The Prince of Persia must have been a hyperactive child. Why else would he take the most difficult path anywhere he travels? Our fair Prince doesn't believe in using doors or stairs. No sir. The show-off has to swing from the rafters, scale the walls and ceilings or leap like a freaking bullfrog from pillars and posts. Man, would someone do us all a favour and slip a sedative into his goblet or something, please.
'Prince of Persia: Rival Swords' for the Nintendo Wii is sorta like that one friend who without fail is always a bit behind the times. Previously released as 'The Two Thrones' on the PC, PlayStation 2, the original Xbox and the GameCube; the third chapter in the 'Sands of Time' trilogy has been given a new name and a new control system for the Wii. Besides that, nothing else has been changed or updated. Insert deep sigh here.
For those not familiar with the 'Prince of Persia' story here is the Reader's Digest version: the swashbuckling 'Prince' has arrived home to find his kingdom of Babylon in ruins. The evil Vizier has transformed himself into a hideous demon and abducted the Empress of Time, who it seems has the same kind of luck as Princess Peach when it comes to falling in and out of trouble.
Messing with time in the previous installments has its repercussions.
Although the Prince has gained the power to reverse time, which comes in handy when you miss those tricky jumps, his malicious dark side has been unleashed. As the two halves battle for control, you will intermittently morph into the Dark Prince who comes complete with glow-in-the-dark tattoos and a wicked barbed battle chain that rips and tears through foes sorta like Pinhead from 'Hellraiser'. Nice.
Don't get too excited. There aren't that many dustups in 'Prince of Persia'. Most of your time will be spent solving environmental riddles like you did in the late nineties when 'Tomb Raider' was all the rage. Swing here. Jump there. Avoid this. Dodge that. Adventuring over city rooftops and other precarious places like a frenzied circus gymnast can get kinda old though if 3-D platformers aren't really your deal and you cannot stop that sword hand of yours from becoming very itchy.
The draw of playing 'Prince of Persia' on the Wii is the system's unique control system and it does perform superbly. Using the nunchuck's joystick to move around and twisting the Wiimote to control the camera allows for very fluid gameplay; even if the camera gets a little scatterbrained sometimes. There are a wide-range of gravity defying, gesture-based combo attacks but to be truthful, failing around like a drunken chimp with the controllers is just as effective at wasting your adversaries.
The new slo-mo kill strike in which you swing down with the nunchuk controller to initiate the assault and then swing down twice with the Wiimote to slash your foe to ribbons, is nifty but it sure ain't revolutionary and won't have you coming back for more. None of the new fangled controls will. It is not like you are sword fighting the 'Red Steel' way or throwing punches as you would in 'Wii Sports'.
Technically, 'Rival Swords' looks like you wrapped your television in thick gauze a lot of the time and the faded colours don't help matters much. There are times when things are very choppy and pixilated. While nobody expects next gen graphics from the Wii, the simple clipping issues 'Rival Swords' experiences are excruciating.
Those tech issues aside, 'Prince of Persia: Rival Swords' is a welcome addition to the present Wii software library which is very, very lacking when it comes to mature action games. Whether you purchase 'Rival Swords' for the Wii though boils down to commonsense and personal preference. If you want to try out the Wii combat system, you can purchase 'Rival Swords' at current retail price or you can hunt around and probably find the 'Rival Throne' 2005 GameCube release for much less. All hail backwards compatibility.
WHAM! Rating: |
6 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
T (Teen) |
Official Web Site: |
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