Prince of Persia

For no real reason other than curiosity I installed Prince of Persia first. The graphics are as tasty as the screenshots. I love the animated oil painting design, and the colors are rich and summer-y, the scenery divine. The gameplay is somewhat mixed -- I'm not a huge fan of platformers, so all the jumping and running and climbing didn't do much for me. At first the instant respawning was quite nice, then the animation became annoying (because I died so frequently) and then it became an acceptable punishment as I got better, the animations less obtrusive. And, even though visually you can see quite far, it felt like a very small, tiny world since you could only stand in a few places here and there. The fights, again, beautiful to watch, but somewhat tiresome in practice. They were satisfying to win, sure, but they felt more like a timing puzzle than a battle.

I did like the banter between the Prince and Elika, at times comedic, other times serious, and later on playful and flirty. I am glad I hopped and wall-ran all the way through to the finish (about 10-15 hours of play) because the ending rewarded this weary heart. So much so I wish I could put the music on my iPhone, a sparkling token of the memory.

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