10 Video Game Reboots That Saved Dying Franchises

5. Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time

prince of persia sands of time
Ubisoft

Like Ninja Gaiden, Prince of Persia was a franchise which debuted in the late 80s but really came into its own in the PS2 era after an overdue reboot. The 1989 original is a tough-as-nails platformer that absolutely sucks to play now, but it was popular enough to give the Prince a footing in the medium thanks to ridiculously high critics scores.

This creative streak continued with a sequel four years later, which was just as punishing. The series then faced the jump to 3D, which it survived admirably with the creatively-titled Prince of Persia 3D. After that release, the rights ended up at Ubisoft, who decided a full reboot was necessary going forward.

In came Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which kept the general aesthetic but updated the mechanics for a new generation, introducing light combat elements and the key rewind time feature. It turned out to be one of the biggest games of that generation, even if Ubi would run the series into the ground pretty quickly.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.