Prince of Persia Classic HD review (iPad)

♫ “Tonight I’m going to party like it’s $99.99”

10 word description: The original cinematic platformer (seriously) with graphical makeover for iPad.

10 word review: All the frustration of the original, now with ridiculous IAPs.

You will like this if you enjoy: Playing Prince of Persia with annoying controls and graphics that are more colourful but arguably less charming than the original. Spending real money on extra lives.

Combat is of the tap-tap-tap variety

The good news: Nobody is forcing you to spend $99.99 on extra lives, although it does feel that way. The graphics are ok.

No, I wasn't making it up

The bad news: Stupid IAPs. Seriously, if you’re willing to spend $99.99 on extra lives for a fairly weak iPad game, I think you have some problems. The graphics, although nice, are not quite as mind-blowing as Ubisoft would like you to think they are. Animation looks less fluid than in the original 1989 game… just think about that for a few seconds. Controls are annoying and unreliable, deaths feel cheap and unfair on a regular basis.

Arcadelife verdict: The original Prince of Persia was good at the time, subsequently surpassed by many games that improved on the concept such as Another World, Flashback and Blackthorne. Today, on the iPad, there are some great platform action games, for example Swordigo, that make PoP look quite feeble by comparison. If you ignore the “Revive for 1 life” option when you die you will never need to consider the IAPs; the game will be partially crippled but at least you won’t be handing over more cash to Ubisoft.

This is ultimately where it always ends - in a pit full of spikes

Arcadelife rating

Visuals – 7/10
Audio – 8/10
Controls – 3/10
Content – 8/10
Fun – 2/10
Final rating – 50/100

Rating categories explained here.

Version reviewed by Arcadelife is 2.0.0

Ubisoft website link

Arcadelife played and reviewed this game on:
iPad (OS 5.1)