If we behave as civilized people do and omit Prince of Persia 3D from the true continuity of the series - relegating it to the realm of the misremembered and apocryphal - I can rightly be called a fan of the "whole shebang."
I was not shrinking or circumspect in my praise of Sands of Time, and the long-haul, full night of play to complete it recalled the heady days of my youth. As I've documented here in the post, I never know how to perceive the information they release about the sequel. Every time I think they've altered to the formula to lean toward acrobatic combat, forsaking the platform puzzling for which I smolder with carnal lust, they release a video like this which seems to imply that they love me again and that things will be different this time.
Imagine my despair when reading Hilary Goldstein's article at IGN that verified horrors which had been, to this point, confined to theory: even by the halfway point, the fiendish puzzles were not present in any significant density. A thousand curses! But wait... 1UP's David Smith says puzzle platforming is intact, but I'm talking about huge rooms full of light beams that I need to direct in some byzantine manner.
The in-your-face motif, the hard rockin' mosh pit audio, and the focus on combat are all calculated to attract people who passed it up before. It makes me kind of mad that people who didn't like the first game get to determine the course of the franchise at expense of people who liked the Goddamn game just fine.
(CW)TB
