Prince of Persia Retro Review (iPhone)

As soon as Ubisoft had confirmed the existence of Prince of Persia Retro for iPhone OS platforms, Softpedia's Apple news editor immediately rushed to get it from the iTunes App Store. Unfortunately, the game was nowhere to be found. Until yesterday, that is, when Jordan Mechner’s all time classic had finally appeared as available for download.

As the port of a two-decade-old game, Prince of Persia Retro is priced at just one buck. Anyone who owns an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and is a fan of this Apple II-original platform game is likely to download it on the spot, just like I did. I decided to put everything else aside as soon as my first-gen iPhone finished syncing and give the game a spin, curious to see just how Ubisoft managed to implement the controls. Minutes into the game, I realized Prince of Persia Retro, with all its classic beauty, and still-attractive gameplay, didn’t belong on a touch-based platform. Simply put, you need buttons to play this game.

Jaffar and his sword-wielding minions are not your worst enemies, your fingers are! As fans of the game should know, Prince of Persia happens all over the screen, not just at the center. There’s stuff you need to look out for in every corner of every room (granted, only towards the end of the game).

Since your thumbs are constantly touching the bottom side of the screen (at times even covering the young prince), you’re likely to miss out on a potion or two. Moreover, since the action button is everywhere, you’re likely to accidentally put your sword back in the sheath in the middle of a duel. Not cool, considering the three-strikes-you’re-out system imposed by Mechner back in ‘89.


Don’t get me wrong. The game is still a gem. Graphically speaking, I really have to ease off a bit. Prince of Persia looks infinitely better on the iPhone (compared with the Apple II installment), yet it still manages to keep everything that made the original what it was. Character movement is just sublime!


Also on the good side, since the unreliable controls are likely to affect your progress dramatically, you have the option to choose and play any of the 13 levels “out-of-the-box.” The integration with Facebook Connect is also a nice touch.

On the audio front, the original sounds have been enhanced, but just a tad. It wouldn’t have hurt to add some background music, nothing too fancy, since the developers already decided to polish up the entire game. Just a thought…

Overall, Prince of Persia Retro is a pretty good addition to the App Store. For those who haven’t  spent any time with the original, don’t waste any more and get it now! For $0.99, the game is more than worth its price. Those who have played the first iteration of Prince of Persia, though, will end up satisfying their curiosity at best. Had it not been for the choose-level feature, I would have labeled Prince of Persia Retro as just another sub-par App Store port. Controls are key for most video games out there, and Prince of Persia is certainly one of them.

More screenshots are available below. Those of you who download and play Prince of Persia Retro on their iPhone OS-device are encouraged to drop us a line and tell us how they liked the game.

Review Information:

- Application: Prince of Persia Retro;
- Developer: Ubisoft;
- Version reviewed: 1.0;
- Requirements: OS 3.1.3 or later, iPhone / Pod touch / iPad;
- Review device: first-generation iPhone (8GB) running iPhone OS 3.1.3.

Download Prince of Persia Retro ($0.99 / €0.79)