Prince of Persia: Rival Swords

I was sick this week, and while I was out for a bit I decided to get myself something to play to pass the time. I had been looking at Prince of Persia: Rival Swords for a while, but hadn't brought myself to buy it up till now.

Now, I'm new to the Prince of Persia series. At first the timing was the biggest issue for me. Timing jumps while running along walls. By the way, the running on the walls is by far the coolest feature ever for a platform game. The attack controls are bit "button masher", but all in all it's a great game so far. I just received the daggertail, so I'm not too far into the game, I don't think. I have yet to be the dark prince. But, once I am I'm going to give the daggertail a workout. I'll keep you posted on what I think of the game at the end.

Oh Arthur you're my hero!!!

So with that being said, you might be able to figure out what this post is about. I recently beat Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts. I had a bit of trouble getting the hang of the controls at first. As a mater of fact I played the blasted first level for over a week before I got through it. The thing that threw me off the most was how responsive the controls were. It's as though the developers did this at the last minute, because they felt bad that the enemy AI was so ridiculously clever, and decided that they needed to balance it out somehow to make it fair.

On a side note...The more I play SNES games the more I fall in love with the system. Games don't have to have real skin texture to get us involved. The SNES proves this without a doubt. Super Mario World, Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts, and Earthworm Jim to name just a few games that are truly beautiful, yet no real textures. It's amazing to see the approach developers took to the SNES. The game play is what really drove the system. I believe that is why it is beloved by so many people.

Back to the review...
Ghouls 'N Ghosts is rated as one of the hardest games of all times by many, and the game play just sucks you in. The AI throws curve balls at you that makes you hate it even more. No wonder people threw controllers at the wall. It often feels like the computer sits there and goes "what can I do that would just send them over the edge?" My personal favorite is when the AI spawns an enemy underneath you while you're in mid air. Somehow developers got this game to the point where it has that "watching a car accident" feel. You know, it's one of the most disturbing things you've ever seen, yet for some reason you can't take your eyes off of it feeling. If you don't have this one in your retro catalog you need to go get it. Ghouls 'N Ghosts is not just a game it's a right of passage.