It’s been a pretty phenomenal week for the gaming industry. Though PlayStation’s recent showcase was a bit disappointing overall, it still gave fans an amazing first look atMarvel’s Spider-Man 2. Summer Game Fest had a surprisingly excellent show just a week later, with some big reveals and a great first showing ofMortal Kombat 1’s gameplay. And then Xbox took the baton on Sunday to deliver one of its best showcases in recent memory. And while there were a lot of games fighting for attention these past few weeks, one of the biggest surprise standouts wasPrince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
The first newPrince of Persiagame in 13 years,Prince of Persia: The Lost Crownwas first unveiled at Summer Game Fest, and then given a deep-dive gameplay demonstration during theUbisoft Forward presentation. Being developed by the same studio behind the excellentRayman OriginsandRayman Legends,Prince of Persia: The Lost Crowntakes the series back to its roots with a 2D Metroidvania that features fluid combat, and even flashier platforming. ButPrince of Persia: The Lost Crowndoesn’t just hearken back to the first game in the franchise, as the Sands of Time also make a prominent appearance in the game.
RELATED:Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Could Make Way for a Remake of the 1989 Original
How Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s Sands of Time Stack Up to the Original
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Timeis one of the greatestaction-platformers of the sixth generation of consoles, and is likely the first entry in the series that many modern fans experienced. One of the biggest hooks ofPrince of Persia: The Sands of Timewas its titular time manipulation powers, giving the player a variety of magical powers. The most useful and prominent power inSands of Timeis the ability to rewind time by up to 10 seconds, allowing the player to reverse a fatal platforming mistake, or avoid the detrimental effects of a surprise ambush.
On top of its reversing time abilities, the titularSands of Timecould also be used in combat. During the course of the game, players unlock the ability to slow the movements and attacks of individual enemies, or an entire room full of foes. The player only has access to a certain number of sand vials at one time, however, and once they’re depleted the player can no longer use any special time-bending abilities. To refill these vials, players either need to find a deposit of sand in the environment or finish off enemies with the Dagger of Time.
Being one of the most iconic features ofthe modernPrince of Persiafranchise, it’s only natural that Ubisoft would want to include the Sands of Time in the upcomingPrince of Persia: The Lost Crown, albeit with a pretty big twist. UnlikePrince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the player isn’t the one in control of these time-bending powers, the main antagonist is. But that doesn’t mean players can’t still manipulate time to their advantage.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s Sands of Time powers will feel familiar but different for long-time fans of the series. The whole premise ofPrince of Persia: The Lost Crownsees the past and present converging, causing some timey-wimey shenanigans, and giving the player some interesting takes on classic abilities. Rather than being able to rewind time by 10 seconds, players will instead be able to place a shadow marker in one spot, and teleport to it. From the brief glimpses of this ability in the trailers, it seems as though this power can be used both during combat, as a form of evasion, and during puzzles, as a way to return to a past point. It also seems as though the player will be able to use this ability to create shadow clones that can be used to solve puzzles, and potentially be used in combat.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crownlaunches June 29, 2025, on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
