If we wanted to be at the release of the first part of the Prince of Persia game, we would have to move to 1989. Her father was the American Jordan Mechner, who at that time had already released another successful game called Karateka. Mechner originally wanted to leave the game industry and devote himself to film direction, but he was persuaded by the Brøderbund studio to stay in gaming industryand thus a legend was born.

The project, which took about four years to develop, was originally called Baghdad. However, the creators finally decided on a different name, so on October 3, 1989, the game Prince of Persia was released, which caused a revolution in the gaming industry thanks to its great gameplay, interesting mechanics and great graphics for its time.

Video showing the development of the game:

Success came in Japan

However, the birth of the legend was not easy at all. Upon release, the game had sales problems. Especially in the US, the sales success did not come, so the creators had to wait for a huge response in Japan and also in Europe. However, it ended up selling over two million copies of this one gameswhich was incredible at the time.

“A great game that I may have played as my first. Simply an unforgettable classic,” writes user Dawid199 on one of the gaming forums. And others have no choice but to agree.

As the Gamepark-cz portal writes, Prince of Persia was, at first glance, a classic 2D platformer. This genre was experiencing its golden age at the time.

What set it apart from platformers was an exotic fairy tale story and fantastic gameplay. Every player will be immediately hit by the smell of the remote and be tempted by the adventure taking place in the distant eastern world.

“Right there, somewhere in the desert, from a lost city, the local sultan goes to war. In his absence, the treacherous vizier Jaffar seizes the abandoned throne and is about to marry the sultan’s beautiful daughter. Fortunately, an imprisoned prince escapes from the city jail and sets out to help her. The journey full of dangers and fights to save the girl begins,” says GamePark.

Rescue within sixty minutes

It is said that Mechner was inspired by a movie to create the environment of the Orient Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark and of course also the classic collection of fairy tales One Thousand and One Nights. In total, players had to deal with twelve levels as well as a time limit. They had to save the Sultan’s daughter within sixty minutes.

“What set the game apart from other platformers at the time was its fantastic gameplay. It also offered a gradational challenge, aided by a solid but manageable difficulty. The game lacks, now a classic option to save, so if you were killed, you had to go to the beginning of the level.” GamePark

As is usually the case with successful things, the sequel could not wait long. Four years later, in 1993, the second volume is published with the subtitle The Shadow and the Flame. Greater hardware capabilities have led to the fact that developers could offer players a story in 256 colors with twice as many animations.

“Here, unlike number one, you could save the game at any time, so losing a life wasn’t such a disaster. But the fights could be called a disaster. You were not only waiting for classic gentlemen in turbans with sabers, but also snakes, flying heads and maybe a death on the bridge,” describes the server Doupě.

A loser with a good story

The third part of the game became the worst-rated part of the entire Prince of Persia 3D series by players. The game offered gamers a big change in 1999. It abandoned the original 2D graphics and succumbed to the trend in the form of 3D, but its development faced financial and technical problems, so it was released prematurely.

However, the new Prince of Persia presented himself badly animations, bad graphics, terrible camera and a lot of bugs and errors. Only a good story saved her from the fiasco. However, overall it was a big flop.

Prince of Persia 3D Gameplay:

Brand new dagger

Such a fiasco is often followed by a complete end or a hopeful reboot. Fortunately, in the case of Prince of Persia, it was the second option. The concept was bought by a French studio Ubisoft, which earned a successful reboot thanks to The Sands of Time. In addition to a number of new cool mechanics, the player was also pleased with the brand new Dagger of Time, with which the player could turn back time and correct his mistakes.

After a successful reboot, director Patrice Désilets was commissioned to develop another installment for a future console version. Désilets wanted to make an open world game, but the main hero should no longer be the prince. Instead of him, the main character should have been his protector, i.e. the assassin.

However, Ubisoft didn’t like it. The creative team was thus moved to a new project, which resulted in nothing but another legendary game series – Assassin’s Creed. But maybe next time…

The first part of the “new” Prince of Persia is followed by three more games, again the successful titles Warrior Within (2004), Two Thrones (2005) and the last game The Forgotten Sand (2010).

Among them is the even more fairytale-themed game Prince of Persia, which was released in 2008.

“For me it’s the best looking game in the whole series. Unlike the parts from the new trilogy, a completely different graphic style is used here, and even today it has nothing to be ashamed of. However, the gameplay is not so rosy anymore. Somehow it lacks fluidity. In particular, I find it difficult to overcome obstacles and climb walls without interruption. Even the fights seemed slower than before. In its essence, however, it is still a great jumper that will entertain you for several hours,” reports Doupě.cz.

Video about all games:

The highly successful series subsequently became the inspiration for the film of the same name, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which, however, tells a different story than the one we know from the games. But then the Prince of Persia fell into a long sleep. Will studio Ubisoft ever bring him back to life? That is a question. The signs were there, but so far everything has ended so-called on the ice.