Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time Remake announced

Ubisoft today announced they're remaking Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, 2003's fun action-platformer about a wall-running lad with a magical time-rewinding dagger. Seems they're winding time forwards on the game, fully redoing art, getting folks into motion capture suits for new animations, and even getting the Prince's original actor back in for a new performance. It's coming in January under the imaginative name Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time Remake. Here, check out the trailer:

Bit of a different look, that, going from bright and kinda cartoony style to something a bit grittier but not quite 'realistic'. Curious. What I'm most interested in is something that's hard to judge in the trailer: the action. Even for its time, the original's combat felt rough compared to its peers, so I hope that's a bit fancier. I still remember the original fondly.

Our boy Brendy recently declared the original Sands Of Time one of the best games with time travel. Rewinding time with the dagger to dodge attacks or properly land jumps is fun and all, but it has a nice bonus narrative twist. Brendy explained:

"It is also framed as an Arabian Nights style story, told by a princely protagonist to a princess who doesn't know him. So when you hurl the lad to his death too many times in a level, his narrator voiceover pops up on the 'game over' screen. 'Wait,' he protests, 'it didn't happen like that.' That's a fun touch, but it also means the eejit is sitting there in the princess's chamber going: 'And then I jumped over the 279th pit of spikes, or was it the 280th? But anyway I fell and died, no wait I didn’t die, ha ha, obviously I didn't die, where was I?' Imagine being accosted in your own home by a coked-up intruder who keeps telling you about his dreams. That’s what this girl is experiencing. For 10 hours."

Sands Of Time Remake is coming to PC via Uplay and the Epic Games Store on the 21st of January, 2021. It'll also be on PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X, and Xbone.

Ahead of today's Ubisoft Forward stream, company CEO Yves Guillemot apologised to the people they didn't protect, among other controversies.