and bloody, but still this looks way too kiddy.

And stylus seems pretty enforced... Tapping the screen to jump off walls? Last time I checked, the buttons worked just fine.

ViRGE @ Jul 23rd 2008 12:35AM

Ditto to that. This is the particular style of touchscreen games I hate: hold the DS one handed while trying to use the screen. It's very uncomfortable and makes the stylus harder to use. If you're going to use the stylus don't use the buttons, or vice versa, stop trying to use both at once.

Aaron J. Walker @ Jul 22nd 2008 6:08PM

I know touchscreens are all the rage, but (like Venom said) what is wrong with buttons?????

The game looks really nice and I probably would go for this one except for the reliance on the stylus and touchscreen.

Here's a radical concept: why not give the consumer a choice of using buttons or stylus for playing the game?

Is using buttons to control a game now so passe? I'll stick with games that utilize the buttons my DS came with, thank you.