Bought it today, and it is extremely impressive. Crowded Christmas responsible for relatively small sales for its quality?

Here's a brief review of what I thought of the game (and i recommend it very much):

1.) The Prince is wonderful - voiced by the same guy who did Nathan Drake in Uncharted (who is he? he's really good), with pretty much the same Brendan Frasier (The Mummy)-esque personality, only taken to a much higher level in cheekiness, humor, wit, and charm. In short, he's a funnier and more likeable Nathan (not to mention more athletic, but more on that later).

2.) Elika is the perfect partner - she's sexy, charming, and just as witty (in fact, dominates the prince in most dialogue situations). She's the absolute perfect companion in any journey, and is not burdened by crumby AI (like that dumb AI partner in RE5), since she's more like an extension of the prince's movements. She's like that classic Persian beauty (think Ashwarya Rai.. rawr) with a lot of edge and smarts that saves you when you fall (more on that later).

3.) Combat is fluid and satisfying - combos are strung God of War style but with a slower, more theatrical sense, focusing on acrobatic art movements rather than brutality. The only problem is that there are much too few combat situations to really unleash the more impressive combos.

4.) Prince of Persia is platforming for the next generation - there is no other platformer out there that can compete with this game's fluidity and sense of accomplishment when running through the ruins. Words aren't enough to describe how good the platforming is. It has to be experienced. The Prince is amazingly gifted and Elika is always there to support.

5.) You can't die - everytime you're about to fall off a cliff or get sliced by an enemy, Elika saves you with her magic and returns you to before you fell. There's pretty much no way you can die in the game, which is a good thing for some, but may remove the thrill of platforming for others.

6.) The graphics are breathtaking - if you thought Uncharted was beautiful and Valkyria Chronicles' art style was good, wait till you see the locales of Prince of Persia. It looks exactly like a watercolor painting come to life, with a HUGE attention to detail (for example, petals and leaves falling out of trees, dust and sand poofing out when you hang on a flagpole).

I agree with you on most of those points. The game was greatly overlooked during the holiday rush along with other (what I felt were) classics like Dead Space and Far Cry 2.

I didn't know the same dude did Nathan Drake and the prince. That's interesting. I can see it now... I didn't like the way the prince's character was portrayed. He sounded very American and modern. It ruined the immersion of the game for me.

The platforming and animation is amazing, especially over the canyons and large vistas looming in the backdrop, all of which is accessible. It's definitely a sight to behold and I think it's the best looking game on my new-ish TV, above Gears 2, MGS4 and Uncharted. It's just colorful, smooth and actually very soothing in color palette with deep oranges and bright inviting blues. However, this was ruined for me by not being able to die. I felt no inclination to try knowing that I'd be reset to where I was just 5 seconds ago. When I have to wade through a loading screen when I died in older platformers it gave me incentive to try and do my best as I didn't want to wait. It just made the game more enjoyable for me because I like the challenge and the rewards it brings. That's probably also why I love Ninja Gaiden despite people's complaints of it being ultra cheap and broken.

Overall it is a great game. I'm just glad I only rented it as it was easily completable in 2 sittings and only outfits can be unlocked from multiple play throughs.

Actually the game was utter crap. I couldn't finish it at all, I'm only half way through (however you measure half way in this game). It is in fact the worst, and I mean, WORST platforming I have ever seen. You press A, within 10 yards of a cliff, and then it turns into a quicktime event where you usually press A again within a 2 second time frame to continue. Oh yeah, sometimes you press the Y and B as well.... sometimes. There, I just summed up 90% of this game.

I won't even go into the retarded combat of the game. I'll just say that it requires to memorize a sequence of 8 (could have been 10) button presses, and when an enemy does something special just cut down those 10 down to the section where they become invulnerable. Do tha over and over and over. I just assummed up the last 10% of the game.

Graphic wise it IS absolutely amazing especially when you do a 1920x1200 resolution, everything on high. Quite literally breathtaking. Then again so are these pictures I got for FREE off the internet.

This game has NOTHING goof form the lasst games. NOTHING. The only decent thing is Elika, and some of the dialogue got on my nerves. Some however was quite witty. Which reminds me, the storytelling was utter shit in the game.

It is my 2nd favourite Prince after the Warrior Within.

I think the reason it was somewhat overlooked is it being cell-shaded. Cell-shaded games just dont seem to do well on HD consoles.

I think people who hate it expected it to be an evolution of the PoP games from last gen. While I agree with them that the combat and platforming isn't as complicated or even almost anything like last gen's PoP's (which I'll also agree were better IMO), I do appreciate the work that Ubisoft has put into making it playable for everyone. It's not complex, it's not overly demanding, and it really allows people to feel like they're doing something really amazing albeit really not having to put in a ton of effort. It's much like what Fable and Fable 2 are to RPG's, what Halo Wars is to RTS's and what Guitar Hero/Rock Band is to playing real instruments. It's like an introduction to platformers and people must realize that this gen has opened up gaming to a whole new audience and these games are meant to help people new to more classical styles of games get their footing.

Its definitely a fun game. The Prince and Elika are likeable (especially Elika) but heres the problem, its only 2 of them. I feel the game could have been extended to more characters meaningfully - for instance, making the bosses less generic or maybe include Elika's other family members.

The platforming is also too linear and repetitive. Again, it feels like they could have done alot more meaningful additions to it like for example multiple enemies, different types of collectibles.

I do agree that the art style and graphics are really beautiful and that really made going on the next repetitive level much more easy to swallow.

Super Mario Bros probably got more people into gaming than this gen did, and it had a FAR better platforming mechanic than this PoS game. At least it wasn't a series of cut-scenes when you were platforming.

That may be true but again, a large part of that was due to simplicity of the game back then. Back then there were far fewer buttons on a controller than there is now and competition was a lot less fierce. Nowadays, devs try to (and almost have to) throw in a ton of untested "features" and extra gameplay gimmicks to make their games stand out. Ubisoft Montreal took the simplistic approach to this game relative to where its competition lies in terms of controls, gameplay and "features". There isn't a decapitation system, 100's of combos spanned over a dozen weapons and upgrading abilities. From a design standpoint it's doing what super Mario Bros did all those years ago by making it approachable and fun.

As for the platforming being a "series of cut-scenes", I'd say that parts of the platforming were more quick time sequences than cut scenes. I don't recall putting my controller down and busting out the pop corn when scaling the environment :P.

PoP is awsome, I love it, all of it!

I will say this:
1. The game is not the end all and be all. Looks like it has great production quality. The controls are good. The graphics are great. It isn't for everyone. It doesn't the job. But I don't think the world cares about Prince of Persia, which is why it didn't do that well.
2. Vlad, your pontificating is annoying. There are FAR WORSE platformers than this. It is NOT the "worst platformer ever". The only way it could be the worst you have seen, is if you have seen a weird mix of platformers. I have seen FAR worse than this, FAR worse. And you calling it "PoS" is annoying also. Fine, you don't like the game. I get it.

All and all, I say people who are interested should rent this game. I was able to get it for $40 new, when it was on sale. I say it is worth at least that, if you want platforming along the lines of what you did grabbing agility orbs in Crackdown.