Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown looks to reinvent the series Jordan Mechner created 35 years ago. Given the franchise’s longevity, you might expect many entries for fans to enjoy. That’s strangely not the case with Prince of Persia, so here’s every series entry in chronological order.
Over those 35 years, only eight main installments released, which pales in comparison to many franchises that started around that era. This is mostly due to Mechner’s complete ownership of the franchise before he sold it to Ubisoft. Then, when the franchise began to dip in quality towards the late 2000s, it coincided with the rise of Assassin’s Creed, a franchise that was originally intended as a spiritual successor to the Prince’s adventures. There’s a lot of history involved with the series, but if you’re like me and want to experience a franchise in its entirety before playing the next entry, here’s a handy guide to help you catch up on the Prince’s adventures!
Every Prince of Persia Game
As previously stated, there are eight games in the series, split across three separate timelines. Nothing connects any of these timelines, as they were just different directions the creators wanted to tackle at the time, so you don’t actually need to play every game to understand what’s happening in The Lost Crown. Furthermore, The Lost Crown is actually a soft reboot that doesn’t appear to have anything in common with the earlier games, so newcomers can jump in without having to worry about previous continuity. The eight games, the timeline they belong to, release dates, and the first system(s) they released on, are as follows:
- Original Trilogy
- Prince of Persia (1989 – Apple II)
- Prince of Persia II: The Shadow and the Flame (1993 – MS-DOS)
- Prince of Persia 3D (1999 – Windows)
- The Sands of Time Series
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003 – PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PC)
- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004 – PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PC)
- Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (2005 – PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Wii, PC)
- Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (2010 – PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC)
- Reboot Series
- Prince of Persia (2008 – PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
As far as actually playing these titles goes, the entirety of the Sands of Time series and the reboot are available on Steam and frequently go on sale. If you’re going to jump in, it’s worth noting that The Forgotten Sands is an interquel taking place between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within.
Sadly, playing any of the original trilogy titles will require you to track down original copies as they aren’t available on modern hardware, though a remake of the first game, known as Prince of Persia Classic is available on some platforms.
Many of these games are considered to be absolute classics, including the original game and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, with a reboot in development for The Sands of Time. That project has its own troubled history, to say the least, but at the very least, we’ll soon have a new game to satisfy fans who have waited nearly 15 years for a new installment.
