Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (GBA, 2003)
Graphics-7 Sound-7 Control-6.5/5.5** Challenge-7/8* Story-5
Level Design-6 Frustration-8 Fun-6 Originality-6
Overall Score-6
*Some bosses and mini-bosses
**The camera
+
Some MV elements (interconnected world, gain some movement abilities and traversal tools from bosses - double jump, freeze time and slow time rings (including moving obstacles), absorb (and let go of at will) projectiles, wall jump/rebound; item inventory (health potions, sand/energy/mp, elixir=hp+mp, antidote, freeze and slowdown ring toggle), basic leveling system - kill enemies that you need to stick your dagger in to free the souls of to level up (increases max HP, AP, and DEF but not MP?), )
Pretty diverse moveset from the get go (climbing+climbing down and hanging from ledges+grab and climb ledges, switching sides on climbed pillars, roll move - can also be used as an attack on very small enemies, walk button which also lets you avoid turning around while moving backwards - run by default, can let go of a pillar then fall down and grab it again, can revert some enemy projectiles)
Retains the time rewind mechanic of the PS2 game (uses up energy/sand of time, also used to collect the medal pieces/key pieces here)
Decent map system (show the basic explored layout, room exits and which room you're in but not your exact location, shows some found points of interest - medal pieces)
Switch between two playable chars on the after meeting up with Farah - she doesn't have your abilities but can fire a bow which also lets her trigger some switches (gong bells)
Encourages aggressive play by letting you restore sand/energy through killing enemies/attacking bosses (later used in Hollow Knight)
Minor puzzles (boxes as platforms and weights, timed door switches - pass through a purple flare to temporarily turn invisible and unlock the door, a few musical puzzles - just simon says though, spatial awareness puzzles at times, time freezing/slowing; some are decent)
Gain a charge attack in the late game (have to stand still while charging though)
Minor sequence breaking possibilities (can get to the spear guy in S area 1 (copper medal room) with a super jump*+double jump but he's very tough, can take a couple of minor shortcuts later on with the same method)
Good animation
Decent bosses although it's kinda lame how you face variations on the gryphon 4 times (have to be rewinding time while attacking to hurt them - oddly time is not reversed when this is done during the fight)
+/-
Linear overarching structure? (you basically move from one area to the next until backtracking in the late game - the first area connects to the final area)
Fall damage and if you fall more than 2 screens or so you die
The green altar rooms serve as healing points, checkpoints and save points (one slot per game, have to jump over the altar to not save). Collecting progress is not saved after death
Pretty frequent healing points and checkpoints (red flares heal, green flares are checkpoints (green thunder sword statues also heal you), blue flares restore mp/sand)
Collectathon element (medal pieces - complete medals (4 pieces each?) are used as keys and there are 8 of them; in some rooms you have to press three switches or hit some gong bells to open a locked door)
Killathon element - the game sometimes locks you inside a room until you've killed one or more specific enemies in it
Regular/soulless enemies respawn when exiting the room they're in (other enemies don't respawn) - sometimes annoying as they don't drop health and no levels are gained from them but generally useful since you gain MP from killing them
Many death pits
Enemies aren't stunned or knocked back when hit while you are
Sleep mode
Shows damage numbers above enemies when hitting them and above the player avatar when the player is hit (FF3, later CV series)
Horizontal focused jumps when jumping off of pillars (like in classic PoP)
Can't walk while attacking
Auto-grab ledges
Using sand power to rebuild broken objects such as bridges or platforms could've been further developed or implemented in a more interesting way (a tool/ability that let you create temporary blocks for example (or having to restore them in the right order to create a path) so there's some timing or logic skill involved)
Can only cancel a roll move by attacking (they're fairly long)
Can't switch chars on the fly, only at certain spots - issue is you can't really tell where you can switch without standing right on the spot and prompting an icon pop-up
Can't turn around in mid-air after a somersault
Can't double jump after having fallen some ways
Fighting stance/continuous attack trick of sorts - DOWN, "A" and "B" all at the same time (makes you crouch and attack while moving forward, not that useful)
Touch damage
There are some team puzzles where you need to navigate a room to press several switches at once and some spanning more than one room where you clear the way for Farah to progress so them splitting up makes sense from that standpoint however in some rooms they could've let them teleport to each other at certain points - Not being able to leads to more retreading of steps and playing as Farah is mostly less fun. However this mechanic is only used in one area
The wall running move seen in the PS2 game is limited to briefly running up certain walls here
-
Some control/interface issues (bullshit hit detection on the spear guy mini-boss - can only hit him when he's throwing the spear upwards, can get hit stunned by some enmies - almost no invincibility time, no mini-map, can't place map markers - doesn't mark found ability gates nor locked doors, can look up/down but not far enough leading to some leaps of faith and slower downwards progression in various rooms (in some rooms you can't look down at all which sucks), can't jump/move/roll cancel a sword swing, the scroll lag when turning around is a bit of an issue (the camera places your avatar's back near the edge of the screen - also an issue at times when grabbing ledges as you can't see what's behind you) - some later enemies can shoot from off screen, if you currently have no medal pieces that match a medal gate's type then there is no indication as to which type the gate is, attacking right before landing cancels the attack, while climbing a pole you can only attack to the right, can't double jump after jumping off of a pillar, can't shoot while climbing as Farah, can't browse previously visited areas on the map - only the current one, delay before you can jump again after latching onto a Sonic-style swinging pole - breaks flow, somewhat unforgiving hit detection vs the gryphon boss and some enemies, long delay when turning around while attacking if crouching, slow moving bow shots for some reason)
No fast travel+too much climbing and stop and go-style gameplay making backtracking tedious - if you don't backtrack to level yourself up then the two final bosses are really spongy
Some other tedious aspects (overly limited rewind feature/not enough MP - if you fell far enough to die then you won't have enough energy to revert time, too much slow climbing in vertical rooms - also can't quickly slide down nor jump straight down from pillars and poles/chains, some of the face turret segments that make you absorb+revert while on a moving platform, boring shimmying/thin ledge balancing mechanic (stiff, slow, can't jump while balance walking, two of the spear guy types have overly short vulnerability windows)
If you use the slowdown ring near the face turrets you just take continuous damage until you stop - bug?
Some difficulty spikes (3rd boss - near impossible to avoid getting poisoned, 2nd boss, first kind of spear guy mini-bosses, second version of the teleporting swordswoman in area 4 - kills you in 2 hits)
Some trial & error (shots from off screen in areas 3-4 (the bats), some of the wall turrets can't be destroyed)
Simplistic combat compared to even the classic original (no combos, no light or heavy attacks, no blocking, no down- or upstab, no countering, no upright fighting stance, some enemies can block but if you just mash the button you'll keep stunning them). Using your abilities during combat is sometimes fun though
A bit of grinding and backtracking for sand/MP unless you're thorough about looking for MP bags and don't use them to save yourself from death with rewinding - fodder enemies could've been more common or dropped a bit more per kill+turrets could've dropped some as well (or the cost for using your powers could've been lower, or MP bags could've been a rare drop instead of a placed item that doesn't respawn, blue flares could've also been more common at times)
Kinda repetitive
Kinda lame cutscenes (CGI artwork stills and text, very shortened scenes compared to the PS2 game)
The black and pixelated outlines on sprites look kind of ugly, Some sprites look sloppy in terms of the shading (some larger enemies, first boss, )
Weird how some tutorial scrolls are shown before getting the relevant ability
Bugs:
-Occasionally a sword swing won't register while moving (rare but it is a problem)
-Hit detection on the spinning blade "puzzle" in area 3 - I'm clearly jumping over it while freezing the blade but still get hit and making the jump like this is a matter of luck. Apparently you *can* make the jump without freezing it!
Notes:
-The first scrolls you find just tell you how to do moves you already have (like tutorial messages in SMW) - later on some of them add to your moveset while others still just explain known moves for when they become relevant
-*Jump even higher than when doing a backwards jump by pressing the opposite direction right after jumping forward
-There are three doors in the game that you need the GC game to access: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/915023-prince-of-persia-the-sands-of-time/faqs/32287
Level Design-6 Frustration-8 Fun-6 Originality-6
Overall Score-6
*Some bosses and mini-bosses
**The camera
+
Some MV elements (interconnected world, gain some movement abilities and traversal tools from bosses - double jump, freeze time and slow time rings (including moving obstacles), absorb (and let go of at will) projectiles, wall jump/rebound; item inventory (health potions, sand/energy/mp, elixir=hp+mp, antidote, freeze and slowdown ring toggle), basic leveling system - kill enemies that you need to stick your dagger in to free the souls of to level up (increases max HP, AP, and DEF but not MP?), )
Pretty diverse moveset from the get go (climbing+climbing down and hanging from ledges+grab and climb ledges, switching sides on climbed pillars, roll move - can also be used as an attack on very small enemies, walk button which also lets you avoid turning around while moving backwards - run by default, can let go of a pillar then fall down and grab it again, can revert some enemy projectiles)
Retains the time rewind mechanic of the PS2 game (uses up energy/sand of time, also used to collect the medal pieces/key pieces here)
Decent map system (show the basic explored layout, room exits and which room you're in but not your exact location, shows some found points of interest - medal pieces)
Switch between two playable chars on the after meeting up with Farah - she doesn't have your abilities but can fire a bow which also lets her trigger some switches (gong bells)
Encourages aggressive play by letting you restore sand/energy through killing enemies/attacking bosses (later used in Hollow Knight)
Minor puzzles (boxes as platforms and weights, timed door switches - pass through a purple flare to temporarily turn invisible and unlock the door, a few musical puzzles - just simon says though, spatial awareness puzzles at times, time freezing/slowing; some are decent)
Gain a charge attack in the late game (have to stand still while charging though)
Minor sequence breaking possibilities (can get to the spear guy in S area 1 (copper medal room) with a super jump*+double jump but he's very tough, can take a couple of minor shortcuts later on with the same method)
Good animation
Decent bosses although it's kinda lame how you face variations on the gryphon 4 times (have to be rewinding time while attacking to hurt them - oddly time is not reversed when this is done during the fight)
+/-
Linear overarching structure? (you basically move from one area to the next until backtracking in the late game - the first area connects to the final area)
Fall damage and if you fall more than 2 screens or so you die
The green altar rooms serve as healing points, checkpoints and save points (one slot per game, have to jump over the altar to not save). Collecting progress is not saved after death
Pretty frequent healing points and checkpoints (red flares heal, green flares are checkpoints (green thunder sword statues also heal you), blue flares restore mp/sand)
Collectathon element (medal pieces - complete medals (4 pieces each?) are used as keys and there are 8 of them; in some rooms you have to press three switches or hit some gong bells to open a locked door)
Killathon element - the game sometimes locks you inside a room until you've killed one or more specific enemies in it
Regular/soulless enemies respawn when exiting the room they're in (other enemies don't respawn) - sometimes annoying as they don't drop health and no levels are gained from them but generally useful since you gain MP from killing them
Many death pits
Enemies aren't stunned or knocked back when hit while you are
Sleep mode
Shows damage numbers above enemies when hitting them and above the player avatar when the player is hit (FF3, later CV series)
Horizontal focused jumps when jumping off of pillars (like in classic PoP)
Can't walk while attacking
Auto-grab ledges
Using sand power to rebuild broken objects such as bridges or platforms could've been further developed or implemented in a more interesting way (a tool/ability that let you create temporary blocks for example (or having to restore them in the right order to create a path) so there's some timing or logic skill involved)
Can only cancel a roll move by attacking (they're fairly long)
Can't switch chars on the fly, only at certain spots - issue is you can't really tell where you can switch without standing right on the spot and prompting an icon pop-up
Can't turn around in mid-air after a somersault
Can't double jump after having fallen some ways
Fighting stance/continuous attack trick of sorts - DOWN, "A" and "B" all at the same time (makes you crouch and attack while moving forward, not that useful)
Touch damage
There are some team puzzles where you need to navigate a room to press several switches at once and some spanning more than one room where you clear the way for Farah to progress so them splitting up makes sense from that standpoint however in some rooms they could've let them teleport to each other at certain points - Not being able to leads to more retreading of steps and playing as Farah is mostly less fun. However this mechanic is only used in one area
The wall running move seen in the PS2 game is limited to briefly running up certain walls here
-
Some control/interface issues (bullshit hit detection on the spear guy mini-boss - can only hit him when he's throwing the spear upwards, can get hit stunned by some enmies - almost no invincibility time, no mini-map, can't place map markers - doesn't mark found ability gates nor locked doors, can look up/down but not far enough leading to some leaps of faith and slower downwards progression in various rooms (in some rooms you can't look down at all which sucks), can't jump/move/roll cancel a sword swing, the scroll lag when turning around is a bit of an issue (the camera places your avatar's back near the edge of the screen - also an issue at times when grabbing ledges as you can't see what's behind you) - some later enemies can shoot from off screen, if you currently have no medal pieces that match a medal gate's type then there is no indication as to which type the gate is, attacking right before landing cancels the attack, while climbing a pole you can only attack to the right, can't double jump after jumping off of a pillar, can't shoot while climbing as Farah, can't browse previously visited areas on the map - only the current one, delay before you can jump again after latching onto a Sonic-style swinging pole - breaks flow, somewhat unforgiving hit detection vs the gryphon boss and some enemies, long delay when turning around while attacking if crouching, slow moving bow shots for some reason)
No fast travel+too much climbing and stop and go-style gameplay making backtracking tedious - if you don't backtrack to level yourself up then the two final bosses are really spongy
Some other tedious aspects (overly limited rewind feature/not enough MP - if you fell far enough to die then you won't have enough energy to revert time, too much slow climbing in vertical rooms - also can't quickly slide down nor jump straight down from pillars and poles/chains, some of the face turret segments that make you absorb+revert while on a moving platform, boring shimmying/thin ledge balancing mechanic (stiff, slow, can't jump while balance walking, two of the spear guy types have overly short vulnerability windows)
If you use the slowdown ring near the face turrets you just take continuous damage until you stop - bug?
Some difficulty spikes (3rd boss - near impossible to avoid getting poisoned, 2nd boss, first kind of spear guy mini-bosses, second version of the teleporting swordswoman in area 4 - kills you in 2 hits)
Some trial & error (shots from off screen in areas 3-4 (the bats), some of the wall turrets can't be destroyed)
Simplistic combat compared to even the classic original (no combos, no light or heavy attacks, no blocking, no down- or upstab, no countering, no upright fighting stance, some enemies can block but if you just mash the button you'll keep stunning them). Using your abilities during combat is sometimes fun though
A bit of grinding and backtracking for sand/MP unless you're thorough about looking for MP bags and don't use them to save yourself from death with rewinding - fodder enemies could've been more common or dropped a bit more per kill+turrets could've dropped some as well (or the cost for using your powers could've been lower, or MP bags could've been a rare drop instead of a placed item that doesn't respawn, blue flares could've also been more common at times)
Kinda repetitive
Kinda lame cutscenes (CGI artwork stills and text, very shortened scenes compared to the PS2 game)
The black and pixelated outlines on sprites look kind of ugly, Some sprites look sloppy in terms of the shading (some larger enemies, first boss, )
Weird how some tutorial scrolls are shown before getting the relevant ability
Bugs:
-Occasionally a sword swing won't register while moving (rare but it is a problem)
-Hit detection on the spinning blade "puzzle" in area 3 - I'm clearly jumping over it while freezing the blade but still get hit and making the jump like this is a matter of luck. Apparently you *can* make the jump without freezing it!
Notes:
-The first scrolls you find just tell you how to do moves you already have (like tutorial messages in SMW) - later on some of them add to your moveset while others still just explain known moves for when they become relevant
-*Jump even higher than when doing a backwards jump by pressing the opposite direction right after jumping forward
-There are three doors in the game that you need the GC game to access: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/915023-prince-of-persia-the-sands-of-time/faqs/32287