Prince of Persia: The Hidden Crown Demo is a blast

Ubisoft Montpiller , the team behind Rayman Legends, is gearing up for its release of Prince of Persia: The Hidden Crown and has released a demo ahead of its January 18th release date. Returning to its 2D side scrolling roots -- The Hidden Crown is instantly fun. It expertly places more of an emphasis on combat while balancing its classic Prince of Persia parkour elements. Using a 2D animated look -- the slick art style reminds me of the more recent DC animated movies.

While the demo doesn't start you at the very beginning of the game, its pretty clear from the story context that its very early on in the story. Time is broken in the land of Zarkon, causing dead enemies to re-animate back to life, and pocked of the world are frozen in time. Hitting time shards will allow you reform some elements of the timeline, which, in the demo results in destroyed platforms reappearing.

Sargon -- the game's heavily muscled dual-sword weilding protragonist seamlessly transitions from combat to parkour, the emphasis on speed and flow of movement and pure power. As a member of the Immortals, he's been charged with the rescue of the kidnapped Ghassan, the titular Prince of Persia.

Sargon will parry enemies attacks with an Sekiro-inspired sword clash. Standard parries will knock your enemies back. Parrying a foes charged attack (usually incited by a yellow flash) will trigger an awesome over the top take down. In addition to his dual swords, Sargon also has a bow and arrow which can be fired rapidly and even in the air. Fail a parry and you'll be greeting with a flashy red blast, taking off a chunk of health or in some cases can send you flying clear across the screen.

Sargon also has access to Athra Surges -- super powerful attacks than be unleashed after charging a meter. In the demo, you have access to two different surges, You can equip two at at time in the full game. This demo likely gives you access to higher power attacks so you can try them out. There are also a number of amulets you can equip. These modifiers, like re-gaining health after a successful parry, can change the flow of combat. It's not clear how many you'll be able to equip in the full game.

Ubisoft has also put The Hidden Crown through its paces technically speaking and is fully optimized. On PC, I clocked it at about 150 fps on my 200hz ultrawide with no issues. A recent Digital Foundry video seems to indicate it has great performance across all platforms. Prince of Persia: The Hidden Crown is releasing on January 15th on early access for the Deluxe Edition and on Ubisoft Connect. The standard edition will be releasing on January 18th.