Prince of Persia Rival Swords

Ubisoft has taken another console Prince of Persia game and reduced it for the PSP. The Prince of Persia series has come a long way from its 2D predecessors which were fun and entertaining. Now the series claims to be graphically accurate, but all the fun is stripped away due to terrible controls and camera angles. Ubisoft did improve a bit with the controls and interface, but not enough to warrant a better grade. My rating for Prince of Persia Revelations still stands as an accurate review for what has been done and changed here - which is almost nothing. Suffice it to say that the load times have improved a bit. If you are curious about my feelings on this game, read the review for PoP Revelations, which was released a while ago. Here's a short excerpt from it: "The game is nonetheless fun, if not hard at times. You really feel the movement of the prince and his ruthless war against the monsters and other opponents. You seem to die unnecessarily, and, if you are unfamiliar with previous Prince of Persia games from the recent years, you will find this a nuisance. The prince will sometimes jump off a cliff or ledge, or drop down to his death after running for a quarter minute diagonally on a wall. At least this sour point adds unneeded "replay" value and lengthens the missions (sarcasm).

The worst offense maybe that since it isn't such a great game in the first place, aside from looks, the load times are horrid. I anyway suggest you rent this PoP, and check it out for yourself. It's a personal preference, and if you like the series, this one may be for you.

GRAPHICS: 6/10 (And you are punished for mediocrity by the load times)

SOUND: 4/10 (Nothing stupendous. Minor improvement.)

CONTROLS: 3/10 (Camera is at odd angles often, cannot make jumps or leaps without dying constantly, repetitive nature of r-pad, which dictates too much. NO IMPROVEMENT since last PSP release.)

DIFFICULTY: 7/10 (Why is it hard? You die often for stupid control reasons.)

LOAD TIMES: ABYSMAL (The first PoP for PSP got a BEYOND ABYSMAL rating from me...at least there has been some attempt at improving it here.)