Waggling with the Prince of Persia on the Wii

After we wrote about theother versionsof the new Princeof Persia recently, we were lucky enough to get an extended look at it via our spies at Nintendo’s US ‘summit’ – curiously, it wasn’t shown at the London equivalent, despite being mere weeks away from launch and looking as polished as the finished product it most likely already is.

Although it has the same name as the next Prince game for 360 and PS3, The Forgotten Sands is a different experience on Wii. It’s developed exclusively forthe console, and it runs incredibly well, maintaining a super-smooth 60 frames per second. The controls are responsive, and it looks suitably impressive.

One thing the game doesn’t have is the time-reversal feature from Sands of Time. We had assumed it was going to be in there but instead the developers have opted for a simpler system of checkpoints, which you can warp back to whenever you fall down a hole and break your neck.

Another new ‘sand power’ lets you create temporary rings on the walls, which you can grab onto and swing off. Sand pillars can be summoned to catapult you into the air, and if you cast a sand ring at the top of your jump you can reach even higher areas.

The other new power allows you to create a protective sandy forcefield. It will stop you in mid-air if you fall into a chasm, and helps give you a bit of thinking time when you’re trying to figure out the safest route across a hazard-filled room. All three sand powers can be used in combat too, so you can block enemies with the forcefield, bind their arms with a sand ring or scatter a whole group of them by invoking a sand pillar and blasting them into the air.

Enemies spawn in groups, with one individual designated as the leader. He’s always the toughest to bring down, but if you manage to defeat him first then his underlings tend to run away in terror. It’s a good way of avoiding drawn-out battles with lesser enemies, unless you just want to milk them for experience points – although Forgotten Sands is hardly an RPG, there’s a system of levelling-up that you’ll need to go through in order to unlock the Prince’s best abilities.

To see what we're talking about, take a look here for Wii-specific features in motion:

Apr 21, 2010