Platform: Super Nintendo

The original Prince of Persia was ported to just about every computer system after its original Apple ][ release. Years ago I got through the first three or four levels on a System 7 Macintosh.but it always felt sluggish and unresponsive compared to most console platform games. I chalked that up to the Mac just being old and slow, but turns out it’s by design. Now, through emulation, I have been able to try many different versions and all of them feel about the same. I went with the Super Nintendo version because it is bigger, sound better, and has much improved graphics.

The controls are the biggest drawback of the game. It honestly feels broken because your actions need to be timed a split second earlier than you think. But eventually your brain and reflexes start to ease into the delayed rhythm. It’s only in the later boss sword fights that the timing issues began to seem genuinely unfair. There is a set amount of time to save the princess and as such, without the help of emulation save states, I would have surely given up and missed out on some great visual storytelling and level design.

We never owned a Super Nintendo so I never got around to playing the 16-bit incarnation of Metroid. Well, thanks to the Wii Virtual Console I have finally crossed this one off my list. These days I am much more familiar with the 3-D versions of the game and, even though I played it back in the day, I don’t really have too much nostalgia for the NES version. There were some really frustrating moments of platforming incompetence on display as I made my way around the planet, but I eventually got the hang of the floaty physics and stuck it through all the way to the final boss battle.

The formula is well established: explore the world searching for upgrades and the more you discover the more areas will open up to you. There are monsters all around but killing them is usually a waste of time. You are rewarded for exploration not your extermination skills. That is until you meat one of the half a dozen or so bosses. The bosses are pretty rough but, in all honesty, the hardest part of the game is jumping out of sand pits. I hated that section the game. My final score was 64%, so I guess I missed a lot. However, I am not an OCD gamer so I doubt I will be going back to try for 100% completion… especially if that means more sand pits. Gawldamned SAND PITS!