Battles of PoP dev speaks out News

With less than two months to go until the game hits the shelves, PoP executive producer Yannis Mallat has revealed more of what we can expect from Battles of Prince of Persia - the new card-based turn battler for the Nintendo DS.

Mallat explained that the game is set between the events of Sands of Time and Warrior Within, and explains everything that went on during that period. Indeed, there was so much going on that "We had to let the player take on the role of various characters to make sure all the angles were covered," Mallat said.

Battles of PoP combines two gameplay elements: strategy and card battling. "We didn't want to go for a typical strategy game where waiting times between rounds are frustrating and just really boring for the players. We decided to break down the turns into smaller rounds, where you don’t necessarily move all your units right away, and also we used the cards system to help increasing the depth of the strategies and the fun also," said Mallat.

"This is a very interesting twist, as the countless possibilities now give players the chance to play their own way, their own style."

So how does the game make use of the DS's unique capabilities? Well, "The double screen allows us to give players more information while battling, creating their decks or thinking about the strategy," according to Mallat.

"The touch screen also helps the gameplay by fastening the decisions, and give players more responsive controls over their field of action." Battles of PoP will fully support wireless LAN play, too - but there's no word as to whether it'll work online with Nintendo's new Wi-Fi Connection service.

Mallat said that those of us who are attached to the traditional PoP games needn't fear that there's nothing here for us - indeed, we'll get to find out a whole lot more about our royal hero.

"Fans of the series will uncover a story they thought they knew. Expect important twists, major revelations and characters development," Mallat said.

"So far, the Prince of Persia games were very centric around the Prince, but by pulling back the camera and controlling a vast army of generals and soldiers, we can understand many things we couldn’t before.

"The Prince of Persia universe is huge and you’ll see how far you may be from knowing the secrets and insides it holds..."

Intrigued? Why not check out the new trailer, now available for download. Battles of Prince of Persia is currently slated for a December 2 release.