Prince of Persia

Partially due to the Prince's movements, the controls are just a little bit awkward. Pressing left or right will make the Prince sprint in that direction, while pressing up will jump. There's an additional button which will let you tiptioe (useful for getting close to edges) and to grab onto ledges.

The game's not all about jumping over platforms - a fair amount of it revolves around sword fighting. After you snag your sword in the first level, you'll face a plethora of guards. These encounters are extraordinarily difficult at first, but you'll get the hang of them eventually. You can either attack or parry with your sword, but your opponent can do the same. Sword fighting requires splendidly fast reflexes and a keen eye to determine when to defend and strike. Even at the beginning of the game, the guards are pretty vicious. Initially you can only take three hits, but with a bit of exploration, you can find potions that lengthen your life meter.

Played in real time, Prince of Persia gives you exactly one hour of game time to master its secrets and reach your objective. Using animation modeled after the movements of real people, creator Jordan Mechner has crafted an intriguing game which not only looks wonderful, it has the feel of an old adventure film, with you in the title role. Are you up to the challenge?

Veteran gamers should not be surprised that Prince of Persia has finally found its way to the Genesis. The way has been paved by versions for the Sega CD and Game Gear, and on PCs before that. The game is famous...and Tengen's version is a faithful pon of at has made Prince of Persia popular. Even the music and funky control patterns are identical.

A right little gem of a game

One of those misty-eye inducing type of games. Escape from the dungeons of the evil Grand Vizier Jaffar and rescue the fair princess before he lures her away with smooth talk about smashing orangey bits. The catch is you only have an hour to do it in. One hour of your life, that isn't much is it? How wrong we all were.

Prince Of Persia embodied pixel poetry in motion, and you couldn't fail to be impressed as your little hero leaped, shuffled and clambered his way through the dungeon. The game featured strong level design, incredibly fluid gameplay and some genuinely taxing puzzles. Probably the game most responsible for wide-eyed people walking around muttering, "shuffle, shuffle, jump, spike shuffle, leap, grab ledge, pull up," under their breath.