UbisoftJordan Mechner, the man behind the original Prince of Persia and its 2003 sequel Sands of Time (which, let’s face it, was the best one), has said that he’s keen to return to the oft-forgotten Ubisoft franchise and work on a new entry.
You know what Mechner? I’d like that too. Sigh. Mechner has previously spoken about his desire to make a new Prince of Persia game, but during a talk at GameLab in Barcelona, VG247 reported that he reaffirmed his love of the franchise while discussing a new book which details the development of the original game, three decades after release.
UbisoftDuring the talk, a member of the audience asked Mechner if he’d be interested in a Prince of Persia revival, given all the classic games that are currently seeing a revival lately – hell, even Spongebob Squarepants: Battle For Bikini Bottom is getting a remake.
Mechner reportedly assumed the audience member was referring to a Prince of Persia remaster, to which he confirmed that he’d “love to replay those old games.” Once the audience member clarified that he wanted to know specifically if Mechner would work on an entirely new entry, he was still on board.
The book, which is appropriately called The Making Of Prince Of Persia is aiming for a Spring release to coincide with the game’s 30th anniversary, and will be based on a collection of journal entries Mechner made while developing the game.
It’s been far too long since we last saw the Prince in games. 2003’s Sands of Time was a smart, light-hearted adventure game that combined smart parkour puzzles with acrobatic combat. Sadly, it all kind of went downhill from there, as the series insisted on getting progressively darker and grittier, because that’s just what games did, back then. It was the cool thing to do.
Ubisoft2008 saw a brief return to form with a cel-shaded reboot that put the focus back on fun, but the last game in the series – 2010’s The Forgotten Sands – was a limp fart of a game that represented the final nail in the coffin for Prince of Persia.
Unfortunately Mencher’s desire to do a new game isn’t enough on its own, given publisher Ubisoft regard Prince of Persia as being “on pause.” Then again, if we can get Beyond Good & Evil 2, I’m confident that the Prince will make his triumphant return one day. Maybe Jake Gyllenhaal can voice him? If you know, you know.
UbisoftTo be honest, at this point I’d just settle for a remaster of Sands of Time – that game really was so damn good.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.