If you’re a gamer, who has a Playstation, Xbox, and Wii, you’ve probably seen a Prince of Persia game at some point or other. On the other hand, if you’ve never played a modern game in your life and you’re over 30, you’ve probably played a Prince of Persia game at some point or other. Here’s the thing, Prince of Persia is a very popular game. But before it was huge, it was even bigger on the first PCs that allowed any real gaming. It was awesome. Everybody played it. That was way back in 1989.

The sequel was released in 1993. It was still very good, praised by both critics and gamers, which of course reflected well through it’s sales. And then in 1999 came Prince of Persia 3D. It was frankly a disaster. It was buggy, and uninspired, and it would have been the end of the franchise if Ubisoft hadn’t bought the rights for the game. They had very high plans for the franchise and as it turns out they knew what they were doing.

The game looks nothing like it did before of course. Before the point was to walk very slowly and carefully ahead, run, jump and fight on very strategic points. If you made a step too far, you fell to your death. If you stepped on the wrong platform, you were dead. The game today is a very different beast altogether. It’s much faster, much more intuitive, though you need a tutorial to know what to do with things. Not to mention, the graphics are much more awesome, obviously.

Sands of Time came out in 2003, and it was an instant success. It was so good, that it spawned 4 sequels and a Disney movie. It also found its home on smartphones with Gameloft’s take on the series. You could even go as far as to say that Assassin’s Creed is a Prince of Persia spin off. If any of this make you want to grab your sword and start jumping on walls, be sure to check out some of these awesome Prince of Persia t-shirts below!