Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review round-up — what do critics say?
How's the new prince faring with critics?
Now that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has been out for a full day, we're starting to get a clear picture of how it's faring with fans of the series and critics alike.
Jumping into the Metroidvania genre, it's brought gameplay elements the series has never seen before, while paying homage to its 2D roots.
Brought to life by a brilliant cast of characters and vibrant visuals, the game looks pretty spectacular.
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But let's not forget that it's releasing on multiple platforms, and reviewers often disagree. So, let's take a look at a whole bunch of reviews to get a bigger picture.
What is the Metacritic score for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown?
Sometimes it's nice to get an overall idea right away. The average score generated by Metacritic isn't always indicative of a game's quality - sometimes a score looks mid, but that average is made from polarising high and low scores, so it's always best to check out the individual scores, too.
However, the overall Metacritic score of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is 86. Which is not bad at all.
But what about for individual consoles? The scores for each platform are the following:
- Xbox Series - 86
- PlayStation 5 - 86
- PC - 84
- Nintendo Switch - 87
While the PS4 and Xbox One scores are yet to be collected, the Switch version has the highest score. A rare occurrence, but it looks like The Lost Crown might be best suited to Nintendo's 2017 hybrid console!
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Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review round-up — what do critics say?
Giving the game a perfect score, Patrick Dane at Dexerto says: "Montpellier has found the perfect niche for Prince of Persia as a reimagined Metroidvania, making it completely distinct from Assassin’s Creed, and finding a new voice for the franchise to flourish."
Adrian Burrows at The Sixth Axis says it's "one of the finest Metroidvanias I’ve ever played" in a 9/10 review, going on to praise its "kinetic platforming" and "thumping combat" and calling it "the best Prince of Persia ever".
Continuing the trend of high praise, Wesley LeBlanc at Game Informer awarded The Lost Crown 9.5/10. He says the game "makes it hard to put the controller down, constantly urging players to follow its paths just a little further".
Not all reviews have been glowing, though, with Robin Bea at Inverse scoring The Lost Crown 6/10 and calling it "a fun but flawed Metroidvania". With this currently being the lowest score, Montpellier should be relieved. We've seen far worse.
More praise came from TechRadar Gaming. Jake Tucker says that the game's "dizzying sense of speed is the unique thing that The Lost Crown brings to the metroidvania genre". He scored it 4/5.
The Gamer, too, awarded the Prince's latest adventure a high score. In a 4/5 review, George Foster concluded: "Some fans may have already turned their nose up at The Lost Crown because of everything that it does differently from the Sands trilogy, but this is not only one of its best entries in the series, but one that understands what makes Prince of Persia so great in the first place."
And Ryan Janes at Nintendo Insider gave it an almost perfect score, saying, "[It's] not just an excellent Metroidvania but also a brilliantly refreshing new direction for Prince of Persia, one that surprises throughout its 15-plus hour adventure whilst remaining true to the series's core elements," providing yet another review that points out the majesty of the Switch version.
With even the lowest score being relatively decent, it looks like The Lost Crown really will bring this beloved franchise into the current generation with gusto. We'll keep our fingers crossed for another trilogy!
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Authors
Ben Huxley is a freelance contributor to Radio Times, with bylines also in TechRadar, WhatCulture, GAMINGbible, and Live Science. A writer of fiction, too, he has a few short stories published and a novel on the way. He has a BA in English Literature, and an MA in creative writing.