Ranking every Prince of Persia game from worst to best

The Prince of Persia series was one of the biggest franchises in gaming in the ’90s and ‘00s. However, the series reeled off in the 2010s, with the publisher Ubisoft increasing its focus on the Assassin’s Creed series as its go-to game for those looking for a combination of parkour and melee.

But now the series is back with Prince of Persia; The Lost Crown and has made quite the splash. Check out our review here to read my colleague, Sameer Mitha, gush praises about the game like a school girl talking about her latest crush. But how good is it in comparison to its peers?

Unlike the other ranking articles I wrote about (Spider-Man, Metal Gear), this was probably the hardest. But I have soldiered on to give you my take on the Prince of Persia series starting with the worst in the lineup.

Prince of Persia 3D (1999)

1999 was a great year in gaming with titles with Gran Turismo 2, Silent Hill, Super Smash Bros. and more launching that year. On the other end of the spectrum was Prince of Persia 3D. Like many other games around that time, the series was experimenting with the third dimension at the time. However, a key problem was controls. The game developers implemented tank controls, which is not what you would want from a game that is known for tight platforming and combat.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (2010)

The Forgotten Sands game was released just after the Prince of Persia 2008 reboot and managed to bungle everything. It was set between the Sands of Time and Warrior Within and featured the prince from that trilogy. However, it wasn’t as good as those games and was pretty average. Not only did tarnish the legacy of that game by offering a story no one asked for, but also diluted the introduction of the new prince in the reboot. It would take another 13 years for Ubisoft to place its faith in the series and launch a new Prince of Persia game.

Prince of Persia (1989)

The original Prince of Persia was a milestone in gaming. While there was no shortage of platformers in 1989, the series’ designer, Jordan Mechner did something that was not done before. He used rotoscoping to animate the movements of the characters. This technique was used in 2D animation and the move allowed for very realistic movements. This in many ways paved the way for modern gaming that uses motion capture for animation. The story and audio were good, but the gameplay was a little slow. Frankly, it hurts a little to put this one so low, but it’s a sign that the franchise just goes up from here.

Prince of Persia 2: Shadow and Flame (1993)

As the successor to the original, Shadow and Flame elevated nearly every facet of the game. You got an increase in combat, with more enemies for players to deal with. There was also an improvement in graphics with greater detail as well as backgrounds for levels. However, platforming remained the same, but the puzzles were much harder. Thankfully, the game offered infinite lives which made things less frustrating.

Prince of Persia (2008)

Following the completion of the Sands of Time trilogy, Ubisoft rebooted the series with a brand new protagonist as well as a bunch of gameplay changes. The time-based powers were replaced with a brand new game mechanic that made use of an AI partner, Elika. She wasn’t just there for the plot either as she would use her power to rescue the prince any time the player missed a jump or fell into the trap. The flip side was that this made the game a little too easy as the player essentially had unlimited lives.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2005)

Around the mid-2000s, game characters had to be ‘edgy’ like Shadow the Hedgehog, Dante, and more. The Prince also got an ‘edgy’ makeover following his introduction in The Sands of Time. Warrior Within offered more brutal gameplay topped off with increased titillation. To be fair, the combat was fantastic and possibly the best in the series, but this focus on an edgier prince meant that he lost much of his charm. I look back at the game the same way I look back at my posts on Orkut — with second-hand shame.

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (2008)

As the follow-up to Warrior Within, The Two Thrones tries to bring back the ‘charming rogue’ character that the prince was perhaps best known for by having the protagonist fight his ‘inner demons’. It also removed the ability to dual-wield swords and introduced a new whip-like weapon called a Daggertail that could also be used for traversal. The overall story was also more concise and engaging but at the cost of length.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003)

This is the game that turned the series into a cultural juggernaut and introduced a lot of kids around the world to parkour. The parkour-based traversal/combat mechanics in the game were fresh and unique but that isn’t the only thing that made the game great. It also introduced the time mechanic that let players turn back time and try again when they failed. It removed the tedium of having to load the game each time.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (2023)

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the newest game in the series and is arguably the best one yet. This 2.5D platformer harks back to the early days of the series and mixes it with modern gameplay elements. As our review reads, “Combat is fluid, traversal is slick and the game will keep you at the edge of your seat for most of the gameplay experience!” What more could you ask for in a game?