Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is 2024’s first hidden treasure
What was once a stalwart of Ubisoft‘s release schedule, spawning well-loved games like The Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones, Prince of Persia’s fortunes declined almost in parallel with the meteoric rise of Ubisoft’s biggest franchise, Assassin’s Creed.
The series’ influence on Assassin’s Creed is unmistakable, but from a Ubisoft perspective, the success of its biggest franchise has made Prince of Persia somewhat irrelevant. It doesn’t help that the currently in-development remake of The Sands of Time has seemingly faced such difficult production.
Enter Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, a side-scrolling Metroidvania entry in the PoP series developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, the team behind the Rayman series, including the seminal Rayman Legends.
That Rayman influence is keenly felt in The Lost Crown, as while, unlike Ubisoft Montpellier’s original hero, your main character has limbs connecting his appendages to his body, the fast-flowing movement, exciting platforming, and excellent level design is all present and correct.
The Lost Crown is a Metroidvania. You explore a large world full of blocked paths, which will later become accessible thanks to powers you’ll receive later on your travels. This is well-worn video game territory, and in recent years, there has been a slew of high-quality entrees in the genre. Games like Dead Cells (which was so faithful it later received official Castlevania content) and the excellent Metroid Dread lead the pack for recent Metroidvania’s, but we’re happy to say that The Lost Crown isn’t all that far behind.
In one crucial way, it actually surpasses those titles, and it’s by fixing one of the biggest annoyances of the genre and putting guide writers out of work all at once.
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