Prince of Persia: Rival Swords

So my friend got me interested in Tomb Raider Anniversary (mostly just to see how my computer would run it). After playing for an hour or so I was pretty frustrated with the controls especially in comparison to Prince of Persia on the xbox. So, I happened to see PoP: Rival Swords the other day and I picked it up to see how the Wii controls were.

I was honestly expecting them to be pretty bad but actually the controls are quite good, an improvement over the xbox version and definitely better than TRA. Despite the number of different actions available in PoP, all of them were easy to perform. The Prince's two handed fighting style was perfect with the wiimote controlling his right hand and the nunchuk controlling his left for attacking. The only problem I had was jumping and rolling; both are controlled with the same button. There were a number of places where I rolled off a platform instead of jumping or jumped in place instead of rolling away from an enemy.

The graphics and story are pretty much the same as the xbox version; nothing special but not bad either. The thing that always impressed me about this game was how it is so linear yet never seems so. You are constantly high above the streets manuevering from balcony to balcony. It seems there are many ways to go at the open intersections of streets yet you are always subtly guided down one by the positioning of the various poles and shutters you jump off of.

The one downside to this game is there is no replayability. Most games at least throw in an unlocked mode and some bonus activities once you finish the game. This had nothing at all; once you beat the game it is over. There are different difficulties but frankly the fighting is flat out easy and not a big part of the game anyway.

All in all I liked it but strictly fun for the great platforming. The fighting is easy; despite the large number of available moves there is no reason to use them. The storyline is good but does not carry the game. A nice throwback and improvement on an older style of gaming.