Gameplay

Prince Of Persia is one of those rare games that features 3D graphics but has 2D gameplay, a bit like Eidos' Pandemonium or Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. PoP plays a lot like a traditional platform game, though it looks much more modern.

PoP for N-Gage is quite heavy on plot, with cut scenes and a story running through the entire game. The characters' dialogue is presented in a very Japanese style, despite this being an American game franchise being published by a European company, but it suits the old-fashioned console-like gameplay.

However, despite its retro gameplay, this incarnation of PoP bears very little relation to the original PC game. The old game's maze-like structure is totally gone, replaced with something much more linear and brainless. This version constantly points you in the right direction and spoonfeeds you what you're meant to do next: there are arrows saying which way to jump, doors that close behind you to drive you in the right direction, invisible barriers to stop you straying, and camera movements that tell you in advance how to solve even the easiest puzzle. This kind of thing is great to have on a first level where you learn the controls, but it gets a bit silly seeing a "this way" arrow when you've solved most of the game.

Replay value is added by the coins system however, where you earn a large point pickup for collecting all the coins on a level. This is actually quite difficult on some levels, and is the one thing which may have you going back to revisit the completed game.

You control a character that can run, jump, stand still, and all kinds of other actions depending on the context. For example there are ledges and walls to climb up, poles to balance on, vines to climb along, tunnels to crawl through etc. You also occasionally get an enemy to fight, but there's very little skill involved, you just press up to kill the smaller enemies and pound the fire button to kill the bigger ones. There are end-of-level bosses now and then, but they aren't much more difficult than the ordinary monsters. There aren't any of the Errol Flynn-style sword fights that made the original game so exciting.

In certain situations the game makes you control another character that can fly, very much like Tails from Sonic 2. In theory this is to allow you to solve "puzzles", but they're not really puzzles because the game shows you how to solve them in advance.

There are also special levels where you fly on a dragon collecting bonuses and shooting enemies. Although these bonus levels look quite good graphically, they play very badly as they have atrocious collision detection.

Graphics & Sound

Prince Of Persia looks absolutely wonderful. The 3D graphics fit really well with the 2D playing style, and the cut scenes use the same graphics engine so they merge seamlessly with the gameplay. Characters are animated in great detail, for example the hero breathes while he stands still, and occasionally wipes the sweat from his brow.

In fact the screenshots in this article don't do justice to the game, because there are several layers of background objects and lots of animation on the background too, such as palm trees swaying in the wind. Although this writer has previously criticised Gameloft's 3D engine, it seems that it suits PoP extremely well, and hopefully Gameloft will make more "3D-2D" games in the same style.

The sound is even better, with excellent music tracks accompanying each level, and high quality sound effects throughout the game. Apparently the relatively large file size of PoP's N-Gage version is due to this enhanced soundtrack.

It's also rather amusing that the death music and "try again" screen kick in the millisecond you die, so you barely even get to hear the character scream. The effect is similar to the TV game show Unbeatable Banzuke where the contestants are replaced the instant they fail a task.

N-Gage Arena & Multiplayer Options

Just score uploads and Point Pickups. No multiplayer of any kind.

To make things worse, the score uploads are not really high scores, they're actually just an accumulation of all your scores. In other words, if you play the game a lot you'll get higher on the table, even if you're playing the game very badly. The tables are just a test of how often you play the game.

Television Test

Some N-Gage-compatible phones (e.g. Nokia 6710 Navigator, 6720 Classic, N79, N82, N85, N86, N95, N95 8GB, N96, N97) have a TV Out feature which lets you connect the phone to a television set. This can be used for playing N-Gage games, or for any other phone function.

All N-Gage phones are compatible with Bluetooth keyboards that use the HID Bluetooth standard, and such a keyboard can be used to control games or any other phone function. You can also use Nintendo Wii controllers with N-Gage games by installing mobiPad on your phone.

Although it inevitably looks more pixellated than on a phone, the TV version of PoP for N-Gage still looks reasonably nice, and plays just as well as on the small screen. It's a bit like a PS1-era platform game.

PoP's excellent sound is great to hear through a television set's speakers.

Overall

Prince Of Persia for N-Gage is both impressive and disappointing. It's impressive because it looks and sounds brilliant, with lush graphics and thrilling music. It's disappointing because there isn't actually much interesting to do. It's too easy and too dull.

In many ways PoP suffers from the same problem as Dirk Dagger, it assumes the player has no intelligence at all and guides them all the way through the game without really letting them work things out for themselves. This game would have been much more fun if it included proper puzzles, dead ends and other challenges, so that players who beat the game would feel a sense of achievement. As it is, playing PoP is more like following a script than actually solving or beating anything.

On top of this, the higher levels of difficulty are locked at the start of the game, and the only way to unlock them is to play all the way through the easiest level. How many people will bother with the higher levels if they've just seen the entire game on easy?

Just to make things clear, this isn't a terrible game. There is a decent amount of gameplay, it is quite good fun to try and make the right jumps, and the difficulty on the very last level is just about right. But this is spoilt by the over-protective interface which gives too many hints and clues automatically, and forces you down the correct path too often.

So, Gameloft, please do another game in the same style, but design some levels with a bit more challenge, don't spoonfeed solutions to the player, don't lock the higher levels, and maybe we'll enjoy actually playing it more.

AAN Score: 70%