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• The New Prince of Persia Will Let Me Right a Terrible Wrong

  Ladies and Gentlemen, I come before you to admit that I have never felt the embrace of a lover. I have never breathed deep of masculinity, reveled in the wrap of sun-bronzed arms oiled lightly by sweet perspiration. I have never had the words "I love you" spoken gently in my ear, giving me cause to shiver as if...um...some spider metaphor... Ha ha, okay. I am loved. But I have never played a Prince of Persia game. Not one. I am the 28-year-old Prince of Persia virgin. I know this is shocking and I'll understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore. Please believe me when I say that I intend to make things right, though. There are certain things in this life that no one should die without experiencing. "Play Prince of Persia" has always been in the back of my head-queue, though admittedly I've become doubly curious since I learned it's one of a precious few franchises that game critic Yahtzee loves. Every games writer wants to grow up to be Yahtzee. I personally dig the hat. I also have to admit I'm impressed by the trailer for the new-gen Prince of Persia, so I guess I'll excuse myself and go apply some perfume and check my dowry. Read More... Posted Nov 14 2008, 10:20 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: prince of persia, trailer, media, nadia oxford, true love, confessions

• Running for Your Life!

  Happy Halloween everyone! This is my favorite holiday. Every year I dress up in costume and hit the streets. No, I'm too old for Trick or Treating but you're never too old to make small children scream. Halloween is the perfect time of the year to focus on things that get our pulses pounding. On television, you don't have to flip through too many channels before you find a horror flick and on game sites you don't have to browse far before you find a post highlighting scary video games. Personally, I'm not a fan of horror but I do love it when a game tosses in a little something special designed to make you break out into a nervous sweat. So, for this holiday occasion I present three games that force you to deal with an unstoppable, “indestructible” enemy determined to hunt you down. There's only one thing you can do. Run! Read More... Posted Oct 31 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: metroid fusion, prince of persia, amber ahlborn, sly cooper, warrior within

• Portrait of the Prince Pre-Persia

  There’s something about seeing the physical inspiration for a fictional character that is both deeply exciting and unsettling. The pizza missing a lone slice, covered in tomato sauce and bubbling cheese, is downright creepy when you think about it as a basis for Toru Iwatani’s Pac-Man. Seriously think about it. That’s what Pac-man would look like if he was skinned! What does that say about Iwatani, or even me for thinking about it? Take good ol’ Mario Segali as another example. You can practically see the ghost of a red hat perched atop his mustachioed dome. Now picture him breaking bricks with his scalp and jumping on turtles. Sickly fascinating, no? I’m told this footage of Jordan Mechner’s kid brother has been floating around the net for quite some time, but today’s the first time I’ve ever laid eyes on it. Some twenty years ago, Mechner dressed the lad up in whites and then set him off running, climbing, and falling as a model for his seminal masterwork, Prince of Persia. Thing is, the boy looks exactly like the Prince in motion. Read More... Posted Oct 29 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, pac-man, prince of persia, ubisoft, super mario bros, jake gyllenhaal, Jordan mechner, GWAR

• Linearity is Not a Dirty Word

  With the dawn of 3-D games on home consoles, new buzz words and selling points like draw distance, open worlds, and free roaming worlds were birthed. Games grew in size and linearity become a negative point on many reviews. Bigger, however, is not always better, and great games should never be docked points because they proceed in a linear fashion. Content is king! It has always been an enigma to me why linearity has developed this stigma. Why it should ever be considered a negative while wide open, sandbox, free roaming aspects are typically considered a good thing. Let's ignore the entire history of gaming greatness that existed in the linear majority of 2-D games and just look at some samples from my 3-D library. Some of the most enjoyable games I've ever played have been knocked in reviews for their linearity, while other games have actually used their wide open dead space as a selling point. Read More... Posted Oct 14 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: legend of zelda, prince of persia, amber ahlborn, ratchet & clank, sly cooper, game design, jak 2

• Trailer Review: Prince of Persia

  There are a lot of things to like about the new Prince of Persia trailer. But I'm sad to see that our boy has been given a ghostly sidekick. She looks like equal parts Midna and Yorda, which means she'll probably save your butt and get in the way a lot. This was a slight problem in The Sands of Time, in which Princess Farah would accidently shoot arrows at the Prince. The red orbs that fling the Prince around are a little Metroid Prime-y, and the supplemental swinging granted by the sidekick seems to draw from Spidey. Read More... Posted Aug 22 2008, 08:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: metroid, prince of persia, ico, cole stryker

• Karateka Remake in the Works

  File this one under "unexpected". Gamasutra reports that Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner is planning to bring back the lesser known 1984 proto-brawler Karateka, though "not in the way we'd expect." During the interview, Mechner related this amazing easter egg from the original Apple II version of the game: The programmer doing copy protection for the game figured out that by messing with the bit table, the whole game could be played upside down, which is really hard to do. We thought it would be hilarious if we burned the flipped version of the game to the other side of the disk. We figured of all the people who buy the game, a couple of them would accidentally put the floppy in upside down. That way, when that person calls tech support, that tech support rep would once in blue moon have the sublime joy of saying, 'Well sir, you put the disk in upside down,' and that person would think for the rest of their life that's how software works.   Read More... Posted Jul 28 2008, 04:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: gamasutra, prince of persia, cole stryker, apple ii, karateka, easter egg

• Trailer Review: Tecmo Bowl – Kickoff

  E3 2008’s been running for just under forty-eight hours at this point, if you count yesterday’s early festivities with Microsoft and EA, and the internet is awash with flashy exciting trailers. The first gameplay footage from Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia proves that the new adventure is even more deliciously gorgeous and detailed than its already beautiful screenshots, the Mirror’s Edge gameplay demonstration delivers on the promise of that game’s unique take on first-person gaming, and iD’s Rage is exhibiting all the gloss and zombie-ness of a classic John-Carmack-Tech-Showcase. But who cares about those? Every trailer, every look at fresh gameplay from cutting edge titles, every CGI tease pales in comparison to these sixty seconds of Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff. Read More... Posted Jul 15 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, mirror's edge, ea, trailer review, prince of persia, e3, rage, id, tecmo bowl

• The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 3

  Sonic the Hedgehog - Green Hill Zone By the time the original Sonic the Hedgehog came out, Super Mario World had been out for six months in Japan. In almost every way, Mario had the edge on Sonic — more levels, more power-ups, more variety, more gaming. But there was one thing you couldn't take away from Sonic, and that was the sheer dazzle of starting up the game and entering Green Hill Zone. To this day, Green Hill Zone looks spectacular, with its sparkling ocean, lush vegetation and abstract geometry — not to mention Masato Nakamura's unforgettable music. Mario had a lot to offer, but in terms of pure physicality, most of Dinosaur Land seems awfully drab next to Green Hill Zone. (Plus, it was 1991 — "zones" were just cooler than "lands", for Chrissakes.) — PS Read More... Posted Jun 12 2008, 09:45 PM by John Constantine with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, metroid, nintendo, capcom, final fantasy, top ten, prince of persia, konami, valve, half-life, shadow of the colossus, sega, zelda, sonic the hedgehog, square-enix, god of war, einhander, final fantast vii, metal gear, the ten greatest opening levels in gaming history, mega man x, strider

• The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 2

  Metal Gear Solid 2 – The U.S.S. Discovery The opening level of Metal Gear Solid 2 is the finest Metal Gear game ever made in-and-of itself. Forget Hideo Kojima’s cinematic pretensions for just a moment and think about the raw play available in this self-contained prologue scenario. The tools of MGS’ trade may not be available to Snake in their totality here, but every inch of the tanker acts as a playground for the series' most fundamental mechanics. You can sneak through without ever being seen or you can kill every Russian soldier you come across. There is an expertly paced boss fight. There is skin-mag related humor. It’s all here. Now layer Kojima’s cinematic pretensions back on top of all that considering they are at their best (read: most restrained) here and you have a beginning that is, arguably, superior to anything the follows or precedes it in the entire series. — JC Read More... Posted Jun 12 2008, 09:30 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, metroid, nintendo, capcom, final fantasy, top ten, prince of persia, konami, valve, half-life, shadow of the colossus, sega, zelda, sonic the hedgehog, square-enix, god of war, einhander, final fantast vii, metal gear, the ten greatest opening levels in gaming history, mega man x, strider

• The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 1

  First impressions are important, in videogames as they are in life. The first moments you spend with any art can define your experience of it. They compel you to dig deeper, to more carefully consider the work or the hand that crafted it. Other times, they can be so startling that everything that follows is diminished. This week, 61 Frames Per Second looks at the ten greatest opening levels in gaming history. Stick with us past the first one though. They’re all great. — John Constantine Prince of Persia 2 - Rooftop Chase The original Prince of Persia was a unique and wonderful game, but it wasn't much for setting. Half the game takes place in a monochromatic dungeon, and the other in a monochromatic palace. 2 quickly makes up for it; about to be executed by the Vizier's goons, the Prince leaps through a window, and from there it's up to you to guide him across the palace rooftops, into the marketplace below, down a long pier, finally leaping into the hold of a departing merchant ship — all with those guards on your tail. The stage is a real nail-biter, and all the more memorable because the rest of the game is comparatively subdued. — Peter Smith Read More... Posted Jun 12 2008, 09:15 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, metroid, nintendo, capcom, final fantasy, top ten, prince of persia, konami, valve, half-life, shadow of the colossus, sega, zelda, sonic the hedgehog, square-enix, god of war, einhander, final fantast vii, metal gear, the ten greatest opening levels in gaming history, mega man x, strider

• Character Case Study: When Good Characters Get Bad Attitudes

  Written by Amber Ahlborn Outside of puzzle and simulation genres, games tend to be very character-centric. As such, character development can be important to games with some detail to their stories. Alas, games are still typically lightweights as literary pieces and cliches abound. Currently the antihero is popular; a cheap way to add depth to a character is slapping on a tragic back story and injecting them with a bad attitude. Sometimes this works out and sometimes it simply ruins a good thing. Two characters who beautifully illustrate these extremes are Jak and the Prince. Read More... Posted Jun 05 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: prince of persia, amber ahlborn, jak and daxter, character case study

• Top Ten Most Terrifying Enemies and Then Five More

  I’ve got to hand it to Cracked, this is an almost perfect list of pants-wetting aggressors from videogames across the ages. Wallmasters, poison head crabs, Baron von Blubba, and Sinistar have all caused seriously tense moments for me in addition to all sounding like euphemisms for incurable STDs. That said, there are a handful of noticeable omissions from this list. 61 Frames Per Second, being the civil minded outlet it is, brings you five other baddies. Read More... Posted May 15 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, metroid, final fantasy, cracked, top ten, silent hill, prince of persia, a boy and his blob