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Posted (edited)

This looks and sounds pretty damn great!

 

As long as the gameplay holds up, I'm pretty much sold!

 

http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/107/1071588p1.html

 

The Wii gets its own unique continuation of the Sands of Time franchise.

 

There were many attempts to revive the Prince of Persia franchise, but it was when Ubisoft and original series creator/programmer Jordan Mechner paired up to create Prince of Persia: Sands of Time that the series finally successfully broke into blockbuster status. With the movie version of that game ready to hit the big screen this Summer, Ubisoft's preparing to continue the story of the original Sands of Time with a follow-up that takes place within the seven years between the first game and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.

 

The game is called Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and it continues on after the Sands of Time ends. Ubisoft's not ready to divulge all the story elements just yet, but the company is ready to show off the Wii version -- it's at the Nintendo Media Summit in San Francisco today, and Ubisoft walked us through a bit of the game to see where this sequel's going.

 

First of all, the Wii version is a completely separate design from what's being made for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It's being handled as a completely independent chapter of the Prince's adventures, but in context you'll never know which adventure happens first. Ubisoft's Quebec City development studio, the studio that worked on titles such as Battle of the Giants on DS as well as Cranium Kabuki on the Wii, has been put to the daunting task of creating a Prince of Persia experience that's exclusive to the Wii audience, and takes advantage of the strengths of the console and its controller.

 

Though I didn't get a chance to wrap my mitts around the controls and play the game myself, I did see a lot of very cool design ideas going on in The Forgotten Sands. The first level is the training for the player to show off the Prince's moves and abilities. His parkour-like acrobatics are in full swing in this sequel, as the level is laid out to give players a taste of some of the wall-climbing and ledge jumping that the series is known for. This training level also shows off the impressive visual engine and the scripted events that it's capable of -- all around the Prince, walls are toppling and pillars are crumbling, with sands rising up to dangerous levels. In the background the palace is clearly engulfed and entangled in massive vines, but again -- Ubisoft's not ready to talk context just yet.

 

The classic Prince of Persia puzzle mechanic is still at work here, as is the fully explorable 3D world that The Sands of Time brought to the table. Players will still need to navigate areas filled with traps and pitfalls while figuring a way through elaborate structures, getting from point A to B by clinging to walls and climbing ledges. Some of the early puzzles involved rotating a huge column of pillars and beams in the middle of an enormous room to navigate to higher ledges. There are also the hazards like spikes on the floor and buzzsaws cruising the walls that have to be navigated around and avoided like the plague.

 

The Forgotten Sands does not have the "reverse time" gameplay mechanic of Sands of Time, so if you make a mistake and perish you'll return to a designated spawning point in an impressive sand effect. You only have a set amount of retries before you're thrust all the way back to the checkpoint.

 

However, the Prince has learned (or, rather, will learn) some new sand-based magical powers that can be summoned with the controller. One move can summon Sand Rings, giving players the ability to create hooks on walls to grab onto. So if a level lacks ledges or pillars to leap onto, you can simply cast a Sand Ring on the wall and leap up to grab it. This comes in handy for getting across pits or gaps that are just too far to leap across: toss a Sand Ring up on the wall and leap to that instead, then jump again to get to the other side.

 

Then there's the Sand Pillar, the ability to cast a rising rod of power that'll shoot the Prince up to high locations like a super jump. Combine that with the Sand Rings and you'll be able to thrust up high and grab onto a ring to make navigating tall structures a bit easier.

 

Finally, the Prince will learn the Sand Sphere, a power that'll form a bubble of sorts that'll let him float harmlessly in midair wherever that bubble was formed. Leap off a building side and cast the Sand Sphere, and you'll find yourself hovering safely out in the open air.

 

Now, these powers are great for navigating all the structures that you'll face along your quest, but they'll also come in handy during combat. Yes, like previous Prince of Persia games The Forgotten Sands is just as combat heavy as it is puzzle-based. Cast a Sand Sphere while in the middle of a fight and you'll be protected from an incoming strike. Blast an enemy with a Sand Ring and he'll be bound, leaving him open for an easy attack. And if you cast a Sand Pillar, an enemy can wander into it like a trap and get launched into the air.

 

There are some great new additions to the Prince of Persia gameplay introduced in The Forgotten Sands. At any time players can call up a light aura that'll cast a beam of light from the Prince to the ledge he's looking at, making it easier for players to see if the ledge they're aiming at is actually within reach -- if the beam of light casts onto that ledge then it's safe to make that leap.

 

The game has an RPG-like level up system that upgrades your character the more enemies you vanquish. The combat system in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands features a cool strategy: groups of enemies have a leader, indicated by a glow around the "boss" enemy. You can simply go after him, and once he's defeated the rest of the bad guys go away. However, you won't get the experience points from the drone enemies this way, so it benefits you to go after the standard enemies before nailing the leader.

 

Another inclusion is the game's jump in/jump out cooperative two player. With a second Wii remote another person can take control of a separate reticule a la Super Mario Galaxy and help player one in puzzle solving and combat. Player Two's reticule can slow down moving traps to make it a bit easier for the Prince to navigate areas. It can also bind enemies to slow them down during combat. The second player can use the pointer to draw on the screen to indicate where hidden items are for the Prince to find.

 

The Wii game, even in its early form, is running 60 frames per second which accentuates its fluid animation and gameplay. The visuals are pretty spectacular with some seriously detailed locations and enemies. Ubisoft anticipates that when The Forgotten Sands is complete in May, players can expect a good dozen to 15 hours from start to finish.

 

Watch for more on Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands as the game continues into development.

 

prince-of-persia-the-forgotten-sands-20100216094501200_640w.jpg

 

prince-of-persia-the-forgotten-sands-20100223061318073_640w.jpg

 

prince-of-persia-the-forgotten-sands-20100223061322729_640w.jpg

 

prince-of-persia-the-forgotten-sands-20100223061324870_640w.jpg

 

prince-of-persia-the-forgotten-sands-20100216094458466_640w.jpg

 

More screens here: http://uk.media.wii.ign.com/media/053/053700/imgs_1.html

Edited by Retro_Link
Posted (edited)

Those screens look gorgeous. I wasn't really bothered about this before.

 

I thought "Oh a scaled-down port of a game based on a film that's based on a game, sounds fab..." but knowing this is a completely seperate experience from both the film and HD games changes everything.

 

Give me gameplay videos.

Edited by STOOPIDDITTIES
Posted

This game was announced a long time ago and it was never an adaptation of the film, people just assumed that, don't know why. Ubisoft always said (and the debut teaser also showed it) that this game would be back to the style of the Sands of Time trilogy (after the 360/PS3 cell shaded one).

Posted

^^ Yeah I posted a thread for it in the Other Consoles Board a few months ago (because there was only info for the HD version at that point), and a load of people just immediately dismissed it as a movie tie in.

 

Though the Wii version is a completely independant game of that one, so whilst we've yet to see any screens of the HD version and what that will turn out to be like, we can rest assured that at least the Wii version is looking and sounding great!

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Gameplay/Developers Diary:

 

 

 

Doesn't look as good as the sceens above, but some parts of that video looked nicer than others, so maybe there are a few stages of development in there?

 

I just don't understand the Wii!... The Gamecube was able to produce Resi 4.

Developers talk about 'completely building the game from the ground up for Wii'... 'great engines' etc... and yet the games still look just like a decent Gamecube effort.

Are developers budgets much smaller for Wii titles now or something, because surely a custom built game for Wii from a series and developer like this, should be able to give us something of Resi 4 equivalent throughout by now!

 

On the plus side, I can see the gameplay being fun, switching between powers and implementing them into the environment with the Wiimote pointer on the fly!

Edited by Retro_Link
Posted

That's how Prince of Persia should have played, rather than the slow crawl through molasses they turned it into.

 

Looks fast and fun again.

Posted

Doesn't look as good as the sceens above, but some parts of that video looked nicer than others, so maybe there are a few stages of development in there?

 

Wake up! It's Ubisoft... they always modify their screenshots to make them look better than the actual game.

Posted

Graphically, it looks nowhere near as good as the GC outings - however this is probably due to the team/talent working on the project. Gameplay could be good though. Hopefully the pointer controls make everything seamless.

 

*Goes back to playing Beyond Good and Evil*

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Got a copy of this coming on Monday hopefully so looking forward to playing it. I do think GT were a little harsh at times with some of their comments but nothing that really puts me off of playing it. So yeah, hopefully my copy arrives on monday and I'll report back once I've had a go on it.

Posted

That looks so good. Haven't played a POP game since Sands of Time though and would feel odd to skip to this. :heh:

 

How different is this game to the HD one? Is it just the same game with pointer controls? I haven't really seen much of the other game at all.

Posted
That looks so good. Haven't played a POP game since Sands of Time though and would feel odd to skip to this. :heh:
How do you mean, because story wise it follows directly on, so if anything it would good to give it a go!
How different is this game to the HD one? Is it just the same game with pointer controls? I haven't really seen much of the other game at all.
Nope, an entirely different game, with different [pointer specific] sand abilities. Both are set during the 7 year gap after Sands of Time, but are different stories.
Posted

No no no, you have play things in order of release. That's like watching The Phantom Menace before A New Hope. Kind of.

 

And great, I'll eventually be getting two games with the same name then.

Posted

This arrived this morning but have only managed to have a 45 minute go on it just now. And it's pretty good. Lots of platforming and while it's not difficult at this moment in time, it's enjoyable.

 

Combat isn't great. Very basic even when you start getting a couple other moves to pull off. Think this can be attributed to using motion gestures for attacking. They're not great, certainly no Twilight Princess instead languishing a little behind. You basically do a couple of quick flicks of the remote and it just does an attack. No point flicking quickly consecutively because there's a delay (a second or so) between each attack so if you're playing, don't go nuts with waggle. Camera also doesn't help in the combat situations as it can be difficult to move around and keep track of enemies.

 

Game looks great. It's on par with last gen's PoP titles, although the enemy design so far is lacking in this department slightly. Art direction is great though and as a result of this, the game more than holds its own against the 360/PS3 game.

 

Had a quick look for the classic PoP game but I'm guessing that it's unlocked once finished with the main game.

 

Seems to have forgotten the story for the most part, dropping in some bits here and there occasionally, but I guess it's just something which unravels the further you go into the game.

 

So yeh, only had a short go on it but it's definitely an enjoyable game. Been so long since I've played any of the others that I can't really make a good comparison to them but I'd say it's more Sands of Time, with a few ideas from the cel-shaded Prince of Persia game, than Warrior Within/third-one-the-name-of-which-I-forget which is definitely a good thing I'd say. Is it worth the £39.99 price tag though? Not sure I'd pay that for it (I got a review copy) but I suspect it'll be something which should be discounted in a few weeks to something like £29.99 or even £24.99 and I'd say it's worth a look at that

  • 1 month later...
Posted

The Prince of Persia is nice Movie,I watched the movie in Theatre...It's very nice,The Background Music,The Screnply all are nice,I watched the Trailer Before watching the Movie,In here mtjunkie.org i watched the Trailer .....

  • 4 months later...
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