Ben's Corner: Prince of Persia - Mine at last!

Man, it's been awhile since I've done this! But anyway... Welcome to the first entry in my brand new series "Ben's Corner." As I explained in the previous post, this is sort of going to be a series of blogs that return to the roots of NGR. They will be me, posting about whatever, and (hopefully) you guys contributing as well. These "articles" are going to be written on a much more personal level, and will not reflect the views of Netto's Game Room as a whole. We are a pretty diverse group here believe it or not, so I encourage the others to follow in my footsteps if they wish. But anyway... Let's get started! (Don't worry, this will be the last time I'll explain all of this.)

The other day I was browsing for some deals on Amazon when I came across something I had completely forgot about -- the reboot of Prince of Persia. Now when I first heard about this game it was back when I was mainly playing games on the Xbox 360, and it was shortly after I had bought the first Assassin's Creed. I was looking on GameStop's official website for other games I might like (I was a new 360 owner so my game library was quite small still), and this one instantly caught my eye. Although I had never played a Prince of Persia game before, the cell shading style I saw in the screen shots instantly excited me, and when I heard it was made off of the Assassin's Creed engine I was sure it would be a game I'd love -- the only problem was the story.

Despite everything else looking great to me, the game's story just didn't seem that great to me. Something about two gods fighting each other, and the evil one being released? Of course now I know quite a bit more about it after playing it for a good hour last night, but back then it wasn't something that I thought I would like. I'm really not sure why, but the moment I read the game's story, it actually turned me off completely and the game faded from my memories. Until now that is!

When I saw the game on Amazon I had a sudden urge to buy it -- that's really all there was to it. I didn't really think it through as I was clicking the order button, but I couldn't help but recall the memories of when I first discovered it. It was sort of a nostalgic feeling, and shortly after I clicked and saw the confirmation, I realized my almost seven year long wait had come to an end. While I hadn't actually waited to play the game all that time, just realizing it had been almost seven years since I first saw it was kind of shocking. So many things had happened between now and then, and finally owning the game after all this time just feels right. I've come a long way since that moment, and now I'm finally ready to dive into this new world and see what I've been missing out on. Although, it does feel a bit strange playing it on a PlayStation 3 when I've always associated it with the 360, but whatever. It's still Prince of Persia either way you look at it, but it's also more than that to me -- it is also my very first.

As shocking as it may seem coming from someone who has played nearly every major game release out there (and hundreds of niche games), I have actually never once tried a Prince of Persia game (a fact that shocked fellow NGR writer "GlacialLeaf"). Actually I didn't even know the series existed until the early 2000s when The Sands of Time was announced! Really I'm not even sure how this is possible myself, but I somehow managed to avoid renting it during all of those trips to the movie place, and I never once heard any of my family members or friends mention it. It was a series that didn't exist to me back then, but when the PlayStation 2 came out and they started advertising it's games on Nickelodeon, I finally saw it.

When I first saw The Sands of Time advertised I actually didn't know what to think. It looked like a really cool game, and I liked what I was seeing with the time mechanic, but I also just sort of accepted the fact that I would "never" get to play it. You see, I never had a PlayStation 2 during the early days -- in fact I didn't get one until I was 13 years old and Mega Man X8 was out (one of the main reasons I even wanted it), so I was missing out on a lot. I couldn't play Jak, I couldn't play Sly, and I couldn't play that cool looking game with Disney characters either. I didn't have a PS2, and I could never see myself getting one, so Sands of Time was just another game I put on the list of ones I couldn't play. Even so, them memories of seeing that commercial on TV stuck with me all of these years, and that alone may be the reason I even looked into this reboot in the first place. Finally I had a console that could play a new entry in this series, but as I already explained, I didn't.

Anyway, here I am, and I finally have a game in the series. While I do understand that this game is a reboot (and very different in general), just owning one game in the series is already making me consider going back to try the others. There's an HD collection for the PS2 games, and there's others that I could easily track down now as well. It's just that I worry I'll end up loving the reboot so much that playing the older games becomes hard for me, or I'll end up hating the reboot and be scared off from the series completely. I do try to keep an open mind when trying new games, but you just never know how things will turn out. Even so, I'm sure I'll love this game, and I'm sure one day in the near future I'll be looking into the others!

Really can't wait to play this tonight, but until then... I guess I'll see you guys next time!