Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Overview

A tie-in game to the Hollywood film Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, though The Forgotten Sands isn't an adaptation and tells its own unique story.

Gameplay

The use of the series' trademark time-rewinding mechanics is present, and some new powers have been included, such as allowing the Prince to influence the elements of nature, including earth, water, wind, fire and ice. Several of your elemental powers allow you to control aspects crucial in puzzle solving. For example, the Prince is able to perform an air dash, allowing him to cross long distances. His ability to stop water from flowing allows him to traverse it in unique ways.

For the Wii version the game concentrates on small groups of enemies that are more vicious and attack more frequently, creating an atmosphere more akin to the previous Prince of Persia games than the other version of The Forgotten Sands. While in combat, the Prince makes use of his blade with the Wii Remote and hands through the use of the Nunchuk. All of the other moves that the Prince uses for are controlled through the buttons. There are no elemental powers that the Prince can use for this version for the game. Instead the Prince uses an object called the "Sand Ring" which freezes enemies in their place for a limited amount of time.

A brand new combat system has been designed, which is said to benefit from the Anvil engine's capability to show countless NPCs at once on the screen, displaying as many as 50 enemies at once on the screen.

Plot

The Forgotten Sands ignores the 2008 reboot of the franchise and returns to the concluded Sands of Time trilogy of games' story and universe.

The game for the 360, PS3, and PC versions takes place between Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, giving insight on how the Prince turned from a charming young rogue to an emotionally unstable murderer.

PC, PS3 X360

Prince visits his brother Malik's kingdom, only to discover it under attack. Malik released the Solomon's Army to fight the invaders but the army turns against everyone. Prince finds an ally in Razia, a genie. Prince fights his way to the leader of the Solomon's Army, an Ifrit named Ratash. But Ratash possesses his brother's body, and Prince has to find him again. Razia helps Prince to find a sword forged by genies, to defeat Ratash, she even sacrifices her body to merge with the sword. Eventually in a big sand storm Prince and Ratash have a final clash, and the Prince kills him.

Wii

The Wii version takes place with the Prince being lead by the Genie Zahra, who is making claims that she can give the Prince a kingdom and a princess if he follows her. Once they arrive to the spot where the kingdom was to be, the Prince sees nothing and feels cheated. Zahra tells him to kiss a statue in the middle of the clearing and once he does, he is able to see what Zahra sees, which is the kingdom of Izdihar. The Prince soon realizes that the kingdom is in poor condition, but manages to find a sword stuck in stone. After pulling it out, he accidentally frees a Sorceress and a Beast. While searching for the beast, Zahra tells the Prince that the genies once lived in Izdihar, but were all killed by the Haoma.

In effect, the Wii version is a prequel to the other console versions because as the Prince leaves the ruins of Izdihar, he heads to his brother's kingdom to begin the next part of the Forgotten Sands storyline.

PSP

Princes are being killed, and the Prince of Persia is guarded in his home. But he follows a mysterious voice to confront the one who wants to harm him. The helper is Helem, one of the sisters of time. She asks Prince to release her three sisters, to weaken the culprit, fire spirit Ahihud. Prince travels through Ethereal World to help the sisters of time and confronts Ahihud in the end.

NDS

Prince and Razia are kidnapped by a cult that takes Razia's powers and Prince's blood and his memories. In a quest to regain his memories from the cult members, he discovers that the cult used the ritual to resurrect their Master. After regaining his memories he defeats the Master. And the sword that Razia inhabited turned to sand.

Nintendo DS game takes place after all of the other Forgotten Sands games.

Although its release window deliberately coincides with the release of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie, the storyline of The Forgotten Sands has nothing to do with that of the film.

Various Versions

The PS3, Xbox 360, and PC versions of the game were developed by Ubisoft Montreal and offer a traditional Prince of Persia experience, using the technology that powered the 2008 game and the Assassin's Creed series of games.

The DS, PSP,and Wii versions of the game were Ubisoft Quebec City, and offer a "different experience from the more powerful systems." The Wii version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands includes the original Apple II version of Jordan Mechner's original Prince of Persia from 1989 as a bonus unlockable.

Uplay

Uplay is a service where you earn points and use them to unlock bonus items. Here is a list of Actions (achievements) and Rewards for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC versions of this game.

Marketing

The first trailer for the game debuted during the 2009 Spike VGAs, which showed The Prince narrowly escaping a building which was crumbling down and then facing a gigantic enemy that only consisted of sand.

PC Version DRM

Ubisoft requires that all of their PC games need an "always-on" internet connection, as part of a new DRM and online services platform. All announced Ubisoft PC games will include the online services, whether sold online, or from brick and mortar stores.

If you get disconnected while playing, you're booted out of the game. All your progress since the last checkpoint or save game is lost, and your only options are to quit to Windows or wait until you're reconnected. This happens even if the game loses its connection to Ubisoft's 'Master servers' on their end.

Soundtracks

The soundtrack of the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC versions was composed by Steve Jablonsky with Penka Kouneva and released on July 5, 2010 by Ubisoft Music. The soundtrack of the Nintendo Wii, DS, and PSP versions was composed by Tom Salta and released on November 8, 2010.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - Original Game Soundtrack (Steve Jablonsky)

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands - Original Wii Game Soundtrack (Tom Salta)