Prince of Persia: Startlingly Silly Title (take grain of salt)

Sulphur on 23/4/2008 at 17:53

Somebody write me an RSS feed, 'cause I feel like a freakin' newsbot. But anyway, this teeny morsel of news made my ears perk up a bit: (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167517) Trademark Filed for 'Prince of Persia Prodigy'

It's relevant because:

A) That is Jordan fucking Mechner who filed the patent. As in, the fella who made the original series to begin with. And the only one in the series' reboot that actually counts - Sands of Time.

B) Ubisoft has confirmed they are making a new Prince of Persia game.

C) This could possibly mean that Mechner is back on board. Which could potentially be FUCKING HUGE as long as...

D) Somebody changes that name fast. It brings up images of a lanky prince vaulting over shop shelters and racing over roof tops just to get back to the palace in time for a grand spanking from his father. That is decidedly not the epitome of coolness.

Oh, and did I just read that Mechner has a hand in writing the story for the PoP movie? Fuck me with a spoon, that's just peachy.

SubJeff on 23/4/2008 at 18:08

Movies of games are never good.

Him being on board really makes no difference imho. He's from another era.

N'Al on 23/4/2008 at 18:30

AFAIK, Mechner was recently involved in (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=77635) Prince of Persia Classic on XBLA, so Prodigy could just be another one of those. Here's hoping that it's one for the 'real' consoles/ PC instead.

Sulphur on 23/4/2008 at 19:02

I hope so too. Ubi's been tight-lipped about it, so I guess the community will have to wait until more details emerge.

SubEff, while you have a point, I don't think the Silent Hill movie was that bad. At least, not the first half. I hear that the Hitman movie wasn't that big a disaster either. Not saying that the PoP movie won't suck, you understand, but I don't mind giving it a fair chance.

I don't think it matters which era Mechner is from. Perhaps you didn't get much out of SoT, but it was a brilliant example of how to reinvent the whole platforming schtick and make a compelling, beautiful game out of it.

Yes, I know the combat grated. But it was mostly never the point of the game.

SubJeff on 23/4/2008 at 19:50

Quote Posted by Sulphur

I hear that the Hitman movie wasn't that big a disaster either.

Who from? I heard it was the lowest form of trash abuse of a title ever. Ewe Boll eat your heart and all that.

Sulphur on 23/4/2008 at 20:02

A couple of folks 'round here, but they're admittedly easily swayed by popcorn flicks with tons of guns 'n explosions.

Also (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071120/REVIEWS/711200303) this guy, though he's not quite entirely reliable at times. :D

Gambit on 23/4/2008 at 20:13

Although Mechner wasn´t involved in Warrior Within and Two Thrones I still hold them as good games.

Ok, you could say WW was over the top with the gritty metal music and blood, and that it had nothing to do with SoT feeling of a nice arabian legend.
But apart from those valid criticisms I still enjoyed the combat system, the Dahaka, the chasing gameplay and the Wraith.

TT was a bit more meh, but still fun... They tried to go back to the nice SoT feeling. But I found the controls a bit more awkward and I didn´t like the stealth gameplay. But Dark Prince was fun. And the hardest bosses I ever fought.

june gloom on 23/4/2008 at 21:28

My mom thought Hitman was Satanic judging by the commercials.

I facepalmed.

Haplo on 24/4/2008 at 00:01

Here's a comment I put on the Amiga version of it long time ago:

(http://www.lemonamiga.com/?game_id=865)

"I've always had mixed feeling towards Prince of Persia. Being a Persian myself, I never liked the fact that the game title had Persia in it and presented it so in-accurately. The first thing I loathed about it was the army-soup-thin-totally-stereotyped plot. The names chosen were not Persian, Jaffar for example. In Persia (now Iran) the kings were called "Shah", not "Sultan". None of the characters looked Persian either, not the main guy nor the princess or the 'Mullah's you have to fight. It seemed they created a game about Persia but totally based it on Arab culture. It was obvious that Mr.Mechner did not do his research prior to making this game."

van HellSing on 24/4/2008 at 00:23

I never thought Prince of Persia attempted accurate portrayal of Persian culture ;). It's just supposed to be an old-fashioned exotic, oriental fairy tale. Persia was probably just chosen for the title because of the alliteration anyway.