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30 Years Of ‘Prince Of Persia’: The Series That Changed Platform Gaming Forever

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Today marks the 30th anniversary of one of the all-time great franchises. On October 3, 1989, Prince of Persia debuted on the Apple II, effectively creating the first-ever cinematic platformer and setting a high, influential bar for the genre.

Prince of Persia was the brainchild of Jordan Mechner, a young programming genius from New York City. Mechner only had one published game under his belt prior to Prince of Persia: the highly regarded Karateka, one of the earliest examples of a modern fighting game, which he released in 1984.

He developed Karateka alongside several other ultimately unsuccessful ideas during his first two years studying at Yale University. Once he graduated, he spent three solid ­years creating Prince of Persia, a masterpiece that went on to become one of the most iconic games from the late 80s.

Looking back, it shared an incredible number of similarities with Aladdin, though lacked a wise-cracking genie. You, the titular but otherwise nameless Prince, had to stop vizier Jaffar–a powerful wizard–from seizing power away from the sultan, who’s off fighting a war in a faraway land. The main objective is to escape the dungeons and rescue your beloved–the sultan’s daughter–in 60 minutes.

Mechner drew on the rotoscoped design approach of Karateka to power the artistic style of Prince of Persia. It was a family affair: Mechner used videos of his own brother, who was filmed in white clothes carrying out acrobatic stunts and sword-fighting, as a point of reference for character movements. The art style would go on to influence other classics such as Another World and Flashback.

Despite great reviews, Prince of Persia sold poorly in North America; just 7,000 copies were bought in its first year. It was only when it reached Japan and Europe that it became a true hit with audiences, due to the game finding ubiquity through official ports. The most notable of these was its very first on the NEC PC-9801, which proved a huge hit with Japanese gamers.

Since then, the original Prince of Persia has landed on consoles as diverse as the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Genesis, Game Boy Color, 3DS, Sega CD and Wii. Because of its 16 early-90s ports, two million copies had been bought worldwide by the time its 1993 follow-up, Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, was being produced.

These days, modern gamers perhaps remember the franchise for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which rebooted the series in 2003, leading to an incredible array of sequels and even a 2010 movie under the Prince of Persia banner. Again, Mechner returned for the initial Ubisoft-produced outing as creative consultant. Now, Sands of Time is widely regarded as one of the greatest games of all time.

Despite having nine largely well-received sequels over the years, Prince of Persia hasn’t had a full console release since 2010. Just two titles have been produced since then: a HD remake of Prince of Persia 2 for smartphones in 2013, and inevitable endless runner Prince of Persia: Escape in 2018, which was described by Pocket Gamer as “a sham product: ugly, cynical, and cruelly manipulative.”

It’s time the franchise had a comeback. However, with nothing in the works, we’ll have to rely on its previous outings, which is perfectly fine: after 30 years, Prince of Persia is just as playable as it always was.

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