While I have a number of topics to blog about, I’ve not been getting far before saving it as a draft and moving onto something else. Well, today I’m going to finish my review of Prince of Persia: Classic, which I bought off XBLA two weeks ago. While also being quite a good remake, it forced me to do more studying for exams than I otherwise might have, as I only could play video games for an equal amount of time to that paid to my studies. Now, exams have passed and I don’t have to worry about anything school-related for a week or so, so I can focus even more time than I normally do to video games. Hooray!

To be clear, PoP:C is not a new game in the regular sense of the term. It’s half-way between a remake and a re-release. If you don’t know the history of the original Prince of Persia, it was a platformer released for the Apple II in 1989. Ubisoft re-launched the series with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, though it’s more of a spiritual successor as oppose to a direct follow-up. Ubisoft’s main trilogy is supposedly finished, but they still published this revival for the Arcade platform.

The game has twelve levels, all of which have been given a checkpoint approximately half way through. In the original only some levels had checkpoints. In the first few and last few levels, the focus is primarily on acrobatics, and some cool moves can be performed if you master the controls, which have also been updated from the original. Anyone attempting to do a speed-run of the game will want to use the moves such as running off the edge of a platform and spring from the wall to a higher platform and keep running. This is far faster than stopping at the edge of the platform, jumping and pulling yourself up…and looks a whole lot cooler. Whether or not the controls have helped or hindered the fighting is being argued, especially by fans of the classic game. While in Prince of Persia, the primary challenge was the jumping, navigation and traps, in PoP:C all of this is far easier and the fighting is quite hard until you get a grasp on it. As long as you’re picking up health upgrades along the way and if you’re using the butterfly - a new feature that appears to tell you the way to go if you stay still for a bit (removing any exploration challenge - you’ll have no troubles with this game. Luckily, both of those things are choices, but the most challenging experience and basically the only challenging Achievement in the game is beating Survival mode. Survival is one of two new modes in the game, and the only way to beat this mode is to finish the game without dying. That means if you die fighting the last boss, you go back to the first level. It really makes up for the forgiving nature of the main mode. The second mode that has been added to Classic is Time Trial, and is the perfect accompaniment to the Leaderboards, though there is not a whole lot of initiative to play them as times are tracked in the main mode as well and there are no Time Trial Achievements.

In an effort to keep it short, here’s a wrap-up. The game is short, but fun. It starts off at a good difficulty level, but then the curve spikes until you really get a hold of the fighting, at which point the game will probably become really easy. The graphics are some of the best on XBLA, and while 800 might seem a little steep, 400 is probably too few and ‘discounts’ are few and far between with a Microsoft service. The major problems with this game are the length and the replay value. While the game is long if you’re not great at it, some people will be able to blaze through it. All Achievements save one are attainable after one play through, and since those are such a staple of Xbox 360 games, better placement of them could have given this title way more life. If you’re a platforming fan, a Leaderboard nut, or interested at all, really, go check out the demo. It’s only the very first level, unfortunately, and does a poor job characterizing the rest of the game, so don’t turn it away too quickly.

I don’t like number ratings, and when there are demos on XBLA, a review should never double as your verdict. If you only have 800 and want to buy a new game, download the Band of Bugs demo, too. I’m addicted to that right now and I should be blogging about it in the very near future.

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