I went into Summer Game Fest with low expectations, only excited to see Mortal Kombat 1, and planning to not let myself get too invested thanks to previous shows being filled with mostly dud announcements. I'm still holding a grudge from 2020's TGAs for keeping me up till 4 am, only to have a bizarre trailer for Ark 2 as the big "one last thing" announcement.
Thankfully, my trepidation was misplaced as it was a surprisingly strong showing thanks to Sonic Superstars, Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, among other things. The biggest and best surprise of all was Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, a gorgeous Metroidvania that stars a new protagonist and looks to meld the best elements of the 2D and 3D eras of the series.
Related: Prince Of Persia Plays Even Better Than It Looks
Combine that with it being developed by the team behind Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends, inarguably two of the best platformers of all time, and The Lost Crown looked like a slam dunk, something I'm sure Ubisoft thought as well.
Not everyone seems to agree, however. Ever since it was revealed at SGF, The Lost Crown has been met with the most surprising amount of backlash I've seen for a game in recent memory. Every upload of the reveal trailer has been ratio'd, the Prince of Persia subreddit seems near-unanimously against the new game, and any mention of it on social media is overwhelmingly negative.
Even after a more detailed breakdown at Ubisoft Forward and previews from journalists (including our features editor Eric Switzer) that suggest The Lost Crown is shaping up to be as great as it looks, the complaints have only calmed down a little, with the latest gameplay walkthrough still getting more dislikes than likes. At least the comments section is marginally less toxic and makes me want to rip my hair out a little less.
From what I can tell from subjecting myself to the complaints, the main problem that fans seem to have with the Lost Crown is based on three things - one, a bunch of racist complaints about the new protagonist being black (something that even the creator of Prince of Persia has fought against and made it clear that the Prince can be anyone), two, that it's a 2D game that apparently isn't worth full price (even though it's $50 instead of $70) and three, the simple fact that it's not the Sands of Time remake or a gritty "triple-A" game in the vein of the cancelled Prince of Persia Redemption.
Ignoring the fact that the Sands of Time remake is a completely separate game that's already been confirmed to still be in development, it's interesting that one of the main reasons that fans are against The Lost Crown is because of a remake that they also actively bashed. In that game's case, the annoyance is fairly placed since it's been in development hell and looked like a downgrade compared to the original, but it's starting to seem like some Prince of Persia fans just aren't going to be happy no matter what they're given.
I haven't played The Lost Crown yet, so I can't say if it's going to be as good as it looks (although you can bet I'm going to be there day one), but its two-minute reveal trailer was packed with more heart, colour, and energy than anything else I've seen from Ubisoft in a long while. It's baffling that something with so much soul is the brunt of such hate from fans of a series that looked like it was destined to be relegated to live on as skins in Tom Clancy games for the rest of time.
Resident Evil 4 and Final Fantasy 7 have already proven that remakes can be a great thing, but this nostalgia-obsessed attitude of only being interested in retreading the same ground over and over again needs to go. Rather than calling for a slightly shinier version of that thing we know, we should be celebrating and actively encouraging projects as unique and exciting as The Lost Crown.
If gamers keep pushing back when companies try and do something new, it's only going to reinforce the idea that it's only okay to have bloated open-world maps full of mission markers, radio towers, and pointless collectibles. You know, the ones that even Ubisoft has figured out that we don't want?
After seeing the responses and criticisms of The Lost Crown, maybe that's what gamers deserve. They certainly don't deserve something with as much potential and character as The Lost Crown.
Next: Final Fantasy 16 Should Have Still Had Minigames