Prince of Persia had the best platforming of all time

I wish we had more games like that. I'm particularly referring to the first three PoP games. Sands of Time, Warrior Within and the Two Thrones. Nowadays, the platforming we have are games like tomb raider, uncharted or assassin's creed where all you have to do is push your analog stick.

Platforming in PoP was so slick and smooth. It was also quite challenging and had great mechanics like wallrunnning, launch pads on the wall, etc.

Therefore, I believe PoP had the best platforming mechanics ever.

Funny thing is that those are not the first 3

i remember the first. what a game. people were going nuts over how life-like the player animation was. i feel so old

I remember the first time I got chopped in half by those blade things, omg

Yeah it is.

but when you jousted an enemy backwards into one with your sword, that was pretty sweet ;)

Payback!

I have to disagree. Super Mario is the undisputed standard of platforming. Sonic was its rival for years, but then the sixth generation occurred.

That said, the Prince of Persia trilogy is one of the highlights of the sixth generation of video game consoles. They are all great platformers and the voice acting of the Prince is noteworthy. The "Sands of Time" is a fantastic concept. It just is not better than Mario, Sonic, or Donkey Kong and Banjo Kazooie.

Sands of Time is definitely one of my favs. Very fluid and the rewind time feature was innovative.

Agreed.

It was too easy though.

Yea, TSoT had great mechanics that made the platforming a joy. It really translated the feeling of nimbleness and agility of the Prince to the controller very well. Makes me wonder what could be done with a 3rd person Parkour game.

@BboyStatix: Sands of Time had some great platforming, but not the best as Mario has held that title for quite some time.

You gotta play more platformers

I'm sure he or she has, but the fact is, Prince Of Persia does have excellent platforming mechanics in some of its games (excluding Prince Of Persia 3D). I played the original A LOT and enjoyed the fights. In fact, I figured out a way how to defeat Jafar without much of a problem. Just counter and attack as fast as possible until he gets hit and then eventually dies. :-)

It was quite gruesome, but it was fresh and new, something that I'd never seen before in a videogame. The animation, by the way, was stellar and I loved the work they put into it. Did you know that it was Jordan Mechner's younger sibling who provided the animation by doing the stunts?

I had Warrior Within for the original xbox. Man...getting chased by the black monster got my heart pumping.

To @speedfreak48t5pand @cooolio's point, those are PoP 4, 5 and 6.

SoT was pretty decent and the time mechanic was fairly new when it came out, but it still felt a bit floaty to me. I wouldn't hold it in higher esteem as a pure platformer than a lot of classic 2D platformers.

-Byshop

Yeah, and then they rotoscoped them. The results were insane for the time. Back whe videogames were made by one, maybe two people (and they were better)

@Black_Knight_00: Yup. God I loved that game. I used to play it late at night while listening to Paul Simon's Graceland album on LP. Not because the music went particularly well with the game, but it was one of the only LPs my parents had that I liked.

-Byshop

I wouldn't say it had outright the best platforming, but yeah it was pretty superb. I consider that saga as one of the great gaming trilogies

@Byshop@Black_Knight_00@Macutchi

I've always thought that the original got too difficult for its own good near the end; I think the second game was more balanced and better overall

@SovietsUnited: While I loved the original, I never beat it. A lot of my favorite childhood games are like that (I beat Ultima 7 and Black Isle, but not U7 Part 2 or its add on).

I remember when SoT was coming out, my first thought was "wait, they already tried this. It was called PoP 3D and it was terrible" so I didn't have high expectations. Fortunately I was dead wrong and it was one of the coolest games I had played until that point.

-Byshop

Not quite the best, but The Sands of Time certainly has the best platforming I've seen from a game not developed by either Sega or Nintendo.

Sands of Time was great. I don't think Warrior Within or Two Thrones ever reached the same heights... But I liked the trilogy a lot.

Out of all the games I have played, PoP certainly had the best platforming. It's sad that Ubisoft butchered such a great franchise for Assassin's Creed. Thanks for AC2 tho, I wish Assassin's Creed was made by Valve. It should of ended with AC2.

I liked PoP 2008's reboot. And I guess im the only one who does.

Objectively speaking it was better.

yep it was very unforgiving from what i remember. but that was an era when you were often given just 3 lives to see you through an entire game :O

it got a bit repetitive too towards the end, i don't think i finished it either. glad to see i'm not the only one old enough to remember those days ;)

Objectively ? Naaa the only thing the reboot did right was the art. That was a delight to look at. Platforming was...bland. Combats were..... easy? overall the game was a 8/10 at best.

@top_lel:

What do you mean it was bland ? The thief could do everything the prince could and a few extras too. Not only that but his wall run and jump was tied to a single button instead of two like in the Trilogy. Dont get me wrong. Overall its not better than than Trilogy but the reboot did have superior platforming and puzzles.

Puzzles? maybe but platforming? I don't see how it was any better than the latest games. One button and you're flying.

@top_lel:

1st of all, flying was contextual, you couldn't do it willy nilly whenever and wherever you felt like it.

2ndly, the flying in POP is kinda like the QTEs in TLOU, its so short and happens so rarely you forget its even in there. Its even better than a QTE.

By flying I meant to imply 'parkour'.

In many ways, Assassin's Creed is like a spiritual successor to Prince of Persia. But POP was the better series when it came to the core gameplay.

@top_lel:

Meaning what specifically ?

You mean the streamlined controls ?

yeah, maybe.

@top_lel:

Well.... thats a good thing.

No matter how complicated you want any game to be... the controls should always be simple. If you can do things using fewer buttons without losing any any in game features then go for it... we apply this logic everywhere else don't we ?

we don't. Ubisoft does.

@top_lel:

We do... you don't.

oh come on lulu I'm more mainstream than you can ever be.

@top_lel:

I dont care how mainstream you think you are. A normal gamer would rather have one button do multiple things than have multiplr buttons do one thing.

Imagine if gears of war had a different button for taking cover and running (kinda like Vanquish) and then another button all together for perfoming the combat role.

All the there are exceptions to the rule... like in Dark Souls, tying role, sprint and jump to one button is kinda counter intuitive (among other shitty design choices)

it's not as simple as one button or multiple buttons. It's far complex. Too lazy to explain now.

@top_lel

Thats good cause I'm probably too lazy to read.... Doesn't matter though, the Reboot's platforming is still miles better.... Simply because he could do more stuff.

Question: have you played the following?

-Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

-Donkey Kong Country Returns

-Guacamelee

-Rayman origins

-Rayman Legends

-Super Meat Boy

Because I'd say these had some of the best platforming in recent days. Unless you are referring to games that have platforming ELEMENTS in them. In that case, you're probably right.