We've all heard the story before: evil wizard captures beautiful princess, so the stalwart knight comes to rescue and marry her. Unfortunately, things got mixed up in this tale a bit, and someone accidentally sent Two Princes! In this puzzle platform adventure by Arctic Arcade, control both heroes, Sir Valiant and... err... Steve, on their heroic quest to save the princess before they wind up killing each other.
While there may be two of them, there's sadly only one of you. You'll have to use the the [Z] key to alternate control between the princes, the [arrow] keys to move the currently selected prince, and the [spacebar] to attack enemies and interact with objects. Both of the characters need to work together to make it to the green flag in order to progress to the next level. Fortunately, each prince has a certain advantage at their disposal. Sir Valiant can swim underwater, while Steve can travel inside caves and has a cooler looking helmet.
Sometimes the best route isn't the most direct, and being a little curious can lead you to one of the many secrets sprinkled throughout the game. Not only are there gold coins to collect in order to buy new weapons, there are also feathers hidden all over that transport you to a bonus level with even more goodies inside. If you manage to capture the red gem at the end of every bonus level, you might find a surprising advantage later on.
Now it wouldn't be any fun if there wasn't some risk involved, so sometimes even the wildest flail of a sword won't save you when one of your princes kicks the bucket. Instead of a trek back to life through the realm of Hades, you take a cue from Eros and shoot through floating hearts with a bow to regain your health. Admittedly, this mini-game can get tiresome quickly if you're stuck on a particular deathtrap or a difficult boss, but it does beat having to go all the way back to the start.
The 8-bit graphics, spot on music by Rayne Leafe, and the homage paid to classic console games are sure to please retro fans, while the snarky humor and challenging gameplay can make it a fun experience for any gamer. Unfortunately, nothing is without flaw and Two Princes is no exception. The lack of a save or level select feature is a frustrating omission, especially since it takes some time in one sitting to make it through all the way to the very end, and there are some levels where it's possible to get permanently stuck. Even returning to the main menu requires you to restart the game from the very beginning, which isn't the kind of replayability most people have in mind. If you can put aside that one shortcoming however, what you're left with is a charming modern interpretation of beloved classic games. Two Princes is a real gem, and you don't need to collect a secret feather to find this one.
Oh great. Another game that is exclusive to one site only, and you STILL put it on a JIG page.
Fix that.
How did you get through this entire review without making a Spin Doctors reference?
Victor, the game is still playable. Where does it say it's exclusive?
Sorry about the version issue, I've been in contact directly with Phillip, one of the developers. Anyways, he sent me a new one, so we should be good now, right? It's working for me (but so was the first version we had up, so I need to know if anyone is still unable to access it).
Bizarro,
Well if you want to sing it with me, just go ahead now. Cause it's stuck in my head thanks to you!
This game looks pretty messed up:
why do the bonus levels stop giving hearts and whats with the hourglasses and feathers?
when i buy both items, the item that corresponds to the other character vanish like if you had to switch before buying.
the troll should have a better way to evade, the jumps are too bad and every time I lose it doesn't give me enough hearts at respawn.
Please make your game better before releasing it into the world.
JiGuest,
The hourglasses increase your time inside the bonus level. Hitting a feather ends the bonus level immediately, without giving you the red gem.
The game has a steeper difficulty curve the farther you progress, so hearts removed from bonus games is very probably an intentionally added challenge.
When you play the death minigame, each heart you shoot gives you back 10% of your health. The better your accuracy, the more health you'll respawn with.
I didn't quite understand the issue you had with the item shop. If you'd care to elaborate, I could bring it up with the developers.
I can't help but feel as though the music sounds similar to the Green Ranger's Dagger/Flute from Power Rangers.
Okay thanks, sorry if I sounded rude.
What I meant about the item shop was I understood that they were for both nights, I went in with Steve and purchased both of them, when I exited, Steve had the new sword but not Sir Valiant still has his original sword, the same goes when I bought shields later on.
I would even like to know what advantage does buying these items have.
Thanks for clearing out before.
the game does so much right, its a shame that it its flaws will make most players never finish it.
hit detection on the death game has to be pixel perfect and the tiny amount of chances makes it quite frustrating.
no apparent reason when swimming why you can't hop up out of the water and the speed at which the frog bubbles moves compared to the character sprite needs more tweaking.
and for the troll, its not as hard to kill if you
move to the far left and it won't come over and touch you. so you wind up having to just time your hits on it right when its running away and avoid the falling blocks.
also, the no save or level choice makes its very steep ramp up in difficulty teetering on the edge of frustrating vs fun.
also, an option to kill the music w/o killing the fx would be nice.
JiGuest,
Ah, I see now what you mean. It is a little confusing because they don't explain how the shop works. As I understand it, you can actually only buy 1 item at a shop. After you've purchased that one item the shop is closed, so only that one character gets the upgrade and the second item is no longer available for purchase.
Buying a sword will increase the knight's attack, while buying a shield will increase his defense.
No need to apologize, I understand it can sometimes be frustrating! Please let me know if you have any more questions! :)
Thanks again, though it would be good they made it clear about buying one item and not wasting my money.
The z key is not working for me. It does nothing when i press it. It only works sometimes. Anyone know why?
@alex
You cannot change while on moving blocks, underwater or in a cave.
Two words: Nintendo Hard.
Oh, I found a game crashing bug. In the second castle, there's a room where both players can enter - one from the top door, one from the bottom. The second floor has a row of stones that can be dropped to the first floor, which consists of a small platform and a bottomless pit. I cleared it of those damnable bats (by dying lots, of course) so that I could send the stones down to Valiant on the first floor. When I switched to him and hopped across the stones to the other end of the screen (which is still a bottomless pit), the game froze.
I'm not playing this game until they add a level select or a save feature. If I miss a bonus I'm not restarting the entire game just to get it back.
Still, the few stages I did play were fun and it seems like a solid concept overall.
Don't know if I'm playing a newer version but I can't really relate to any of the complaints above. This game plays fantastically, no issues with hit detection and no issues with freezing.
Only thing I'm REALLY missing is indeed being able to continue further down the game when you had to stop early. I don't feel much like playing everything I already played again.
Ugh. "I'm afraid of trolls! I hear they eat hero moustaches."
"Whatever Valerie! Just stay here and brush your pretty hair, I'll deal with the troll. Girl."
Yaaaay casual misogyny!
@Crabbadon: sexist perhaps, but hardly misogyny. Do you know what that word means?
Yeah, sounds funny that Steve called Valiant a girl when the case was his moustache (Fop!)
Steve fell into water, and I had to play the heart shooting scene, repeatedly; Every time Steve respawns, he dies exactly there in the water again.
This game desperately needs a "restart level" option. It's remarkably easy to get yourself stuck, by leaving a moving block in a place where you can't get back to its control. I managed to make it happen on level 2! And then I had no options but to restart the game...
Trinn,
Each knight has to individually go into a shop in order to buy an item. However, this makes it frustrating if one of the knights can't go into that area in order to get to the shop.
On the area right after the water, can anyone figure out a way to get to the platform above the shop right at the beginning? Even with the block moving, I can't reach it.
Gah, nevermind, I'm a dip. POP
Also, I didn't actually try walking on spears/spikes beforehand, but I am at least able to walk on them with a blue shield.
Sorry, spoke too soon. Apparently the spike thing was a glitch.
Ah, thank you for clarifying Littleghost :)
@Jay: Why yes, yes I do. It's the creation of a cultural context which denegrates and socially disadvantages women, such as (for example) making jokes based around the concept that they have some common set of undesirable traits (such as cowardice) or insulting men by comparing them to women (being compared to a woman is degrading, of course, because being a woman is degrading).
So please don't patronise me.
Wikipedia says:
"In feminist theory, misogyny is a negative attitude towards women as a group, and so need not fully determine a misogynist's attitude towards each individual woman. The fact that someone holds misogynist views may not prevent him or her from having positive relationships with some women."
Since we know that Wikipedia is always right, this means that Knight Steve's line denigrating Knight Valliant simply by identifying a negative characteristic (fear) as feminine certainly fits the bill of misogyny. Adding to this list I point out that Steve and Valliant refuse to rescue the first princess because she's fat - because, as we know, women are only worth spending time with if they're HOTT.
We wonder why more women don't want to play video games. Just sayin'.
I don't have more examples because I died before a falling-floor "puzzle" which reset after I revived, and I was unable to bring the guy that hadn't died back to the beginning of the puzzle (it takes 2 to do it). Aside from that, I got a great jolt of Game Boy nostalgia from the music and the graphics (during the lightning flashes in the beginning when it was still black and white). Nice.
Ok, then, I apologize, and I see your point. I guess I'm the one that doesn't understand feminist theory.
Not JUST a *restart level* but a level unlock. I got stuck on the *cave* level and had to restart...the entire game.
Just a acomment to Elements and Crabbadon:
Not everyone accepts the definitions espoused in feminist theory. I for one prefer reserve the use misogyny for hatred, distrust of women, and use some other term, such as sexism or similar to describe "...a negative attitude towards women as a group."
Being an oppressed group does not make your opinions necessarily revealed truth, just as being part of a dominant hegemony doesn't grant you divine infallibility. (And yes, I've been reading a reasonable amount of feminist theory lately. Can you tell ?)
I did not understand the ending to the game.
Did the princess "choose" one knight over the other, or what was her choice exactly? The zzzzs do not give it away.
Thanks!
[Edited for spoilers. Please remember to include spoiler tags in your comments, especially when discussing the ending! Thanks :) -Trinn]
I will never play this game again. Obviously, it was released before all the bugs were worked out:
1. No level numbers
2. No way to restart level. Must always go back to start.
3. There is supposed to be a red gem at end of each bonus round. Not every round has this gem.
4. Sometimes your knight gets killed and must shoot the arrows. But when he comes back, he instantly is killed again. Continuous loop of being killed and no way out.
5. The game totally freezes on the level with a room of bats. Your knight falls into pit, then FREEZE. Who wants to play this all other from the beginning?
Not Me! Had enough of this annoying game!
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