Prince of Persia (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Virgin's 1992 platformer for the NES, Prince of Persia.

Originally released for the Apple II in 1989, Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia was the game that introduced the "cinematic platformer" to the masses, paving the way for later hits like Out of this World and Flashback.

While the sultan of the kingdom is off fighting a war in some distant land, Jaffar, his royal vizier, has decided to make a grab for power. You are the object of the princess's affection, and since Jaffar sees you as a threat to his plans, you have been arrested and tossed in a dungeon below the palace. Jaffar then locks up the princess, tells her that she can either marry him or die, and gives her an hour to make up her mind.

That gives you exactly sixty minutes to arm yourself, escape the dungeon, storm the palace, dispose of Jaffar, and save the girl. Succeed, and you'll become the Prince of Persia.

The controls and the fluid animation work hand-in-hand to set a deliberate pace for the action, and the game's fourteen stages - gauntlets filled with deadly pitfalls, spike traps, and swordfighting guards - are driven by parkour-like platforming challenges that demand careful consideration and total precision. Prince of Persia isn't an easy game, but it's one that becomes supremely satisfying to play as you come to grips with the controls, the level layouts, and how to best put your acrobatic skillset to use in racing the clock.

A couple of changes have been made for this port: the intro was cut and the ending simplified, the level design was tweaked, and you now fight a skeleton instead of a doppelganger on the twelfth floor. But, those things aside, the NES version's gameplay retains everything that made the Apple II version great. The controls are reliable and suitably weighty, the rotoscoped sprites are smoothly animated, and the challenge is stiff but fair.

Prince of Persia for the NES gets a thumbs up from me.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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