![Best upcoming remakes - Prince of Persia Sands of Time](https://static.standard.co.uk/2022/11/10/12/Best%20upcoming%20remakes%20-%20Prince%20of%20Persia%20Sands%20of%20Time.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1000)
Make no bones about it, the Prince of Persia franchise is one of gaming's all-time greats. It's been around for almost as long as the industry itself (the first game was released all the way back in 1989), and its willingness to reinvent itself means it's been beloved by generations of gamers.
Though the plot tends to vary, the game's fundamentals have stayed the same, following an unnamed protagonist across a Persian-inspired world. With an emphasis on acrobatics, dynamic combat and a love for puzzle solving, it's easy to while away hours playing.
Now, with new game The Lost Crown about to be released, it's time to look back on the highs and lows of a forty-year gaming saga. Which games are good, and which are worth skipping? Here's our definitive list.
7. Prince of Persia (1989)
Look, the graphics aren’t great. Of course not: it was released in 1989. But once you look past that, Prince of Persia is actually a pretty good game, for people willing to spend hours wrestling the dated controls. The player has to lead their unnamed protagonist out of a series of dungeons and into a fortress tower across various levels – the catch being that it’s timed. It’s trickier than it first appears, and won praise at the time for its “uncannily human” animation; how times have changed.
6. Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands (2010)
This is probably the best the franchise has ever looked in terms of graphics (at least, until The Lost Crown). The game is actually a series of games, with slightly different variations created for PlayStation, Xbox and Windows. However, they all have some similarities: the characters look and move believably, the environment is detailed and lush and the Prince also gets access to a variety of new mystical powers – ie. the ability to master the powers of air, water, fire and earth – as well as his standard timey-wimey ones. That's all good fun, but the plot is (even by PoP standards) extremely silly, which makes playing a bit of a slog.
5. Prince of Persia (2008)
This 2008 instalment marks the second soft reboot of the Prince of Persia franchise. Did it need it? Probably not. The game retains most of the franchise’s pillars – acrobatic moves, puzzle-solving and exploration – and casts the player as a hero travelling around a damaged land, trying to heal it. There’s a huge emphasis on pulling off cool-looking acrobatic moves, which can be used both for combat and for defusing traps. Look closely and it’s clear the game shares DNA with the lauded Mirror’s Edge and Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed.
4. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (2005)
The last game in the trilogy-of-sorts that comprises The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, The Two Thrones is another stand-out title. The voice acting is excellent, while the game itself boasts cutting-edge graphics (for 2005, which meant they were 3D rather than 2D) and a compelling story: the Prince must attempt to kill the villainous Vizier, who is back from the dead as a result of his time-jumping shenanigans in the previous two games. It also retains the franchise’s signature sense of humour – though we could have done without the split-identity ‘Dark Prince’ who pops up throughout the game.
3. The Shadow and the Flame (1993)
This sequel to the 1989 original took everything that was good about it – densely-packed levels, challenging gameplay, heaps of enemies – and improved on it. The plot followed the Prince’s attempts to break the spell of the nefarious Jaffar: similarly to the first, the goal is to complete the game’s levels within a specific time frame (75 minutes, to be exact), and while it’s more combat-heavy than the first, there’s still more than enough puzzle-solving to keep fans of the original invested.
2. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004)
Though this is probably best played alongside The Two Thrones, Warrior Within is also a great game in its own right. Set seven years after the events of The Sands of Time, it sees the Prince travel to the Island of Time to set right the timeline that ruptured at the end of the previous game. It also shows the franchise at its most emo: the colour palette is dark, the action is pretty brutal and it’s full of fun little Easter eggs, secret passageways and puzzles that reward the patient gamer.
1. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003)
This is the game where everything came together. The voice acting is great, the graphics (for its time) were also a cut above and it featured jazzy new combat mechanics like timing parries and big set pieces: catnip for early Noughties gamers. The game (the first soft reboot) followed the adventures of the unnamed Prince, who comes into possession of a time-warping dagger, and it was a big hit, launching the franchise into the mainstream. It still holds up today – just don’t watch the Jake Gyllenhaal movie that it inspired…