Uh oh… The 1990 SAM Coupé conversion of Jordan Mechner‘s classic Prince of Persia is disastrously flawed.

Why? Because when you move up to the edge of a ledge in ‘carefully creep forward mode’ (by holding down fire and moving left or right) you almost always fall off. Which isn’t right. In Prince of Persia, when you shuffle slowly towards the edge of a platform you should stop – not fall off the bloody ledge to your death! And the size of the step the guy makes in ‘creep’ mode is too small too…

I’ve spent a lot of time playing (and enjoying) Prince of Persia over the years, and have refreshed myself with each version prior to writing this feature, and I must say that I was dismayed by this SAM Coupé version. I was really hoping it would be good, because I like the machine and a game like Prince of Persia is well suited to it. But unfortunately the converting programmer either screwed it up, or the game is bugged. I think the former.

The animation and body proportions of the main character are weird too… The rest of the graphics are very good though, especially the cut scenes which are beautifully drawn and coloured.

Prince of Persia on the SAM Coupé is poor overall though. If there was a way of not falling off the edge of ledges in ‘creep’ mode, it would improve the game massively. As it stands: it’s infuriatingly unfair and hardly worth the time.

More: Prince of Persia on Wikipedia