Stumbling through three Prince of Persia clones

[davidn]

As I alluded to in my last video, if you weren't around when Prince of Persia was released it's difficult to describe just how amazing it looked - as simple as it looks today, there had been nothing that looked that fluid and film-like before. In this video, I explore three attempts that other people made at making these games, and accidentally demonstrate just how hard Prince is to get feeling right - each of them quirk it up in different yet fairly similar ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyCM9XkQ4vk&hd=1

Featuring:

• Zorro by Capstone Software
• Cruel World by Makh-Shevet
• Arabian Nights 2D by Jordin Kee
• Frustration
• Screaming
• At least two sounds stolen from Doom

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Wow... it really says a lot that the dodgy-looking one at the end actually controls the best out of the lot of them...! Everyone else just went straight for "let's take this guy's graphics, and the rest'll sort itself out"...

Speaking of which -- it looks to me like the Zorro game also just stole graphics from the original, no? The poses are all identical, even his whip move is the prince's sword stab!

I like that both of the first two games came up with some feature that would have been cool, but then just wouldn't stop using it -- the 'rotating platform' things that absolutely litter the first level of Zorro, and the monsters all giving you a scroll to read in Cruel World, even though some of them have literally nothing to say.... you cruel man, you murdered that harmless, defenseless red skeleton before he could even learn how to write. ;)

Love the dance break :D

[davidn]

That's absolutely right, it's very significant that one went for consistent (if flawed) mechanics and the others were... trying to be Prince of Persia games by just looking like it and having movement and mechanics that were just all over the place. A game as satisfying as Prince doesn't happen without effort!

In addition to Zorro overusing those spinning platforms, it can hardly be ignored that they just didn't... work, with me teleporting through the edge of one and their erratic behaviour when you walk through them - and the level "design" is of just splatting these elements all over the place rather than having a coherent thread through the level. You even have to hurt yourself to get off the first screen of the game - it feels like a special game mode where a random generator does it and you have to work out the most efficient way through.

I never noticed the Zorro sprite stealing - the movement looks pretty similar, but while standing still he's viewed in 3/4 view and I don't think they're quite identical enough to just be palette swaps... it was definitely referenced, though.