For four decades, Prince of Persia has engrossed millions of gamers and made a significant impact on gaming as a whole. The series clearly stood the test of time, so in this article, we’ll go through every Prince of Persia game in order.
The highly successful release of 2024’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has only added to the franchise’s indelible imprint on the video games industry. While not as notorious and ubiquitous as franchises like GTA or Call of Duty, Prince of Persia has contributed so much to the gaming landscape we know and love today.
There seems to be no end in sight for Prince of Persia, so let’s take a step back, sheathe our blade, and journey through the Sands of Time (pun intended) to see how we got to this point, with a look at every mainline Prince of Persia game.
1989: Prince of Persia
By modern standards, the 1989 Prince of Persia title is very primitive, but it showcases some of the ingenuity that we would see in later games. With few buttons to press and primitive graphics, Prince of Persia manages to incorporate a impressive range of mechanics, from creeping through spikes to timing jumps to intense 1-on-1 combat situations. Given its limitations, I’d say the OG Prince of Persia holds up very well.
1993: Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow of the Flame
As with many sequels, Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow of the Flame ups the ante in almost every department: Scope, sound, level design, and combat. Like most games later in the series, the second entry features more combat, but still retains its exploration and platforming ideologies.
1999: Prince of Persia 3D
The 90s was well and truly the era of the 3D platformer. Gaming tech was moving at an incredible rate, allowing the world to experience geometric goliaths never thought possible. Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Spyro—the list goes on. Unfortunately, lost in the shuffle was Prince of Persia 3D. Poor sales and a damning consensus that the transition from 2D to 3D wasn’t successful forced a rethink in the future.
2003: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
“Shall I start again?” I’m very glad you did. The magnum opus and undisputed crown jewel of the Prince of Persia games is unquestionably The Sands of Time. The soundtrack’s Arabian influence is almost hypnotic and the combat evolves into something far deeper and greater than its predecessors could even dream of. The story was spellbinding, and the platforming and parkour were magical. It’s a true gem that proved Prince of Persia was no longer just a diamond in the rough. Can The Sands of Time Remake please capture its charm?
2004: Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within
The Warrior Within was the PS2 era’s edgy phase, as the light, earthly feel and colors of The Sands of Time were washed away in favor of darkness, more fighting, and blood-soaked battles. The Warrior Within was a complete tonal shift and polarized its newfound audience—myself included.
2005: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
The final entry in the PS2 trilogy—The Two Thrones—saw a more grounded Prince and a stressed Ubisoft team inundated with a short development period and inevitable crunch. Nevertheless, even though it retained a lot of Warrior Within’s deeper, combat-focused mechanics, The Two Thrones lightened up and also introduced a litany of fresh features including new jumping angles and Speed Kills, and was ultimately well-received.
2008: Prince of Persia
Ubisoft went back to the drawing board for the self-titled 2008 Prince of Persia. You set foot in a gorgeous, fictionalized area of Persia, and our Hero works in tandem with the delightful companion Elika. All the PoP fundamentals are here, and the identity of the series is still prevalent, albeit with a revamped look and feel. Special powers and concentrated combat encounters made the reboot stand on its two feet, and it feels like it opened a new door.
2010: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
The Forgotten Sands is a sadly apt name in many ways—more’s the pity. The 2008 reboot was already a peripheral shadow in the distance as the developers were looking ahead to see what they could do next. In steps The Forgotten Sands, delivering a serviceable Prince of Persia game headlined by the return of Yuri Lowenthal as the titular hero. While the game isn’t bad by any means, it feels like a paint-by-numbers sequel that does nothing to distinguish itself. With the action-adventure market heating up massively by 2010, Prince of Persia was looking more like a rusty relic every day.
2024: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
With The Sands of Time Remake stuck in development hell, we were all shocked to learn about Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown—a Metroidvania-inspired take on the franchise in 2024. I’ve already voiced how concerned I was about this drastic move, but it paid off in dividends for Ubisoft, as the love and dedication for the project bled through to the screen. From its free-flowing movement, platforming, and combat, to its oddly engaging narrative, The Lost Crown is statistically the second-best-reviewed PoP game in history. After a huge gap between mainline iterations, I think we finally have our beloved franchise back.
