One of the most sadly under appreciated games on the GameCube so far has to be Prince of Persia. It seemed to be released not with a bang but with a whimper from the handful of players from which it graced. Word got around though and right about now there are hordes of gamers eager to get their hands on the Princes second outing, and rightly so.

 

Even at first glance of this game it's clear to see it has taken a darker twist from the original, everything from the story, the Prince himself and the environments looked much drearier from the game demo. The level featured a wreckage of a pirate ship out at sea with the sails torn apart swinging about the place and fires ablaze amongst boxes of cargo. Not to mention the pouring rain and skinny skeleton creepy like beings trying to take your head off. It all fits in well with the story of the game which as you've probably guessed is also much darker, our fair Prince may have dodged his fate of death in the first game but this time around there are people hell bent on sealing that fate once again, but you can read more about that in our preview.

How does it play then? Well complaints from the first game were that it was a little too linear and simplistic combat wise, button bashing saw you pull off amazing moves and in honesty it made it rather easy. Whereas this made it more accessible it also made it a little tiring, this time around combos and moves are more strategic. The Prince is as flexible and acrobatic as ever only with more amazing techniques and if you're not careful, pressing every button you please can send you jumping off the ship for a nice swim, or should that be a nice drown, the game says your dead... anyway the point is, to really kick these freaky dudes asses you need to press the right buttons at the right time. A list of combos are listed from the start menu, learning these will bode you well in combat and blocking also is a must for tougher enemies. Its really quite amazing making the Prince leap and bounce of walls, back flip and launch himself like a spear to rid of foes, almost every move he makes leaves you with the 'whoa did do that' feeling, and almost certainly rush to find another sucker to do it on again. There's no shortage of them either, they'll gang up and circle around you so you really have to be inventive to take them out, unluckily for them our Prince is more than able to kill them all with his acrobatic sword swinging, and in this game the red stuff will come gushing, evermore leaving you feeling invincible, until alas you get ahead of yourself and do something foolish like leap into some fire, in a blaze of glory though at least hey.

 

That's pretty much all there was to the demo, a brief tutorial on how to control the new fangled flexi-Prince and his abilities and just having fun whipping the skeleton fools who wished to oppose you. Cut scenes shown were impressive, visually great and dramatic, it was all very emotionally cliché with the 'i wont let you get away with this' 'well come and get it' style lines but its great fun and pumps you up for the action to follow. The boss I went against in particular was a tough old woman to crack; kinda hard to want to hurt her after the nice close up cut scene of her leather thong was my excuse. Looks like the difficulty really has stepped up a notch, or I just suck, either way you should be looking forward to this game, an adventure platformer second to none in terms of combat, and with a more intense story, gloomier surroundings and a load more blood and gore, if you liked the first, you'll be down on one knee after playing this. Bow down to the Prince. Be sure to read our preview on this beauty and stay tuned to C-E for more.