NintendoComplete | Prince of Persia (NES) Playthrough @NintendoComplete | Uploaded 2 months ago | Updated 1 minute ago
A playthrough of Virgin's 1992 platformer for the NES, Prince of Persia.
Originally released for the Apple II in 1989, Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia was the game that introduced the "cinematic platformer" to the masses, paving the way for later hits like Out of this World and Flashback.
While the sultan of the kingdom is off fighting a war in some distant land, Jaffar, his royal vizier, has decided to make a grab for power. You are the object of the princess's affection, and since Jaffar sees you as a threat to his plans, you have been arrested and tossed in a dungeon below the palace. Jaffar then locks up the princess, tells her that she can either marry him or die, and gives her an hour to make up her mind.
That gives you exactly sixty minutes to arm yourself, escape the dungeon, storm the palace, dispose of Jaffar, and save the girl. Succeed, and you'll become the Prince of Persia.
The controls and the fluid animation work hand-in-hand to set a deliberate pace for the action, and the game's fourteen stages - gauntlets filled with deadly pitfalls, spike traps, and swordfighting guards - are driven by parkour-like platforming challenges that demand careful consideration and total precision. Prince of Persia isn't an easy game, but it's one that becomes supremely satisfying to play as you come to grips with the controls, the level layouts, and how to best put your acrobatic skillset to use in racing the clock.
A couple of changes have been made for this port: the intro was cut and the ending simplified, the level design was tweaked, and you now fight a skeleton instead of a doppelganger on the twelfth floor. But, those things aside, the NES version's gameplay retains everything that made the Apple II version great. The controls are reliable and suitably weighty, the rotoscoped sprites are smoothly animated, and the challenge is stiff but fair.
Prince of Persia for the NES gets a thumbs up from me.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
A playthrough of Virgin's 1992 platformer for the NES, Prince of Persia.
Originally released for the Apple II in 1989, Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia was the game that introduced the "cinematic platformer" to the masses, paving the way for later hits like Out of this World and Flashback.
While the sultan of the kingdom is off fighting a war in some distant land, Jaffar, his royal vizier, has decided to make a grab for power. You are the object of the princess's affection, and since Jaffar sees you as a threat to his plans, you have been arrested and tossed in a dungeon below the palace. Jaffar then locks up the princess, tells her that she can either marry him or die, and gives her an hour to make up her mind.
That gives you exactly sixty minutes to arm yourself, escape the dungeon, storm the palace, dispose of Jaffar, and save the girl. Succeed, and you'll become the Prince of Persia.
The controls and the fluid animation work hand-in-hand to set a deliberate pace for the action, and the game's fourteen stages - gauntlets filled with deadly pitfalls, spike traps, and swordfighting guards - are driven by parkour-like platforming challenges that demand careful consideration and total precision. Prince of Persia isn't an easy game, but it's one that becomes supremely satisfying to play as you come to grips with the controls, the level layouts, and how to best put your acrobatic skillset to use in racing the clock.
A couple of changes have been made for this port: the intro was cut and the ending simplified, the level design was tweaked, and you now fight a skeleton instead of a doppelganger on the twelfth floor. But, those things aside, the NES version's gameplay retains everything that made the Apple II version great. The controls are reliable and suitably weighty, the rotoscoped sprites are smoothly animated, and the challenge is stiff but fair.
Prince of Persia for the NES gets a thumbs up from me.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
![Ninja Ryukenden (PC Engine) Playthrough [English]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jMyVHSvqnJA/hqdefault.jpg "Ninja Ryukenden (PC Engine) Playthrough [English]
A playthrough of Hudsons 1992 action-platformer for the NEC PC Engine, Ninja Ryukenden.
Tecmos Ninja Gaiden (https://youtu.be/V822oMzJQSg), known as Ninja Ryukenden in Japan and Shadow Warriors in PAL territories, was one of the NESs seminal classics, and its a game thats still remembered fondly... and sometimes with a barely-contained sense of rage... by most anyone who played it when it was still fresh.
It marked a huge departure from the 1988 arcade release of the same name, and it ended up a much better game because of it. Instead of playing itself off as an uber-violent Double Dragon clone, the NES version of Ninja Gaiden was a fluid, fast-paced 2D platformer with a multitude of special weapons, brilliantly realized story cutscenes, and a level of difficulty that would make the best players fling controllers across the room. It was everything you could want from a big budget action game of the era, and beating it became a big point of pride for players.
While North America did see a release of a remake with the lackluster 1995 release Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, a lot of westerners dont seem to be aware that the trilogy version of NG1 was actually the *second* 16-bit remake to be made.
This 1992 Hudson release was a Japanese-exclusive release for the PC Engine, and while it does take some liberties, it does little to mess with the gameplay that made the original so good. Its also perfect for anyone who likes import games but cant read Japanese. Im sure that youve already noticed that video shows the game in English: the game contains a code that allows you to change all of the in-game text between Japanese, English, and Chinese. The English translation is different from that in the NES game, but it compares surprisingly well in its quality.
You can switch languages by holding down buttons I and II and pushing Select at the title screen. The logo will change to reflect the current setting.
In terms of gameplay, the controls are slightly looser (jump slashes take longer to come out), the originals ridiculous enemy respawn rate has been trimmed back slightly, and the spinning ninja jump move has been nerfed, but overall, it still feels quite similar to the NES game.
Whether or not you see the updated graphics as an improvement is going to be a matter of taste. There is much more detail and color and everything was redrawn, but there will inevitably be those who prefer the look of the original. The only real negative for the visuals pops up during the games ill-advised attempts at parallax scrolling, which are slow, choppy, and distracting until you get used to it.
The same goes for the audio. Most of the fantastic NES soundtrack has been replaced with a selection of original tunes that, while well written and catchy, dont live up to the originals. I liked the music, though, and thought it sounded much better than the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy mixes did.
If youre a fan of the NES game, you might find it worth your while to check out this novel TurboGrafx remake. I wouldnt call it better than the original, but I still enjoyed it.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
