Prince of Persia Longplay (Game Gear) [60 FPS]

Developed by Domark and published by Sega in 1992.
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Certain games that, when released, were instant classics and were ported to every system available. With it's revolutionary rotoscoped animation, sword combat and platforming action, it's easy to understand why publishers were so keen to push the game on to as many systems as possible.
The Sega Game Gear and Master System received a Prince of Persia port courtesy of Domark in 1992. I still own the original Game Gear cartridge and, I have to say, it's remarkably accomplished for an 8-bit version.
The core game mechanics are exactly same as the Apple II/Amiga/PC versions of the game, but it soon becomes apparent that the level designs have been reworked and extended. I can't say that the changes are for the better as some of the levels feature dead ends, or areas that the player can get trapped in, the only way out being through suicide.
The sword combat is present, but the way the characters move means that it's all too easy to initiate a strike and have your opponent walk into the blow. It can end up feeling like button spam wins the day rather than fighting tactically.
The final issue I have with the game is the slightly sluggish and unresponsive control scheme. There is a significant delay between pressing the button to perform a running jump and the animation actually playing out, which makes timing jumps tricky.
The jump animation also has an annoying habit of transitioning from jump to falling at a sharp ninety-degree angle. The character travels horizontally for a certain number of pixels before falling straight downwards, which means that catching the edge of a distant ledge by your fingertips is next to impossible.
Reading this, you might think that the game isn't particularly good. True enough, it has it's issues, but you learn to live with them. If you're looking for some Prince of Persia on the move then the Game Gear version certainly scratches the itch despite it's imperfections.
The animation of the character sprites is genuinely excellent and very smooth; vital considering that the animation is a large part of what made the game so special in the first place.
To the developer's credit, they even added a password system that would allow the player to resume play at a particular stage. It is also possible to reduce the length of time available to complete the game, as well as altering the level of starting health. Those who want a truly iron-man challenge can set the time limit to fifteen minutes and a single point of health.
Sure, it has it's flaws, but Prince of Persia on the Game Gear/Master System does, in my opinion, uphold the name of the brand and is certainly worth playing.
#retrogaming

[@joshtannis]

One of the most memorable games of my childhood

[@CallinWire]

2:00 That is a really satisfying get-item jingle.

[@ImTheKingOfHyrule]

This is a surprisingly impressive looking port for an 8-bit handheld.

[@desroin]

Iirc the GameGear used the same hardware as the Master System in its innards. I own this game for the master system and it pretty much looks the same which is pretty amazing for a 1990 port of a 1989 game ;) It also looks 10x better than the NES port tbh

[@marcofunke3607]

J C Fail? The NES version was a fail.

[@chrisherbert9924]

Had this game for my gamegear, I had to admit the graphics looked really good too.

[@spimbles]

0:15 shots like this are why pixel art remains my favorite part of video games as a whole. that golden architecture looks so damn detailed and crisp, i love it so much

[@drunkndruid]

You made that jump at 31:20 look so easy but that is where I died the most!

[@AL82RetrogamingLongplays]

Timing the jumps is a lot more difficult in this version than it should be - it still catches me out a lot of the time ;)

[@cmetal2224]

Legendary game ❤

[@ImPacmanOnYoutube]

This is the version I preferred most!

[@frederickshawn713]

@Wallace Ramon definitely, I've been using kaldrostream for since november myself =)

[@cecilia22r]

ese juego me encantaba! lo jugaba en el viejo sega portátil de mi hermano

[@tuxysmagicaljukebox5431]

Matt Furniss! He does good work!

[@donkeywolf4454]

classic....

[@FuerzaAzteca1000]

Si, se escucha un poco misteriosa.

[@tcell9151]

How but how many times did I lose by jumping the fallen floors 😡😈

[@pallafox]

shitty port but the animation for the princess and prince in the end is the most fluid compared to all other ports

[@LandersWorkshop]

Yeah the twirl at the end I remember being very neat. But the hair color made it seem like a different princess from the one at the introduction.

[@HarzerI]

This was the best Port

[@PersonausdemAll]

Yes 😍

[@midge_gender_solek3314]

The physics are all off, opening and closing platforms look identical, platforms can't be activated by grabbing onto them, swordfighting looks very unclear, screens load slowly, and the graphical style is all over the place. By far not the best port.

[@user-bp3bw1uu7e]

Do you want to hint that the GameBoy version is better than this? (I'm now leading the topic to ports for Portable consoles) I think that this is a good port, and even a good port with more or less pleasant sound, and the graphics are quite impressive for their years (I don’t want to say that the GameBoy version is terrible, no, it’s not at all ... I just think that you somehow underestimate it).

[@traumatizedgeworth]

@@user-bp3bw1uu7e 1. he never said anything about the gameboy version, 2. the physics for the game gear version is awful compared to the original version of the game, 3. the graphics and sound do not tell what ports are good and what ports are bad, whether a port is good or bad is mostly about whether it plays correctly or not but you're free to like this port, this is all just opinions

[@eadomino2]

que miedo da esa cancion