Prince of Persia: The lost crown is undoubtedly the video game of the beginning of the year. Will it, however, be the video game of the year? In any case, he has all the qualities. This new opus of the cult saga, imagined at the end of the 1980s by Jordan Mechner, is a little gem, re-patinated by the Ubisoft teams, in Montpellier (Hérault).
In this new adventure, 20 minutes was able to test in preview, we play Sargon, a young warrior as badass as possible, sent to the rescue of a prince in trouble. He and his brothers in arms, the Immortals, then rush into a world inspired by Persian mythology, where we explore, without ever getting bored, sumptuous palaces, hostile underground spaces, molten hells or inhospitable forests…
Metroidvania, puzzles, platforms… A clever cocktail of genres
If this new Prince of Persia is a success, it is firstly because it accurately borrows the mechanics of several genres. It is, of course, above all, an excellent Metroidvania, the contraction of Metroid and of Castlevaniawhich characterizes video games where we evolve in connected worlds, which require going back and forth, to recover powers or particular weapons and unlock new rooms. Prince of Persia: The lost crown is a treat, for those who love these video games, which have become far too rare today: we take great pleasure in getting lost in the different universes, and in discovering new skills, then going back, to open a new door or to access a hidden box.
But this new Prince of Persia is also a real pleasure for those who like little puzzles. Zeldaand the pure platform sequences like Mario. As for those who like a fight, they will also find what they are looking for, as the confrontations with the supervillains are a pleasure. It’s a shame, however, that the enemies don’t all have life bars: we don’t always know how many times we have to hit these vermin so that they are defeated. And it’s a bit frustrating.
The game returns to the fundamentals of the saga started in the 1980s
But bring life back to Prince of Persia, whose franchise has experienced a big crossing of the desert in recent years, was a more than perilous undertaking for Ubisoft. If the studio is doing wonderfully, it’s because it was able to return to the fundamentals of video games that Jordan Mechner imagined, on his Apple II, more than thirty years ago.
By opting for 2.5 D, halfway between 2D and 3D, and for old-fashioned gameplay, where you move from left to right and right to left, from bottom to top and from top to bottom (and that’s it!) Prince of Persia touches the hearts of those who knew the Five, the Walkman and telephones with cords. We see ourselves wandering through the corridors of the palace in the original 1988 game, failing to jump, getting impaled on spikes, starting again, failing to jump, impaling ourselves on spikes, starting again, failing to jump…
Those who are not yet 30 years old are not excluded, however, from the project: perhaps the choice of a design that is both cartoonish and Japanese will also succeed in attracting younger people. So yes, Prince of Persia is not a visual slap in the face, the graphics are not revolutionary, it is neither Spider-Man IIneither The last of us II. But that’s not what we’re asking of it: it’s a video game for those who only have eyes for the gameplay, for the pleasure of playing. We really enjoy exploring this ancient Persia, getting lost there, playing swords, solving secondary missions while keeping an eye on the main plot… And, above all, giving monumental beatings to the bosses, another advantage of this Prince of Persia : the monsters are particularly successful, and the fights are epic.
THE Prince of Persia that Jordan Mechner had wanted “for a long time”
Ubisoft’s choices seem, moreover, to have convinced Jordan Mechner himself, who endorsed the return of the saga, when this new game was officially announced on June 8, 2023. “It’s been so long since I been waiting for this moment, I can’t believe it’s finally here, rejoiced the creator of the original Prince of Persia, on his blog. This is a new beginning. I didn’t write it, nor participated directly, which means that I will have the pleasure of discovering its surprises as a player. I know the talented team at Ubisoft Montpellier well, I’ve seen them put all their heart and passion into this project for three years, from pre-design to beta, and I couldn’t be more excited. That’s the game Prince of Persia that I had wanted for a long time. »
There remains the thorny question of difficulty, which has caused a lot of discussion in the small world of video games in recent years. Here, it’s… up to you. Before starting the adventure, you have the choice between different modes, including a fast mode, a normal mode, and several difficult modes. Or even downright unaffordable. Our advice, if you are not a hardcore gamer, and you want to avoid throwing your console or your PC out the window, opt for normal mode. The difficulty is well balanced, and from the third boss, it already stings a little. And, who knows, if you become a prince of swordsmanship, nothing prevents you from restarting a more difficult game afterwards.
Prince of Persia: The lost crown will be available on January 18 on Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series S and X, Xbox One and PC. If you like adventure, and you have a weakness for retro mechanics, you would be wrong to deprive yourself of it.