No, I’ve not got to the end of Prince of Persia as yet – I know what I have to do to complete level 9, but I keep making stupid mistakes right at the end – but this is a small puzzle-type platformer which riffs on Prince of Persia but adds in Nazi guards and a shiv. The movement, graphical background, and obstacles are derived from the original Persia game, although there are no buttons or moving gates; instead the puzzle is working out where to move, how to get from place to place, and where the guards are.

The level starts in darkness with only the area immediately around you visible. Over time you fill in the level structure, although explored areas are shown only in blue (without guards and obstacles included). You can move left or right, and jump left or right or up, and when you’re at the edge of a platform you can climb down. This is a crucial ability to prevent you from falling to your death. All simple enough, although with the limited movement options it can take a little convolution to get to the right place at times, and you’re only ever one wrong keypress away from death.

What makes it more difficult is that the guards will shoot you on sight. Jump or walk onto a platform in front of them and you will be deadened immediately. Unfortunately they are frequently just where you want to go. How to get around this? Approach them from behind. Do so, and the prince makes use of the sharp metal he found at the start of the game, and the guard becomes a bloody mess on the floor.

And that’s basically the game. Kill all the Nazis, make your way to the switch to open the exit and then the exit itself while avoiding spikes and long drops. It took me a while to realise that you can’t jump over two blocks of spikes together but instead you have to climb down onto them and walk across. Otherwise it was a fun diversion where I managed to kill all but one of the guards, and finally found and killed their boss.

You can play it at https://adamatomic.itch.io/prince and I suggest you do.