Review #531: Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands(Wii)

 It could've been my favorite...

That 'bonus' game is a detriment, not a boon!

 And now we're onto the third iteration of The Forgotten Sands, the one released on the weakest home console of its generation, the Wii. The Wii usually got shovelware and The Forgotten Sands... is quite the exception, it's just what the Wii needed more of.

 Set between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, the Prince finds himself joined by a genie, one that promised him a Princess and a Kingdom. What follows is the Genie coercing the Prince into stopping the corruption of a Kingdom and save a princess. The tale is pretty charming, as a matter of fact, this game feels more in line with Sands of Time than any other sequel. The Prince is chatty and snarky, and gets to have a back and forth with the genie, who is constantly by his side. It's also worth noting that this is one of the best looking games I've played on the Wii, this is one of the few games that really show what that console was capable, and not only is it gorgeous, it also runs at a buttery, stable framerate.

Thankfully, the Genie is nothing like Navy.

 The game, just like any other modern Prince of Persia, mixes acrobatics, acrobatic puzzles and combat, but also has a few mechanics that make it feel pretty unique. Let's start with what's usually the series' weakest element: Combat. It's actually relatively good in this instance. You waggle the Wiimote to slash, and you waggle the nunchuck to punch. Yes, it's not perfect because motion controls never were, but it works most of the time. The slash-and-punch system works really well, and as you play you get to unlock more moves, by earning experience by defeating foes or smashing chests, giving you more options, like powerful jumping slashes, spin attacks, parries and what not. You can roll around by pressing down on the directional pad, and block with Z. It's simple, a bit rough, but it's the best combat the Prince has had yet.

 Platforming and acrobatics are pretty much the same as usual, run on walls, cling to ledges, the whole gamut. But it features three new mechanics that give you quite a bit of leeway on how you handle certain puzzles. Firstly, you get the Hook, which lets you place rings you can hold on to on special panels. You simply aim with the Wiimote and press B. Then you get the cyclone, which works pretty much the same, aim the Wiimote at special panels on the ground and press B to make a whirlwind appear which can propel you upwards. And then... you get the ability to place whirlwinds and rings on pretty much any surface. You've no idea how much freedom this gives you on how to tackle puzzles. But then, later on, you get the bubble, by pressing B while on the air the Prince will be temporarily encased in a floating bubble, and then you can jump outside before it bursts. The game does an excellent job of making you mix all these powers, as well as the Prince's natural abilities to produce a ton of puzzles and obstacles you haven't seen in any other PoP yet. It's an excellent mix of old and new.

The corruption takes the form of vines.

 The only thing I found myself missing was the Rewind feature, this game instead opts for a life system, of which you start with a max of three and can increase it up to six. Recovering lives is very easy, but if you happen to lose all of them you'll simply respawn back at the last fountain you drank from. You'll be able to unlock Prince of Persia Classic, the revamped SNES version, of which I'm not too fond of, and you can also unlock a couple of costumes, skins for the Prince's blade and a few challenge maps. There's quite a bit of replay value here.

 The game sounds fantastic, and it could've been my favorite Prince of Persia, but sadly, it has a few glaring short comings. Let's start with the Wii's analog stick: It's not very good, if you've ever held one you'll know what I mean, as it doesn't give you a perfect 360 degree radius of directions, so the Prince will inevitably fall to his doom a few times because you couldn't just get the angle right. The game also overuses Puzzle Doors, door's in which you must draw a connect-the-dots sigil, with the Wiimote, of course, and until you get it right it won't open. At the end of the game you have to draw four massive versions of these, and you won't be able to progress until you get them right. And the game will sometimes decide to mess with you by rotating the plates. The first few times it was cute, but the game overuses these doors to the point of annoyance.

Easily one of the best looking games in the system.

 The bosses feature conflicting designs, for whatever reason, as if different people where in charge of them.... or they couldn't decide what they wanted. The first boss, for instance, features three annoying QTE sections... and these are the ONLY QTES in the ENTIRE game. The next boss also follows the rules of threes, you have to defeat him three times and then press the correct button, with the Wiimote, of course, three times. It's barely even a puzzle since the game pretty much tells you what to do. The third, and final, boss has you depleting its health bar three times, and every time you deplete it you have to go through the same platform-obstacles to get to the top at which time a cutscene will trigger in which the Prince hurts the boss. It's inhumanely tedious, not hard, since it's so boring and long. Three different kinds of bosses, all of them rather lame.

 This easily could've been my favorite Prince of Persia game, if only it didn't have such big, but few, issues. Overusing the Wiimote for needless tasks, like the sigil doors was a big mistake, and they probably could've done a better job of automating a few of the Prince's jumps to make up for the Wii's analog stick. That said, it's a great game that's worth playing for fans and newcomers alike.
 8.5 out of 10