Firstly, I am aware that the SNES port of Prince of Persia is not a one to one translation, there are eight new levels, the levels that were already there have been remixed, and the game now gives a whole two hours to save the princess. But, from what I can tell, the original design and feel has been brought over gracefully; the weight in the prince's movement is still there, and the core design philosophy is intact, if not improved. But even with that, I understand if some consider this to be a wholly original entry in the Prince of Persia series; but for me, I am gonna treat this the same as the original, albeit slightly upgraded. Now with that out of the way, here is my review of the original Prince of Persia.
There is a level of detail and precision that comes from a game designed by an individual person. In most modern, big budget releases it is highly likely that each aspect of a game is worked on by different teams of people who all have different concepts that they want to pursue, and when all these ideas are combined they can sometimes stagnant and conflict with each other, take a look at the modern Wolfenstein games if you want an example. Here, though, there is none of that; there is a consistent and coherent pacing that shows through every element of the game. Jumping starts out as just a means to get over a gap, but it soon evolves into tool for spacing; killing an enemy is introduced as a simple obstacle to get through, but it is later implemented into the puzzle solving by having the dead bodies land on switches to keep gates open; the trap floors that fall from away from under the player are used to negate obstacles that you otherwise couldn't pass by letting them fall on top of them. Hell, on a grander scale, the entire game revolves around time, specifically, wasting time. The reason the player stutters when he falls is not just to show the impact of the fall, but to also punish you for making a mistake by wasting your time; rewards like health vials are purposely place out of the way in order to make the player question if they want more time or more health; and sword duels aren't just there as a challenge, but to also stop the player in there tracks so that they lose more time. This type of interconnected, multilayered design can truly be achieved when one person is allowed to be creative and fully understand each and every facet of their ideas.
To close out, while I did really like the first Prince of Persia, I still have a few criticism. I think the combat can be a little cheap, like if your timing isn't perfect the opponent can get like four hits in and you just can't do a whole lot about it. The inputs had a bit of lag with them, like I would press forward and jump, and then after I competed the jump the prince would just run forward again, sometimes into a trap. I don't know if this was the games fault, the emulator, or my brain going faster than the game can process. Other than that I think it is a fantastic game that holds up very well. Highly recommend.
There is a level of detail and precision that comes from a game designed by an individual person. In most modern, big budget releases it is highly likely that each aspect of a game is worked on by different teams of people who all have different concepts that they want to pursue, and when all these ideas are combined they can sometimes stagnant and conflict with each other, take a look at the modern Wolfenstein games if you want an example. Here, though, there is none of that; there is a consistent and coherent pacing that shows through every element of the game. Jumping starts out as just a means to get over a gap, but it soon evolves into tool for spacing; killing an enemy is introduced as a simple obstacle to get through, but it is later implemented into the puzzle solving by having the dead bodies land on switches to keep gates open; the trap floors that fall from away from under the player are used to negate obstacles that you otherwise couldn't pass by letting them fall on top of them. Hell, on a grander scale, the entire game revolves around time, specifically, wasting time. The reason the player stutters when he falls is not just to show the impact of the fall, but to also punish you for making a mistake by wasting your time; rewards like health vials are purposely place out of the way in order to make the player question if they want more time or more health; and sword duels aren't just there as a challenge, but to also stop the player in there tracks so that they lose more time. This type of interconnected, multilayered design can truly be achieved when one person is allowed to be creative and fully understand each and every facet of their ideas.
To close out, while I did really like the first Prince of Persia, I still have a few criticism. I think the combat can be a little cheap, like if your timing isn't perfect the opponent can get like four hits in and you just can't do a whole lot about it. The inputs had a bit of lag with them, like I would press forward and jump, and then after I competed the jump the prince would just run forward again, sometimes into a trap. I don't know if this was the games fault, the emulator, or my brain going faster than the game can process. Other than that I think it is a fantastic game that holds up very well. Highly recommend.