Awesome Java-based Mobile Platformer
User Rating: 9.5 | Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time MOBI
Although I personally enjoyed the mobile versions of Splinter Cell and Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, I didn't feel that mobiles accurately captured the "feel" of the the full-fledged titles. They may indeed not necessarily even have been attempting to do so, since the mobile versions were essentially of the "climb up this ladder-shoot the guard when he's not looking" variety, which there is certainly nothing wrong with to be sure, but it doesn't reflect the stealth action of the orignals. This, albeit minor, complaint has been fully remedied in Gameloft's release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I really enjoyed the console version of the game which I played on a Playstation 2. The gameplay really spoke to the old school platformer lover in me and to my taste the PS2 release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was as good a game that could be had on a console, addictive, fun, and challenging. My only complaint regarding the original lay with its length. It is my opinion that under no circumstance should I be able to beat a fifty dollar game in one night of, admittedly frenetic, gaming. But alas, I digress... I downloaded the mobile version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on a Nokia 3650. In addition to being kind of a pain to use on a day-to-day basis, the circular keypad of the 3650 has occasionally been an obstacle to gaming on the device. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time experiences no such issues due the use of the directional pad for navigation through levels and the ability to use any of the number keys, or pressing in on the directional pad for your primary attack. This makes the gameplay flow seamlessly, you never have to worry about hitting the 6 instead of the 5 and accidentally using a special item in a less than optimum situation. As you gain special moves throughout the game they are accessed in a context sensitive manner, which is to say you can only do a wall run in a situation where it will allow a wall run to be performed. The special moves can be accessed simply by pressing up on the directional pad in said contextual situations. Moves of greater complexity can be performed by timing your keystokes to allow for essentially "combo-ing" your moves should the circumstance allow. Like many platformers from days gone by Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is essentially all about timing. You time your jumps to scale walls, time your swings to kill demons, time your movements to avoid giant spinning blades sticking out of the wall, etc. It doesn't sound like much on paper, but in practice it plays like a classic 8-bit platformer like Megaman or Super Mario Bros. Speaking of the systems of antiquity, the graphics harken back to the days of 16-bit glory ruled by the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. Having played the original Price of Persia on Genesis and its sequel, Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, on the SNES I can attest to the comparable nature of the mobile version to its old school counterparts. The motion is isn't exactly crisp, and there are only one or two items per screen that move, but it looks as good as can be expected in a mobile format. Ultimately there isn't that much of a difference, aside from length of course, between the mobile version and its counterpart on the Gameboy Advance. The mobile version isn't nearly as immersive as the GBA version, and there most certainly are some bells and whistles lost in the translation, but for the most part the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of the best looking games I've played on a mobile format. I feel a little more could have been wrung out in regards to the animations of the Prince's movements, as he only has about six poses he cycles through no matter what the situation is, but its not a huge complaint. As far as the sound goes the Nokia 3650 doesn't offer much during gameplay. The opening splash screen and intros to the levels have monophonic arabesque tunes, but when you're actually jumping around, sticking your sword in things, there isn't much going on besides the occasional bloops and bleeps. I don't know about the scalability of the Java platform as far as sound goes, but I believe it may be a limitation of my device and the not the application which is causing the lack of soundtrack, but without a way to verify that personally, I have to give the game pretty low marks in the sound department. As a subscriber of AT&T Wireless's mMode service I was able to download the device to my phone for $3.99 billed to my account. For the amount of enjoyable gameplay I've gotten I would say the game is steal. Great for chipping away minutes waiting in line at the DMV or sitting through an interminable meeting at work. All in all, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a great title for the mobile platform. It's easy to use (on a Nokia 3650 at least), fun to play, looks awesome, is a totally sweet value, and as long as you aren't looking for an epic soundtrack to add a tincture of mystique to your adventures, I couldn't recommend a mobile title more.
