Imagine the scene. It’s November in 2003. Fatman Scoop and Busted are tying up the UK music charts. You’ve just got back from seeing Looney Tunes: Back in Action. You’re looking for an action platformer but nothing’s filling that need properly. The combat’s too weak, the camera doesn’t work, the graphics are a little too ugly.
Then you play Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and for the first time in your life everything in a video game is perfect.
The original Prince of Persia was a masterpiece, with its tight 60 minute timeframe, beautiful rotoscope animation, and huge amount of dastardly levels to fight your way through. The first foray into 3D for the series didn’t work out well, but in 2003 Jordan Mechner and his team went back to the series and made one of the finest games to ever exist.
Combining innovative time rewinding mechanics, brutal multi-enemy combat, beautiful scenes, a compelling story, and some of the best platforming outside of a Mario game, there’s many reasons why Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time won so many awards.
It’s no wonder why, in September 2020, news of a Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was such exciting news. Now, 18 years after its original release, we’re heading back into the sands for a remastered, remade experience. Here’s what we know so far:
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – Remake, not Remaster
The first thing to know about this new game is that it’s a ground-up remake, not a remaster. If you check out the trailer above you’ll see that the look of the game is extremely different, with entirely new graphics and a new engine – the same one that powers Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series.
In addition to the new graphics, there’s new sound effects, enhanced voices, new animations that have entirely been recaptured, and much much more. Whilst veteran players should feel at home with this remake, it’s worth remembering that it is a remake and not Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remastered.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Original vs Remake
For fans of the original game there’ll be much you’ll recognise, even though this will be a ‘fully-fledged’ remake, though updates have been included that can make the game more familiar to a new audience.
One example of this is in combat. Combat now has entirely remapped controls, putting the game much more in-line with modern action games. However, PoP veterans can choose to use original controls, making moving to this remake seamless.
Whilst we don’t have a full voice cast just yet, one familiar name does stand out. The original Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Prince is back; Yuri Lowenthal returns to voice our titular hero. Some voices, however, have been recast, such as. Farah who now has Supinder Wraich as her voice actor.
Overall, there’s a lot to look forward to in the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, both for those of us who are extremely familiar with the original and for those who are new to the series in 2021.
As you can gather from this Tweet, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake is most likely still aiming for a 2021 release, but it got delayed from March to an unspecified TBD date. We’ll need to wait for more info from Ubisoft on this one’s release schedule, but we still can’t wait to dive in and battle the Vizier once more.
