There's no doubting the single player adventure in The Two Thrones was great fun and it still holds up well today. Rival Swords begins with the Prince arriving home. The Dahaka has been defeated and Kaileena, the Empress of Time is with the Prince. When he arrives home the Prince finds out things aren't quite how he remembered and Babylon is in a state of chaos. The Vizier from the Sands of Time was never fully defeated and he kidnaps Kaileena, sacrifices her with the Dagger of Time and unleashes evil. The prince escapes but he needs to get ready to battle and finish the Vizier off completely.
Feeling like a real prince now?
As the single player campaign is identical to The Two Thrones we don't want to repeat everything we've covered in our review for The Two Thrones , but everything that made it into The Two Thrones is included in Rival Swords. Stealth kills, the Dark Prince and the more refined combat easily makes Rival Swords a better title than Warrior Within and overall, Rival Swords really is a great conclusion to the trilogy. Experiencing it a second time feels repetitive, but the single player campaign is still very solid; although players should beware that the game is more focused on platforming than combat.
The biggest difference between Rival Swords and the original game that it wass ported from are the controls. Stealth kills, which are executed by sneaking up on your enemy are activated by using the Wii remote and the nunchuk. First you'll need to sneak up on your enemy, then you need to swipe with the nunchuk and finally swipe with the Wii remote at the right time; this will execute your enemy. Moving around with the Prince is done with the analog stick on the nunchuk. You can jump with the A button, run along and jump up walls with B and when you get them, you can activate sand powers with the C button. The controls take a little bit of getting used too, but once you've completed the basic tutorial at the beginning of Rival Swords you'll likely be moving around acrobatically and without hassle. The only challenge you'll have with the controls are when you need to move the camera. The camera is moved by tilting the remote left or right and it can often be a little awkward when you want to quickly move the camera around.
A stealth kill is coming up...
For some unbeknownst reason the violence has been toned down in Rival Swords. Whereas Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones was rated MA15+ in Australia, Rival Swords is rated M. Blood has been removed from the game, so when you kill an enemy sand comes out instead of blood. Presumably this is so the game could get a teen rating in America, but it hasn't really made much of a difference to the game's rating in Australia, so it's disappointing that we're missing blood whereas the Gamecube version of Two Thrones remains uncensored.
Graphically the game hasn't been upgraded at all. The Wii is capable of much, much more and it's a shame Ubisoft didn't take the opportunity to make the Prince look a little more detailed or add some extra detail to the enemies. Rival Swords still suffers from frame rate issues, there are times where the game crawls. Eighteen months ago the game was very impressively visually and even now Babylon still looks good, with destroyed areas and the landscape camera showing off parts of Babylon to full effect, but the game could look better. Rival Swords has a fantastic soundtrack, the music is epic and sounds fantastic, the narration is fantastic and immersive.
The Dark Prince gives the don't argue..
Rival Swords remains entertaining for the ten hours or so it will take to complete the single player adventure. After this though there isn't much incentive to come back to the game. You'll have full access to the artwork gallery and video gallery and there are a few bonus cheats but it's unlikely you'll want to play through the adventure a second time. If you originally played through The Two Thrones you really have to be keen to want to experience the single player adventure a second time, it's not that it's not enjoyable, it's just that you've essentially seen everything on your first play through.
So now we come to the part where the game receives a score. Well, Rival Swords is a thoroughly enjoyable game and had we not experienced the same campaign eighteen months ago Rival Swords would have been very easy to recommend. Even now the single player campaign holds up well, but the addition of Wii specific controls aren't enough to make this game an essential purchase. Maybe if the title was released at a budget price point it would be easier to recommend, but only those who haven't experienced Two Thrones would be advised to pick this game up.
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