Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (GameCube)

Great game. Looks great, sound effects and music (surprisingly rock-influenced at times) are perfect for the game, and it plays like a dream.

Yes, it's a little bit easy at times; as others have pointed out, in some newly-encountered areas, the camera pans about in a path that shows you pretty much the route through the area. But, this game is a lot of fun regardless, and one that I couldn't put down. The ability to freeze and rewind time (which is limited by the way- the game isn't THAT forgiving) is a novel idea, and it's refreshing to play a game that feels so well put together and that the developers actually cared about what they were making.

Highly recommended.


Excellent...but too easy   March 20, 2004
 1 out of 4 found this review helpful

POP is undoubtedly an excellent game. The controls are very easy to pick up and allow you to pull off nice moves straight away. The graphics are the best I've seen on the GC, and the sound is great. However, the game is far too easy. Whenever you need health or a save point there always is one, combined with the dagger of time this makes it very straight forward to complete. Probably not worth paying the full amount, go and rent it for a week instead!


A great, but flawed game   March 7, 2004
 11 out of 16 found this review helpful

Prince of Persia has been rightly lauded as a fantastic game. And it is, but it also has some severe flaws that lessened the experience for me, namely that it's too easy and too short. Wonderful though the prince is to control, the game is very forgiving of your mistakes, such that you don't need to make pixel perfect jumps or moves. Whilst this would normally be a good thing, combined with the dagger of time which allows you to rewind the game to before you made that fatal error, it allows you to fly through the game at an extremely rapid pace.

On top of that the game insists on leading you by the hand through each level. Encounter a new area, and the camera will pan around showing you the route you need to take through it. Save the game, and you'll be rewarded with a vision of how approaching puzzles should be solved. These factors severely reduce the challenge that the game presents, and also the enjoyment for me, since it removes the exploration element from the game.

I completed Prince Of Persia in less than a week, and whilst I loved playing it, I was a little sad that there wasn't more of it.


Best role-playing game I've played so far...   February 29, 2004
 3 out of 8 found this review helpful

This game is brilliant! The minute you start playing it drags you in. The only time I did stop playing it was when something either came up, or I just got too tired (12.30 last night I completed the game.)

The action in POP is brilliant and you never get bored with the moves he has when beating his enemies. And then there are all the different enemies that you have and that you have to defeat in different ways (wall jumps, jumping over their heads while thrashing them with the sword etc.) The storyline is another thing that's excellent and seems to have had alot of thought put to it, with a really good twist at the end that I wasn't expecting. The only thing that confuses me (even though it's not important) is; Why is this game seven plus??? The torturing place, with blood flowing beneath you while coming out of drains is pretty nasty as well as all those coffins... millions of them...

Well, I recommend anyone who is thinking of getting this, to get it because I was unsure at first and now, it's probably one of the best role-playing games I've played so far. It's brilliant.


Ubi Soft Classic   February 27, 2004
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I have been waiting a while for this game and it was worth the wait. This is a pure classic reborn in 3D. You are the Prince of Persia and you have to defeat the evil Vizier with the help of Farah.

As i said this is a 3D game but is a lot like the 2D classic that came out long ago. Its basically the same concept with puzzles and swordfights but with a more adventure feel to it due to the larger levels.

The AI is top notch, the evil sand creatures act as they should and don't just stand there while you're next to them and will block attacks very well, don't expect an easy slash and dash. The handling of the prince is perfect using the GameCube pad and is matched with his reactions on screen.

Graphically Prince of Persia is amazing, better then the PS2 version but you would expect that and practically on a par with the Xbox version. It runs at a constant 60fps so it looks amazing and pushes the GameCube to its limit.

The sound is very good and doesn't look out of place.

Basically if you like your adventure games then this is for you, great graphics, top notch AI and the result being a very playable game. If that wasn't enough, if you finish the game you get the fully playable 2D classic! This is highly recommended.