Prince of Persia Rival Swords Review for Wii
The Background
The Prince of Persia series has always been a popular game for a lot of players out there, spanning over a multitude of consoles. It began with the original Sands of Times back in 2003 and now has progressed to jump over various platforms and a new spin to the series. Despite the leap to the 3D concept, the Prince of Persia series has still remained the sort of linear gaming that we’ve come to know, love and well familiarize with.
Despite the name change from Two Thrones to Rival Swords, the gameplay of this new series remains the same, what with of course, the features that comes to playing it on your Wii. So don’t expect any new twists so far, its still basically the same game you played back in 2005.
The Story (5 out of 5)
When we last saw of our hero, he was preparing for home. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out the way he planned things would be. An idyllic life with the Empress of Time seems faraway at the moment as Babylon burns before his eyes, an old enemy returns, stronger, more powerful and, sigh, immortal. Elevators appear when they shouldn’t be, charges turn into sand daemons and the realization hits that “oops, shouldn’t have used magic to mess with the space time continuum!” (Uh, hello, we knew that!).
What does this all mean then? It means that when he rescued the Empress he basically countermanded all the things he did and the evil Vizer has free reign to do his whole world domination bit. Not so fun when you’re the hero. So try and undo the damage that you’ve done with your trust blade and a semi-old ally. Sounds interesting? Maybe, but you’ve played this game before and well the only difference this time is you have the Wii controls at your beck and call.
Gameplay (3 out of 5)
With a darker creepier alter ego that you’ll morph into, that looks seriously wacked out - you’ll be actually strong with, of course, the only setback is that your essence dwindles down. Sand charges are important in the game, which you’ll find almost everywhere so don’t worry. You’ll get to manipulate time with your new found power so you can technically avoid some major mayhem by moving back a few seconds in time. With a spanking dagger, you can also slow down time, and inflict mondo pain on several enemies without them having to blink.
You’ll be running around swinging from place to place which is something we’ve already familiarized ourselves with, from previous installments. The camera controls are however, the ones that vary from other variations of this game as it’s a motion-sensing feature that factors in during the game when you need to move the camera around. Fighting using the Wii controls is always fun as you use the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk to hack away at your enemies. So that’s something fun eh?
Sounds and Graphics (3 out of 5)
While the graphics might not be as stellar as we want it to be, it certainly does it job and leaves you impressed from time to time. Sometimes you’ll have issues with the frame rates. I was kind of hoping for it to be more updated, to fit the Wii platform and of course, the new graphic engines out there but no dice. Still, its not to say that the graphics sucked, more on that there were no changes to it at all.
Here’s where things perk up, technical shizz wise. The sounds are great, and the ambient music goes well with the overall effects of the game and the voice acting was really great!
Overall
Still a great game, despite the similarities to the old releases. I’m not saying its going to be something that will blow your socks off but heh, its ok. Although, I won’t recommend players who’ve bought and finished Two Thrones or the PSP version to buy this anymore. You’ll only get disappointed because there’s no updates at all. Otherwise, for the newbies and those who haven’t played the other releases, go ahead.
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