Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

While everyone is endlessly waiting for the Sands of Time remake, Ubisoft He wanted to fill the gap in Prince of Persia releases with an entirely new game, The Lost Crown. The 2D metroidvania from the team behind Rayman Origins and Legends, with a strong emphasis on platforming challenges, felt like a surefire success, but despite excellent reviews, it wasn’t quite the runaway success we expected. Maybe it was because it was released near other big-name games. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth And Persona 3 Reloador that metroidvanias don’t have the broad appeal that action adventure games have. Whatever the case, I loved The Lost Crown and I’m excited that the Mask of Darkness DLC gives me another reason to dive back in.

Mask of Darkness takes place on a different map than the main game, and you will see our prince Sargon just starting out. He will be stripped of his amulets and most of his platforming skills, and will only return three bars of health. That’s one of the best things about this DLC. As someone who hasn’t played since January, I was excited to see that I didn’t have to immediately remember all the intricacies of the platform. Instead, I can focus on mastering basic skills like archery, dashing, teleporting, and wall jumping before being introduced to new platforming concepts specific to this side story.

After completing the opening chapter, you can explore the left or right path, with both separate and unique mechanics. The left path focuses on portals where you can change direction with your arrows and shoot ever-moving lasers to avoid. On the right side are orbs that send you skyward when you hit them, and deadly spinning blades that aren’t visible until the last second. It’s clear that Mask of Darkness respects the fact that you probably haven’t played The Lost Crown in a while, and that the core game’s strength lies in its challenging platforming challenges.

While there are two boss fights and a small number of enemies dotted around the map, Mask of Darkness focuses on your platforming skills and turns it up to 11. All of the more difficult parts of the platformer are optional for small rewards like amulets or potions. but that’s the joy of this DLC. Each screen feels like a separate test, and the items that provide a small power boost aren’t the real reward for completing them. One of the main criticisms of the base game is that there are extremely difficult challenges for very little reward, but those who make these complaints are missing the point of these difficult sections.

The best part about the new DLC is that after completing it, which I happily did in one sitting, I went back to clean up everything I missed from the main game. I don’t know if this feature was included in the DLC or before, but at launch you couldn’t purchase maps that showed your missing items. Mask of Darkness left me hungry for more, and when I went back to clean up the missing pieces, I immediately lost another 15 hours to The Lost Crown.

If the unforgiving difficulty of the platforming is holding you back from The Lost Crown, you’ll definitely want to skip Mask of Darkness. But as someone who loves the precision needed in 2D platformers like Super Meat Boy and the versatility of movement options in games like Shovel Knight, this felt like a game tailor-made for me. The fields were tough and unforgiving, but still completely fair. I knew the mistakes I made and I laughed at every death. Most importantly, it helped me rediscover my love for The Lost Crown.

Score: 8/10

Version tested: Nintendo Switch