When the original Prince of Persia debuted way back when, it was hailed as a revolutionary game. Now, years later, Ubi Soft has reworked the series and created an entirely new revolutionary console game with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Along with the console version, there is the token handheld version. Taking some concepts from the original and new Prince of Persia games, the handheld Sands of Time brings its own unique adventure to the table.

The story follows suit with the console version. The Prince has been tricked into unleashing The Sands of Time and now has to journey throughout the palace to set right what he has done. With his special dagger, he can now control time itself, at least in short bursts. The Prince must fight his way through the palace and defeat the evil Vizier who tricked him into causing all this chaos.

At its heart, Prince of Persia is an action-platforming game. The prince must traverse the palace’s many traps and enemies to make it to the end. Though unlike some other action-based platformers, the enemies are not very plentiful. In fact, many rooms will have no enemies at all. Also, when destroyed they do not return ever again. Instead, the prince’s main challenge is to navigate a myriad of spinning blades, fire jets, and bottomless or spike filled pits, among other things.

At certain points in the game the prince will be joined by Farah, the daughter of the Maharajah who was recently defeated by the prince’s army. Though she dislikes the prince, she must stick with him because only he can save the palace. Players are able to control Farah in certain areas. Though she lacks the ability to control time, and is not quite as nimble as the prince, she can take out targets at a distance with her bow. Controlling both characters simultaneously makes for some inventive gameplay where the two must help each other complete tasks.

With all these various contraptions and villains waiting to tear the prince into little Persian pieces, the game can get quite difficult at times. Players will often find themselves trying a series of rooms over and over again until they can complete them all and get to the next checkpoint. Upon reaching the checkpoint, the cycle repeats itself. Not all of the rooms are amazingly hard though. The game is built upon lots of pattern memorization and quick reaction. Learning the maneuvers of the enemies and carefully watching the various moving traps is integral to staying alive, as is acting quickly enough to make it through the various traps.

Combat, though infrequent, is quite similar to the Game Boy Advance Castlevania games, even down to the little numbers displaying damage dealt and received. By defeating enemies the prince gains experience and may level up. Leveling up increases the damage the prince can receive and the amount he can deal. Though similar to the Castlevania series, it’s not nearly as deep.

Thankfully, the prince has an advantage over the harshness of the palace. He can control time. With his dagger (and some special rings) the prince can rewind, slow down, and even freeze time. Activating these abilities will drain the sand in his dagger though. With so few enemies around, sand becomes quite the valuable commodity. Use of discretion is highly necessary, because going into a boss fight with no sand can spell doom.

The boss fights can get quite repetitive. The prince will square off numerous times against a giant griffon. However, this adversary can only be damaged while the prince is using up his sand. During the fights, the prince can recharge his sand by attacking the griffon while his powers are not in use. The mechanic makes for some interesting boss fights, but it falls apart when the prince gets the ability to stop time. With time stopped the prince can deal massive damage to the griffon. After this, he needs only to recharge his sand by whacking the griffon a few times, or by just using one of the few sand bags that may be picked up in the adventure.

In all, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a decent handheld conversion of a console game. It maintains the game’s overall plot and core mechanics, but converts them to a two-dimensional side scrolling adventure game. In this regard, the game is a success. However, the game does stand on its own feet. The time control aspects are quite innovative and bring variety to the game. The adventure and trap dodging are wonderful and challenging. The combat is slightly lackluster, mostly due to the lack of enemies and the incredible power the sand gives the prince. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time can be recommended to fans of the series as well as anybody looking a quality adventure game.