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> Results: Battles of Prince of Persia
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While every platform got a new Prince of Persia action game recently, the DS got something significantly differentﾗa card based strategy game. Taking place between Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, the story looks at how the prince, haunted after unleashing evil in Sands of Time, has to battle campaign after campaign to set things right in the world. It's a good game with a few glaring flaws.
Gameplay is a satisfying mix of turn-based strategy and card collecting, where the contents of your deck decide what attacks or orders you can use during to command your troops during a given turn (or ﾑhour' in the game). You start with an assortment of cards and win new cards as you complete missions. You manage the cards in each of your decks, but the deck is shuffled and the active cards selected by the game at the start of each hour. After each hour you can discard unwanted cards in hopes of getting a more desirable selection. But you may never have to worry about managing your deck during the single player game, because the enemy intelligence conducting battles is not very good. They help you learn proper use of units by setting up attacks and then leaving themselves open to flanking moves and other similar tactical errors. Fortunately the game also offers a solid multiplayer component, allowing you to take your deck with a chosen general and battle for cards with other gamers. With visuals that look dated and an interface that's hard to manage, this game can be off-putting. The limit of a single save is another issue could be a killer flaw. Many people may immediately dismiss the game because of the card systemﾗthat would also be a mistake. Beneath the rough exterior lies a complex strategy game that isn't up to the level of Advance Wars in terms of quality, but is still entertaining to play.  
The tone of the game is fairly dark, but that is the most cautionary thing about the content. This is natural given the darker, more mature themes and stories of the second and third games in the series. Aside from basic combat, it is devoid of objectionable content and perfect for kids otherwise, though I recommend the Advance Wars games first.
Strategy gamesﾗwhether board games or video gamesﾗare great learning tools as they teach the use of rules of engagement and tactics. This game is excellent in how it also includes the facing position of troops to allow flanking and the impact of mental condition on troop fitness. The depth of the battles is greater than most handheld strategy games because you can take advantage of these things as well as the normal unit and terrain differences. Most kids already know that card-based games provide for plenty of challenging gameplay. While the variety and depth of cards in this game doesn't approach those found in more card-focused games, it is an interesting alternative to typical strategy tacticsﾗand one that my kids were able to grasp immediately. They were much better at, and more interested in, organizing different decks, which I found somewhat of a chore. The only problem we had with playing was the inability for each of us to save our own gameﾗbut now that I'm done they can start their own campaign. This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "prince of persia" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Battles of Prince of Persia |
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