The Prince makes a return to Android/iOS in the 3D update, Prince of Persia: The Shadow and the Flame. Picking up after the events Prince Of Persia Classic left off, the Shadow and the Flame begins with the Prince being chased out of the kingdom – wait, what? As I recall, we killed the bad guy and got the girl. Where’s my happily ever after? Well, come to find out that ramming a blade entirely through your advisory Jaffar’s body, isn’t quite enough to kill him. Magically disguised as the Prince, Jaffar orders the-hero-formerly-known-as Prince thrown out of the Persia – and our journey begins.

En route back to his beloved Princess, the Prince will face a slew of enemies and trap laden maze-like levels, unfortunately, those are the least of his worries. Along with the 1993 title, this remake brought the sketchy controls and questionable platforming to boot. The first few levels are fun and fast paced, but as the levels become more ‘complex’ and the fights involve more enemies, the enjoyment comes to a grinding halt.

Magic Skeleton, Magic Dagger Trap, Magic Carpet – Yup, this is Persia all right.

While the game offers two control schemes, gestures and Joystick (HUD buttons), neither can be fully depended on to perform the action you want – in fact, you’ll sometimes hold ‘block’, only to see the Prince stand there and take the hit. Once is forgivable, but when the button fails to activate it’s assigned action throughout an entire battle, it’s a bit disheartening watching helplessly as your health bar empties. You could try using the Health Potion button, but that seems to stop working when the Block button goes out. Both buttons are on-screen whether you choose Gestures or Joystick, so there’s no getting around the glitched mechanic.

Malfunctioning controls aren’t just a fighter’s worst nightmare, the unpolished controls lend themselves nicely to many surprising platforming deaths, as well. My favorite was climbing onto a small platform, then watching as the Prince immediately leapt off the other side to fall 4 stories down to where I began my climb… delightful. Pro-Tip: come to a complete stop before attempting to climb up or down a level, it will save you untold Revive Potions.

Speaking of Potions, Shadow and the Flame does in-game store where you use gold collected during your adventures to purchase new weapons, Health and Revive Potions, Combo Upgrades, and more gold to purchase the aforementioned items. Each weapon was featured in previous PoP games, but you’d be wise to save your money for Revive Potions if you want to make it through the 14 level campaign. Players who explore levels thoroughly will pick up new weapons along the way, that help level the playing field as enemies’ increase in difficulty.

Mine’s bigger…

When the controls do work, Prince of Persia: the Shadow and the Flame can be very enjoyable experience. The levels are mapped out like mini-mazes, meeting a locked gate means you’ll have to search for the button to open it. There’s usually some traps and climbing involved to reach the button, and once you do, it’ll activate a timer that closes the gate if you don’t make it back in time. Again, this is fun – when the controls work and if you remember the ProTip.

Final Thoughts
With only 14 levels, a hand-full of different traps, and 2 types of enemies (standing sword-guy & floating skull-guy), Shadow and the Flame isn’t overly complex or long – but then again, neither was the 1993 version. While it had it’s fun moments, with a $2.99 price tag, Prince of Persia: the Shadow and the Flame should be a more polished game – with tighter controls and QA tested mechanics. It would probably fair much better on XBLA, with revamped controls.

The Good
Prince of Persia: the Shadow and the Flame held true to it’s 1993 namesake, with updated graphics and controls
Health Pick-ups and Revive Potions aren’t hard to come by, you’ll need them.
Platforming is fun, when the controls work
The hope that these mobile/tablet games keep PoP franchise relevant, so we can see the Prince on ONE and PS4

The Bad
Prince of Persia: the Shadow and the Flame held true to it’s 1993 namesake, with touchy platforming and questionable deaths
The story… not a lot there, I blame the 90’s.
The fun dies quickly, then you grind till the final fight with Jaffar.
With only 2-3hrs of gameplay, $2.99 is very high, considering the bad mechanics

The Ugly
Malfunctioning controls cause frustrations in later level battles, as well as platforming errors, each resulting in surprise deaths. Not the good kind of ‘surprise’, either.
Having 1 Revive Potion left on level 14 – and not knowing what to do.

When glitches don’t result in death – they are very entertaining!