Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

The Prince of Persia I know best is the PS2 one, played with a friend, passing the controller back every time somebody fell off a wall. The Lost Crown is a very different game, a 2D metroidvania starring Sargon, but the acrobatics still feel good in the hands. Combat is quick, with parries that reward timing, and the map is full of ledges you cannot reach yet. A neat touch is the screenshot feature, which lets you pin an image of an unreachable spot to the map as a reminder. At 20 to 30 hours, you can actually finish it. Late backtracking can drag.

I picked up The Lost Crown through PS Plus, half-reluctant, since I've been playing Prince of Persia since Sands of Time in 2003 and a side-on 2.5D game felt like a step backward on paper. It isn't. The movement is razor-sharp. Chaining a wall-jump into a dash into a parry feels as dynamic as the 3D games I grew up with, and the map rewards real backtracking once new tools unlock. The artwork deserves a mention too, hand-painted backgrounds with more personality than plenty of full 3D open worlds. Combat has real difficulty spikes that will frustrate anyone allergic to trial and error. It's the most platforming-heavy pick on this list, which is exactly why it rounds things out with a different flavor than everything above it.