Prince of Persia: The Fallen King

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Following the conclusion of the Sands of Time trilogy that helped define the PS2/Xbox era of gaming, it didn't take Ubisoft long to reboot the franchise for the next generation of consoles. 2008's Prince of Persia featured a new protagonist, art style, and mechanics. While it released to strong reception from professional critics, the new direction couldn't quite manage to get the same amount of love from the fan base due to it's repetitive orb collecting loop and dull one-on-one duels. This led to it never receiving a follow-up despite the clear plans that were in place for future installments and a cliffhanger ending that has left many yearning to know how the tale was going to end to this day. As it turns out though, the story DID continue beyond what we saw in the brief "Epilogue" DLC here in this relatively obscure DS title that actually released on the same day as the main game. The Fallen King features a 2D platformer style of play that hearkens back to the series' roots and an entirely touch-based control scheme. Everything from jumping to combat is handled by either tapping, swiping, or rubbing the stylus on the bottom screen. I was amazed by how accurate this was as the game never had any trouble recognizing or responding to my inputs no matter how complex the obstacles and puzzles in front of me became. So the action remains fluid and fun throughout. Once again the Prince is joined by a companion who follows him around and helps out on his adventure. The mysterious sorcerer Zal is a far more functional ally than Elika was however. His powers are regularly required to progress and at multiple points you'll be faced with areas that force the two characters to split up and make you swap between them to open paths for the other until they can meet up later in some of the game's more elaborate head-scratchers. The only issue that can be found with the gameplay comes from the boss fights. These well designed encounters have a fatal flaw in that you actually can't die in them. Run out of health and the Prince will just stand back up with no penalties. You don't even go back to an earlier stage of the battle. It's baffling that the developer managed to somehow overlook this given how death how death comes with a consequence in every level leading up to them. Outside of that the only other problems are related to the presentation. Fallen King tries to go for the same watercolor art style as PoP (2008), but due to the less powerful hardware it looks kind of muddy and not so pleasing to the eyes. I also encountered rare problems where certain visual effects wouldn't trigger or would glitch out which made it hard to tell if things like necessary portals were open when I needed them to be, hindering my progress a bit as I tried to suss out if the stage had broken or something. Minor faults aside, this is an excellent addition to the canon. It does a better job of capturing what made this property once so well-loved than its big brother on PS3 and Xbox 360 did, and in a manner that shows off the unique capabilities of the DS making it one of the handheld's standout offerings. Because of that if you're a Prince of Persia fan that has managed to miss this over the years, it's still worth seeking out today as you wait for any sign of Ubisoft having an interest in revisiting their action-platformer glory days.