[Playing…] Prince of Persia (Super Nintendo) (1992)

One of the first PC games I ever played was Prince of Persia, since it was the only game that was on the few computers where I studied when I was a child. Whoever quickly finished the “prehistoric” computer science exercises that we did at that time, could get on a computer to play Prince of Persia, so it was a tremendously valid motivation to go as fast as possible.

I'm not going to go into too much detail talking about the original game, because in this article It has already been talked about at length, so I will limit myself to saying that It was an acclaimed game in its day and is one of the untouchable classics in the history of video games..

Jordan Mechner, its creator, He knew how to perfectly combine smooth animations, duels to the death with swords, impossible jumps and a lot of traps in a game that required the patience and precision of a surgeon to advance. If you tried to shortcut or do something without being careful, the best thing that could happen to your character was to take damage and the most common thing was to end up dead.

Despite being a platform game, Prince of Persia It does not have a linear development and each level is a gigantic puzzle full of traps, hidden areas and elements that must be activated in order to continue advancing. This game requires a lot of memory and the desire to explore each dungeon a thousand times (something that in a certain sense can also be seen in other adventure games, such as Equinox).

Although I am good at platform games, my way of playing clashes head-on with three of the main concepts of the game: precision, patience and memorization. So I've never been very good at this game and I tend to be better at games that were based on it, but adding elements that reinforce the action (like blackthorne either Abe's Oddysee).

A couple of days ago I decided to start playing the Super Nintendo version of this game, which I rented from time to time at the video store on my street when I was little. The idea was to play for a while and go to sleep, but when I realized I had been playing for more than 3 hours. Despite knowing the game well, I hadn't played it in so many years that I had forgotten how incredibly good this version is, so I decided to write about it.

Due to the enormous number of ports of this game, I understand if someone may wonder why I focus on the version of super nintendo, when it appears to be the same game as always. And that is where one of the merits of this game lies, which absolutely respects the original, but adds much more content and a pinch of newness, trying to improve in every possible section.

As you will remember, the original game gave us 60 minutes to complete 12 levels, since in this version they give us 120 minutes to complete the game. Does that mean it's much easier? No, not at all, since instead of 12, this game has 20 levels and the level of difficulty is not particularly low. There were already other versions with more levels, but none had added as many, or as striking, as this one.

The 12 original levels undergo more or less notable changes, but where the game lets itself go is in the new levels, which visually distance themselves from what we see at the beginning of the game. If we are not skilled enough and we run out of time, we can continue playing, but then there will be no opportunity to save the princess and we will see the bad ending of the game.

A minor addition to this version is the training mode, which presents us with a series of simple levels where little by little we will learn how to use the prince's skills and how to evade traps. They are not something incredible, but the truth is that they help a lot to learn how to play, in case someone is not familiar with this game.

The musical section has improved a lot compared to previous versions, simply by including music. Despite its apparent simplicity, music changes as we progress through history and tries to maintain a sinister and mysterious atmosphere. Of course, as soon as we have an enemy in front of us and we start a fight, the music will change to a fast melody that will encourage us to stab our sword with more enthusiasm. making even the simplest combat seem epic.

Graphically it was very easy (and mandatory) to beat the original game, and this version (like many others) does it. Our character stops being a blonde boy in pajamas to become a guy who does seem to coexist with the rest of the characters in the game when he undergoes a change of clothing, but that is just a minor detail, what places this game above other versions is the visual variety it offers.

The first levels are very similar in appearance and color to the original game, so they don't seem anything out of the ordinary, despite having many details (corpses hanging on chains) and modified areas (the part where you go down into the caves to find the sword). That is just a warning of what will come in the following since Every time we pass a few levels the appearance of the game will change, giving us the feeling that we are advancing in our adventure and have changed location. These changes will initially be subtle (the walls and floors will vary in color and appearance) but will end up being drastic (for example in the volcano cave level, where in addition to the obvious visual change due to its theme, the screen has a special effect to represent heat).

Some simple scenarios have been improved with large windows that allow us to see the sky and certain passages are in exterior corridors where we will notice a slight relief at having escaped such a “hermetic” game, even if only visually.

At the playable level, the changes are minimal, which is good because if there is something that should not be touched in this game, it is its playability. However, Within the new levels there is room for experimentation and because of this we will find new elements and traps that will test our patience and end-of-level bosses that will require us to master our sword better than ever.

All these improvements add up to a very good presentation, with illustrations to tell the story, special scenes during the game and a very striking and colorful ending that also reminds us of some of the most interesting moments of our adventure, thus increasing the satisfaction of completing our mission.

Sincerely, este juego me parece la mejor versión de Prince of Persia con diferencia. Obviamente tiene algunos fallos que pese a ser casi insignificantes, se podrían haber corregido. Por ejemplo, no graba partida, usa un sistema de Passwords. Es cierto que gracias a ese sistema de Passwords uno puede explorar los niveles posteriores o rejugar su nivel favorito sin problemas, pero entiendo que es más cómodo grabar partida. El segundo fallo que veo es que se ha eliminado la sangre que aparecía cuando el príncipe o alguno de los guardas moría en determinadas circunstancias, es un fallo menor, de hecho no me di ni cuenta de que no había sangre durante mi primera partida, pero entiendo que es algo que conviene mencionar.

No voy a considerar su dificultad un fallo, ya que como he dicho, no he sido nunca muy hábil en este juego en particular, además gracias al sistema de Passwords, a su curva de dificultad y su modo de entrenamiento, no puedo decir que este juego sea injusto, especialmente si tenemos en cuenta que su versión original ya exigía tener la sangre fría y ser meticuloso en extremo.

In summary, Prince of Persia en Super Nintendo es un juego muy recomendable, especialmente para los fans del original que quieran jugar nuevos niveles, pero respetando la esencia y jugabilidad que tanto gustó en su día.