Prince of Persia Rival Swords

Since the Wii launched late last year, there have been quite a few ports brought across from other platforms. From Call of Duty 3 and Medal of Honor, to Splinter Cell Double Agent and Madden, it seems like developers the world over are keen to bring pre-existing games to the new console. Naturally, the quality of these ports vary wildly – some are admirable and polished, finely tweaked for the Wii’s control scheme; while others are terribly sloppy, and suffer from arbitrary and unintuitive use of the motion controls. Let’s hope that Prince of Persia: Rival Swords – an adaptation of last year’s Two Thrones – falls into the former category rather than the latter.

Rival Swords is essentially Two Thrones with a new control scheme. Reports indicate that there will be no significant new content for the Wii version – rather, the development team have been concentrating largely on making sure the game’s controls actually feel right on Nintendo’s console.

So how will these controls work? The developers have pointed out that while some of the Prince’s actions are tied to traditional button presses, many of his moves have now been adapted to the motion controls. The ‘Dagger Plant’ move, for example, requires you to stab forward with the remote, while Chain Swinging requires you to strike with the nunchuck. Camera control also is now mapped to the remote, giving users a lot of control over how the action is depicted.

It’s up in the air at this stage whether Rival Swords will be worth picking up if you’ve already played through Two Thrones. The lack of new content will mean you’re playing through the exact same game – but on the other hand, you’ll be playing through it in an entirely different fashion. Whether the new control scheme is an actual improvement on previous controls, though, remains to be seen. Look for Rival Swords to hit these shores at the end of March or in early April – and keep it locked to NZGamer for the final word on this port.