Prince of Persia Rival Swords

No, I don't have the game's name all wrong in the subtitle. It's my subtle way of saying that Rival Swords is a shameless port of The Two Thrones game. I mean, come on Ubisoft, you're making us drool on screenshots of Assassin's Creed and only reward the fans with this!? This title features practically the same content of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, with the difference that you'll be using Wii-customized controls. Not that this is a good thing... Frustration, good music, a few decent cutscenes and a bad control system are the game's main highlights. You'll surely get stuck in a couple of places while playing, so you should check out the cheats section for some help.

Story You should be familiar with the game's plotline, if you've played The Two Thrones but I'm going to reveal what's going on anyway. We've got an efeminated prince, who's bringing the woman of his dreams, Kaileena back to his home, Babylon. In case you didn't know, the foxy lady is the Empress of Time, who starred in the Warrior Within game. Actually, The Prince saved her after defeating the evil Dahaka and now the two are getting ready for one bloody honeymoon. They won't find that out till they see the smoking ruins of Babylon. Yeah, The Prince's home was under siege and we'll witness the return of a former foe, the Vizier. His minions kidnap Kaileena and destroy the Prince's boat. That's as much as you'll find out from the intro cutscene and I'm not going to reveal more in order no to spoil the surprise for those of you who haven't played The Two Thrones.

Concept I believe I can give you some real piece of advice here: there's an alternative to wasting money on Rival Swords, the Wii version. What I'm about to reveal will show why Prince of Persia: Rival Swords is such a failure. So here's the deal: you can buy the GameCube version of Prince of Persia the Two Thrones, at less than half the price of the latest Wii-based title. Cheap? Yeah, I thought so too. Also, you shouldn't worry about backwards compatibility, because the Wii's got it. However, if this is your first Prince of Persia game, you might want to give Rival Swords a spin, just for fun. Perhaps you'll be more tolerant than the gamers who played The Two Thrones.

What makes this title even worse is the fact that the PSP version has more content, some great chariot races and multiplayer. If the little portable console can do it, why can't Nintendo's top selling platform do it too? Rival Swords is the typical action game, based on environmental puzzles, more than the classic slaying and hacking. I would call it a hybrid between God of War and Tomb Raider, borrowing each title's best attributes and complementing them with a bad control system. Of course, the game features that time-rewinding mechanism we adored in Sands of Time, saving you from dangerous falls and turning back time when you've done something wrong. Oh, I wish someone could turn back time and make Rival Swords a little bit more than a cashing in title that takes advantage of the Wii's novelty. You'll spend about 12 hours playing the game, if you want to complete it and there are plenty of reasons for not replaying it. It's a pretty straight forward title, so there's not much to do during a second replay, except collecting some objects that grant you access to some unlockables.

The prince will morph into his dark version to perform a couple of neat tricks and acrobatics, but be wary as his health will be drained while you're playing as the Dark Prince. You'll need to find more sand in order to keep our hero alive and kicking. Also one can say goodbye to the two-handed combat while strolling around being the Dark Prince and all. The hero will wield the Daggertail, some sort of metallic whip that's part of the Prince's arm. This cool new weapon will grant you access to new combos and a pole-swinging acrobatic that's just another delicious gameplay mechanism (unless, you've tried doing it twenty times and failed). It's a shame that the dark transformations are scripted events and the whole charade ends once you find a fountain and cleanse the sand out of the system.

Gameplay Basically this title is a God of War game, without the blood and gore, or the many foes lingering around and waiting for the kill. The resistance you do meet is easily dispatched through a gameplay sequence called Speed Kill. Similar to those neat God of War cineractives from the boss fights, this mechanism allows you to slay the enemies if you're cunning enough to sneak behind their back. Once you're in the right position, the screen will become blurred and you'll have to swing the Nunchuck downwards in order to start a cutthroat, a backstab or some other cruel method of killing a foe without having to fight a serious battle. The game is clearly less bloody than Warrior Within, since The Prince uses the Dagger of Time as a combat weapon, just like he did in The Sands of Time. If you fail to perform the speed kill, or another enemy spots you, the victim you were about to slay will throw you to the ground and start pounding your Babylonian behind.

Our Oriental hero can wield two weapons at the same time, the Dagger of Time and some sword he'll pick up from the deceased enemies. You'll be able to throw the sword towards guards and you'll use it less than you expected because it has a tendency to get broken and useless. So, everyone's main curiosity before playing Rival Swords was the way that the character reacts to your Wiimote and Nunchuck-based commands. If you shake the remote to the left or to the right, The Prince will swing his dagger and if you swing the Nunchuk he'll swing his secondary weapon. Seems as easy as pie, but it takes a while to get used to the system. If you think that playing Red Steel and Wii Sports gives you a certain advantage, forget it. Well maybe playing Red Steel will help in some way? teaching you the meaning of true frustration, caused by the game's control system. Now that you've got the basics, you'll surely realize that in order to perform combos, a player must look like an idiot to the other people watching him play Rival Swords, mostly because he's swinging the controllers and waving his hands around. It would have helped if the character's actions were a true feedback to the player's moves, but ... maybe in Assassin's Creed.

The Prince has some cool acrobatic moves up his sleeve, so gracious and dangerous, that he should be in a Babylonian circus instead of fighting the Vizier. He'll walk on walls, jump diagonally in a room, by using platforms or a Sam Fisher-style move by sliding between two walls from high above. It's not just the Prince who's enabling the good-looking moves, but also the environments. This is why this game, more or less like the latest Tomb Raider, relies on environmental puzzles. Fortunately, these ones are not as mentally challenging as the ones that Lara has to face. Wondering why I didn't mention the AI ? The few enemies you'll meet are either lonesome guards that will be dead in a jiffy if you perform the speed kill right, or groups of creatures that will attack you continuously. Their strategy is always the same: one archer will shoot arrows at you from the distance, while a sword-wielding foe tries to skin you. A couple of chaotic Wiimote swings and they're dead? The real AI challenge is present in the boss battles that finally give you that warm cuddly feeling of being a gamer that faces a real challenge. Sometimes a challenge that you won't be able to complete?

Video At a first glance Rival Swords looks just as good as the other console-based versions of The Two Thrones. However, some pathetic moments of clipping will make you want to turn off the console and go play Mario or other old-school title. How can a 2007 title feature a character with long wavy hair that passes through his shoulders?! Spice this up with some textures gone bad and I can already hear the angry mob of gamers booing the producer. Thank God that the environments look ok and the cutscenes are decent enough to keep you in touch with the game's atmosphere and storyline. Ubisoft pulled a pretty neat trick using all those lighting effects in order to let the gamers play an hour or two of the game, before they realized that the graphics are rubbish when compared to recent titles. That's what you get for porting a 2005 title to the modern day Wii.

Sound I was ironic, sarcastic and maybe a bit evil throughout this review. It must be the fact that I can't stand to see that the producers try to take advantage of gamers, recycling titles and selling them for a higher price. However, the audio segment of the game seems flawless and this is a great compliment coming from a person that didn't like the game and that hates Oriental music. Well, it's not exactly some Arabian Nights tune, but still the soundtrack is good enough to get you in gear and in the mood for some Alladin-style adventures. The songs fit the action perfectly and the smooth feminine voice that tells the story is brilliant.

Multiplayer I've got a pretty good friend and his name is Wi-Fi. Hi everyone, let me introduce you to Wi-Fi! Did you hear about Ubisoft? The PSP has Wi-Fi connectivity and a great Prince of Persia: Rival Swords multiplayer mode, while the Wii version has Wi-Fi connectivity and ? nothing, nothing at all. Say hello to my little friend: Wi-Fi!!

Conclusion Rival Swords is a good title that only rivals itself. It's like a "could have been" game born dead... How can you compete with your older version that's exactly like you and costs 50 percent less? I'm talking about The Two Thrones game that's available on the Wii thanks to the backwards compatibility. I'm still searching for a reason to recommend you to play Rival Swords, but nothing comes to my mind unless you're a die-hard Prince of Persia fan and a collector.