Nintendo DS - Battles of Prince of Persia

Format
Nintendo DS
Publisher
Ubisoft
Developer
Ubisoft Montreal
Country of origin
Canada
Genre
Turn-based strategy

Battles of Prince of Persia

By David Rasmussen
12th Feb 06

Ever since the failings of Prince of Persia : Warrior Within we, the fans, have been looking for the game that redeems the series. We loved Sands of Time, no question about it, and the praise of many flowed from our reviews and BLOG sites like water from a bubbling oasis in the middle of the desert. But when Warrior Within came it was as if a lot of those oasises were swallowed by the harsh sands of critical review, said praise vanishing beneath the disappointment of the new Prince we were confronted with. This new Prince, nowhere near what we were used to from Sands of Time, was a disappointing attitude laden Prince of Smackdown Town who swore like a drunken Spartan sailor. His spunk and spirit was replaced by the foul mouthed cussing which was poor replacement for personality which he used to have in Sands of Time. Also it didn’t help matters that Warrior Within was way harder than Sands of Time and drove away those who were pleased with the gameplay of the previous outing.

So, with Two Thrones out now on the consoles battling to regain the hearts of fans, we now also see the first Nintendo DS version of Prince of Persia hit shelves with Battles of Prince of Persia. Now whether this and Two Thrones combined are the reviving force that brings the water back to the oasis of Prince of Persia’s desert kingdom or not remains to be seen… let’s see what I thought of Battles.

The game is a brand new Prince. No longer the action packed hard hitting platforming, or the tedious painful hardship of platforming of Warrior Within, the game leaves the realm of old and enters a brand new world, where the Prince doesn’t swear and combat is supposedly done… Yami Yugi style?!?
No, don’t worry, the Prince will not channel an ancient Egyptian vigilante and start yelling things like “IT’S TIME TO DUEL!!” and other obsolete dueling psychobabble… please, no dueling.
Yes, the case does hype the “wonders” of the new Card Battle Combat of the game, but consider the game to be less Yu-Gi-Oh and more Advance Wars (which is a thing that you should love).
The cards are just a ways to a mean, and not the mean and way of the game. That means this game brings to you not the sorrow of boring card battle combat, but the fulfilling joys of full scale Advance Wars style strategy warfare across the lands of the Middle East… only without it being known as a “War on Terror” or anything despite the fact one of the three factions seems to be “demons”.

Set in the time between Sands of Time and Warrior Within, you discover that the Prince of Persia wears the burden of his mantle on worn and weary shoulders. At the end of Sands of Time he did do the whole Cher thing and “Turn back time”… and he didn’t even have to shake his moneymaker on a large aircraft carrier while wearing a skimpy revealing outfit to do it… but that hasn’t ended the curse. After a mysteriously powerful beast kills his trusted pal Darius, one of those who fought for Persia, The future Prince of foul mouthed cussing and swearing decides he can’t rest until he’s removed this threat to him by sealing it away in a device called the Box of a Thousand Restraints (and he even does it without cussing)… which is nice and all, except the good Prince didn’t bother to do (in the words of a certain commercial pushing insurance company) his research because he failed to note the “Occupied” sign on top of the box before popping it open (and releasing what was already sealed into the box)!
Also it’s way too bad that, in order to try and steal the box, the Prince had to trigger a war between India and Persia in order to find out the box had occupants, of which his mom had to go and do the whole martyr thing after India invades Babylon which pissed off the Prince’s dad to no end. Then there’s flashbacks about the box and then… well, what comes next. All of which is good stuff from beginning to end, trust me.

First thing you’ll notice is you start the game as the Prince, but to the game’s credit you are not stuck permanently as the Prince as you later on get the chance to swap generals. As you go along you’ll find yourself jumping from general to general, doing tours of duty for the countries of Persia, India, and even the third country of Daerva (the fictional country that seems to be inhabited by “demons”).
As you watch the story unfold in both present and past flashbacks through the battles of those involved you’ll swap powers and see the battle from all sides, in all kinds of situations and battle situations. From the Prince, to his dad the King. From the forces of India to the forces of Daerva, including the Vizier who was the baddy of Sands of Time. You’ll get to roam the lands and have at it with them all. And, to top that off, you’ll also have access to all of these “generals” in both single player and multiplayer combat, with the ability to customize EACH and EVERY general’s decks! That’s right! EACH GENERAL HAS A CUSTOM DECK ALL TO THEMSELVES AND THEIR ARMIES (up to three per General)!
That is one of the joys of Battles of Prince of Persia, in that the game has a host of gameplay options and three people can play off of one cart! That should most definitely keep you occupied in the massive battles that roll through this game (each taking upwards to an hour to complete a single battlemap).

Let’s start off with the meat and potatoes of Battles, the storymore (Campaign) mode of the game.
First off, where you go through the 24 chapters of the story and the many campaign challenges set before you. From destroying an enemy army, to defending a city gate or capturing a key target, you’ll have plenty to challenge you with each battle. Also because you can take a battle any different way this provides abit of replay as you can play the battles over and over and try different techniques each time out. The only flaw is that you can only pick your cards, but you can’t pick the forces you fight with… I wish you could though, but that is a small thing in comparison to the joy of the combat this game provides to you.

Next we have Versus mode, in where you can either join in on multi-card play, or host a multi-card battle… sorry, no download option available from what I can see of this game. You can also play “Hot Seat”, which has two players playing off of one DS (just hand the DS back and forth between players). Next is Skirmish, which is a one player option to replay various battles with different dancers (pick your general and your opponent for any of the 24 chapter battles).

Finally you have the management of your decks which includes Manage Decks and Trade Cards, which is done wirelessly… of course you need to find players in order to trade with, and good luck doing that.
That, I guess, is bad since this game doesn’t offer up a online option for trading (which would probably be more profitable for players than trying to scrounge up another person who owns a copy of Battles of Prince of Persia to trade with). I, for the record, can’t find any people to trade with, so I am really bummed that this game didn’t have a Wi-Fi Connection option.

And that is basically the full thrust of my one and only complaint about the game. The one thing I think this game needed, and yet is missing, is an online option with the ability to play the game over Wi-Fi Connection. If not for the battles (which would have been epic) then at least for the ability to trade cards with other players. Now unlike Animal Crossing : Wild World you can’t say that this was done out of concern for players because, for one thing, there is no way to exchange text with another player! All you do is go to war and fight, or trade, simple. Nobody really knows whose who, or what they’re like. You just do your business with them and that’s that. I know if this game had an online function I would be having more one-on-one battles and traded for more useful cards by now.

And that, more than anything, is a shame since this game is easy to pick up and easy to master. The combat is easy as pie and you’ll get quickly addicted to the gameplay before you know it. As you roll into each and every battle you’ll find yourself strategizing each and every move of your forces with deep thought and consideration, working technique and skill into every battle you come across in this game.
You know what? If you found Warrior Within to be too hard you won’t find that problem here. This game is easy, yet it is also a challenge and you won’t be bored of it anytime soon.
I can talk about the rest in the breakdown below.

Battles of Prince of Breakdown
What’s Hot?
The game is solid, and you have nothing to fear from it despite what you may have read about it.
Don’t let the whole Card Battle thing on the back of the case fool you into not buying this, though, because the game is more Advance Wars than Yu-Gi-Oh. With a solid gameplay aspect, a nice set of options for both single and multiplayer combat, and a nice use of collectible cards in this game, you’ll find that this is a Card Battle game that you won’t be throwing into the graveyard pile anytime soon.

What’s Not?
While the game offers up a nice little batch of gameplay options I do wish the game had an online function. Finding players locally to battle with is not an option for me, and the inability to battle with others far away online is abit of a drag. This also is a fault when you want to do card trading and, again, you can’t find anyone locally to trade cards with. Online would have also been a good solution for that, but the game is still good despite it’s lacking online function.

Moments to Remember?
The storymode is good, and the story is actually readable… I don’t know if that was the same with Warrior Within, but here you’ll find a more acceptable story here in my opinion. I don’t know if it’ll help you understand what’s going on in Warrior Within, or even make you like it any better… but it’s something at least. Anyway the battles are good.

What to Ignore?
I wish the game had online function, but it doesn’t… I guess I can ignore it since the game is good even without the online Wi-Fi Connection option.

Overall?
I think this game is going to breathe fresh new life into the bubbling spring of Prince of Persia, reviving it and returning life to the oasis that had dried post Warrior Within. Now I haven’t played Two Thrones, but I am hoping it brings more life back to the oasis with solid gameplay that lives up to the promise of UbiSoft to bring back the “good old days” of Sands of Time.
Next? I want to see a sequel… of Battles, that is. I liked this game, and I would love to see more strategy combat set in the Prince of Persia world. Let’s see a new Battles for the DS sometime soon please!
After all we’ve loved three Advance Wars so we’ll enjoy a second Battles of Prince of Persia.

-- David Rasmussen 12th Feb 06

Nintendo DS Battles of Prince of Persia Images