iPhone game of the day: Prince of Persia Retro
See the game that gave Tomb Raider most of its ideas
Game: Prince of Persia Retro
Price: £0.59/$0.99
Size: 55.3MB
Buy it now from the iTunes Store
Sometimes it's easy to forget the original Prince of Persia, what with all these Sands of Time and whatnot. But the original game was groundbreaking in many ways. It was the first to use rotoscoped animation (primitive motion capture) and featured gameplay elements that would influence the action adventure genre for years to come. That climbing mechanic and 'walking through spikes' from Tomb Raider is straight out of PoP. And if you've never sampled its delights, now's the perfect time.
This iPhone (and iPad optimised) version is very similar to the XBLA version and has enhanced graphics over the original. The controls aren't the simplest, but nowhere near as bad as people make out - just touch the screen to use the 'action' button, which lets you walk, use your sword and pick up items. It's incredibly hardcore stuff, but with a level select available from the start and the famous 1 hour time limit gone, it's not so hard to play with gaming royalty.
Above: Run through spikes and you get impaled. Softly softly...
Above: Swordplay has attack/parry - but you need to FIND the sword first!
Above: With no time limit, Jaffar's just given her a rather nifty present
Above: I'd stand back a bit if I were you, mate...
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10 Jun, 2010
Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.