Has it actually come to this? Of course it has. Now that it has, it makes sense that something like this would happen. The confusion you feel reading the previous sentences is precisely the sort I felt when Ubisoft, lovely sweet Ubisoft who gave us The Sands of Time (The WORTHY Prince of Persia title) and Assassin's Creed (Both platformers extraordinaire) announced that it was going to reboot the Prince of Persia franchise... Again!
It wasn't that confusing when I smacked my head looking at imdb.com's front page: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Movie Gallery. Of bloody course. Now lets get something straight: Creating a game to market a movie is an idea that is a decade old and shouldn't be treated like its a new evil plaguing the world of games but why do it WHEN THE MOVIE MADE ITSELF IS BASED ON A VIDEO GAME OF THE SAME TITLE?!
The new video game in question, by the way, is titled Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. So the word "Sands" just had to be there; since they can't make a video game called "Sands of Time" again for (I'm guessing) legal reasons. The reason for my resentment on hearing this news is that Games for Movies™ rarely end up being as good as the movie they're promoting and Movies from Games™ have the track record of Uwe Boll. Since Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is "based" on a movie that is in turn based on a game, my gobsmacked state of being is hardly surprising.
So to appease myself, I looked around for signs that Ubisoft knew what it was doing. The results weren't inspiring. The new game doesn't have the red and blue (Ubisoft is French) Prince of the already rebooted 2008 edition, instead we have a Jake Gyllenhall-ish 3D model lifted straight from the movie (God I hope Yuri Lowenthal is back as the Prince, but I dread it'll be Gyllenhall's voice acting to corroborate with the film). Also, the "Teaser" trailer didn't have any gameplay footage and Ubisoft hasn't said anything yet about new gameplay which could mean one of two things:
1.) It's so amazing that it just has to be kept a secret, or
2.) There aren't any new gameplay elements.
Meanwhile the final nail in the coffin of my confidence in the "Forgotten Sands" is the it's logo:
That's it? I mean really? The same"Prince of Persia" logo from Warrior Within and a subtext in bright red Arial Black? Oh wait, I forgot horrendously heavy drop shadow. But the legal department should be pleased. There's that ® and ™ to keep them happy.
I realize my initial reactions aren't very enthusiastic and of course the game needs a chance to be made and reviewed before any fair criticism can be made. After all, "The Sands of Time" was a fabulous jewel that emerged from the muck filled shadows of "Prince of Persia 3D". And it's encouraging to know Ubisoft Montreal, probably the most auteur-ish development studio (Along with Valve, id et al) is behind it's development. So there are signs of hope. But will it be good? Ironically, the end credits song of "The Sands of Time" has the answer: Time Only Knows...
LAWL as usual