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Prince of Persia
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When your top ten list involves games released more than two decades ago, they can’t just be good games they have to be industry-changing games. Prince of Persia fits that criteria perfectly. Developed by Jordan Mechner and published by Broderbund, Prince of Persia is famous for introducing close-combat and life-like animation to the platform genre. And if you thought this game was released in 1989, you’d be right. But that was for the Apple II which means no one else saw it till 1990...that’s how we’re counting it!
The premise of the game is that your character (who looks remarkably anglo-saxon for Persia), has attracted the eye of the Princess, much to the chagrin of Jaffar (must all Persian stories include a Jaffar?). In one vicious cutscene, Jaffar issues an ultimatum to a house-arrested Princess...marry him within the hour or die. The Princess throws all her hope into your character who, unfortunately, has been thrown into prison by Jaffar. The game starts with your character stuck in a prison cell. Within one literal hour you must escape your cell, find a sword, defeat countless guards, defeat Jaffar and rescue the princess and the kingdom at the same time.
The game was simple but clever. It contained well designed puzzles, where even failure was rewarded with gruesome death animations. You also fought with a sword which you could use to both attack and parry, which provided a sense of strategy that was missing in the typical shoot and dodge mechanics of platformers of that time. But probably most important were the innovative character animations. While developing the game, Mechner video-taped his brother performing various actions (jumping, running, slicing, dodging, etc) and than frame-by-frame he traced his brother’s movements to create the animations found in the game. The result was spectacular.
Prince of Persia, along with its sequel, was one of our favorite games. In a day when games were simpler and adventure was valued higher than action, this game was one of the best. But playing this game wasn’t all roses, just hearing the game’s name brings back vivid memories of how frustratingly difficult it was to solve some of those puzzles and time the jumps. Oh, and you really didn't need to go exploring for that sword in the first level...apparently there was one hiding in the stairway leading to level 2. Who would have known.
The premise of the game is that your character (who looks remarkably anglo-saxon for Persia), has attracted the eye of the Princess, much to the chagrin of Jaffar (must all Persian stories include a Jaffar?). In one vicious cutscene, Jaffar issues an ultimatum to a house-arrested Princess...marry him within the hour or die. The Princess throws all her hope into your character who, unfortunately, has been thrown into prison by Jaffar. The game starts with your character stuck in a prison cell. Within one literal hour you must escape your cell, find a sword, defeat countless guards, defeat Jaffar and rescue the princess and the kingdom at the same time.
The game was simple but clever. It contained well designed puzzles, where even failure was rewarded with gruesome death animations. You also fought with a sword which you could use to both attack and parry, which provided a sense of strategy that was missing in the typical shoot and dodge mechanics of platformers of that time. But probably most important were the innovative character animations. While developing the game, Mechner video-taped his brother performing various actions (jumping, running, slicing, dodging, etc) and than frame-by-frame he traced his brother’s movements to create the animations found in the game. The result was spectacular.
Prince of Persia, along with its sequel, was one of our favorite games. In a day when games were simpler and adventure was valued higher than action, this game was one of the best. But playing this game wasn’t all roses, just hearing the game’s name brings back vivid memories of how frustratingly difficult it was to solve some of those puzzles and time the jumps. Oh, and you really didn't need to go exploring for that sword in the first level...apparently there was one hiding in the stairway leading to level 2. Who would have known.
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