Prince of Persia is a Metroidvania now

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The first surprise announcement of last night's Summer Games Fest was Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which Ubisoft says will put a Metroidvania-shaped spin on the time-bending franchise.

In a press release after last night's reveal, the developer confirmed that The Lost Crown is "inspired by the Metroidvania structure." It's not clear exactly what that means, but it likely means that while we're not dealing with an out-and-out example of the genre, there'll be a few obstacles we'll have to return to as our time-bending array of skills widens.

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That Metroidvania outline is also likely to be linked to The Lost Crown's primarily 2D presentation. There's a slight depth that might imply a 2.5D game, but the new Prince of Persia game looks to be mostly side-on, with new protagonist Sardon existing in one primary plane of existence.

I'll be interested to see what that structure looks like within the series' time-winding format, not least because I recently played something very similar. Convergence: A League of Legends Story happens to also be a Metroidvania-style game with a prominent rewind mechanic, so if you simply cannot wait until next year to check out The Lost Crown, there's an early alternative ready and waiting.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is set to release on January 18, 2024, across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. We'll learn more about it next week, at the Ubisoft Forward on Monday.

Keep on top of every announcement with our guide to the E3 2023 schedule.

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I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.