Platform(s): PC, Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch
Genre: Metroidvania, DLC, 2D, Platforming, Action

Earlier this year, Metroidvania fans and action game aficionados were blessed with a new Prince of Persia game. It’s 2D, it has great aesthetics, it has a ton of puzzles and fighting, and most importantly, it’s really fun & challenging.

Months later, Ubisoft adhered to the game’s roadmap and delivered an extra downloadable content featuring a new area and a couple of new bosses alongside hazards and puzzles.

Princely Presents

The DLC’s plot is simple: main character Sargon has to chase down a rogue Immortal named Radjen. She was missing in the base game, so the DLC fleshes her out as you pursue her and end up in her Mind Palace stage, a purple and dark world filled with tons of traps, new enemies, and black tar webbing. Did I mention there’s a lot of purple on this map?

First, the new stuff: the new stages in Radjen’s Mind Palace is pretty linear, with the levels clearly designed to test your platforming and reflexes. There are a few new obstacles and gimmicks introduced that freshen the platforming experience. Our main character Sargon will have to deal with magic sawblades that appear temporarily, “slingshot” launchers that you can reposition with either melee attacks or arrows, and bumpers that launch you upward if you hit them with melee. There are even rotating pillars that you need to climb and switch sides with, as well as pillars that lower or raise other pillars to obscure purple lasers obstructing your path.

One of the more memorable obstacles is the magic eye that chases you down, resetting you back at the last checkpoint if it touches you. You need to move around it while platform your way upward and to the finish line to complete the stages in your way. Ubisoft Montpellier took the Angry Sun idea from Super Mario Bros. 3 and put an awesome PoP spin to it. There are two instances with the magic eye, and both segments are exhilarating, challenging, and all-around fun to blast through from start to finish.

New enemies include a spider-legged giant head thing that can split itself and spit fire at you, and shadow beings that can disappear and reappear while shooting out sawblades your way. And because the dev team love their sawblades, there are also mini-flying sawblades which you can thankfully parry if they launch themselves at you. There are two new bosses to deal with, each with their own attack patterns and cool special attacks you must parry flawlessly if you want to get through them.

Most importantly, the DLC will strip you of most of your buffs and upgrades from the main game. Because you can breeze through the DLC with your late-game powers, the game forces you to work with limited resources and a few of your Simurgh time powers (the air dash and the shadow copy move). You have to work for your victories, and feel really good conquering this literal mindspace with quick thinking and 2D jumping knowhow.

Mind’s Eye

For RM17, this Prince of Persia DLC is packed with fun and perplexing levels along with some story nuggets to flesh out that one missing Immortal in the main game. It’s clearly the challenge you crave from a tough title that still knows its roots.

Final Score: 80/100