The fat guy in the Arena is dead

Before you get flustered, nobody actually died. This is a game that I'm talking about.

I am, of course, talking about playing the Prince of Persia: Rival Swords game on my Wii. As most of you who have grown up playing PoP (one of the most engaging games to come out as I was growing up) would know, the game is more about discovering your way through the palace and fighting different types of palace guards and using different techniques to get to the Princess without getting killed. As you can see here, the graphics for the original game are not as cutting edge as the games that we see today, but you have to remember, this game came out around 15 years ago. Forget the internet, most people did not have computers where I grew up. Not only was this the only thing that we had at that time, this was way better than we expected to see on the tiny yellow phosporous monitors that we had in those days.

The Rival Swords version for the Wii does not disappoint. With the same discovery oriented layout, the game also has the advantages of motion sensitivity that the Wii offers. So now, you actually have to wave your hands in a sword fight and actually make a stabbing motion when you want to cling to something with your dagger. And the interface is as good as I would want it to be. I'm sure a lot of people want better graphics for their games, but since PoP is more of a "get to a point" kind of game, the graphics are not so much the key. And for me, the graphics are just fine.

So coming back to the fat guy in the arena. I was stuck on this level for a while. The fat guy is a huge monster who is a bit more difficult to kill. The voice in the Prince's head kept saying "Go for his eyes...he cannot kill you if he cannot see you". But I was having a lot of trouble timing my speedkills (I was swinging too quickly). So after a while, mostly by accident, I realized that I need to wait till the screen changes colour and the motion slows down a trifle. There is also the distinct blade flashing. So using all those, I managed to get both the eyes of the fatso and eventually brought him down to his knees. I then had a lot more trouble timing my final speed kills. By the time I finished with the guy, I was physically exhausted.

But now that he's gone, I have moved through the temple garden and onwards. In fact, I have come to the second of the horrible monsters which were created when the leading lady of the game (Kailina) was killed. This lady moves super fast and I need to accumulate enough sand credits so that I can use them to slow time down. Haven't got rid of her yet, but hopefully tonight I will dispose off her. I know I am closer to the end. And the game has been throughly enjoyable.