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The original 2-D Prince of Persia has always been acknowledged as the inspiration for the original Tomb Raider and it's easy to see why--it has the same mixture of running, jumping and platform climbing mixed in with tricky Indiana Jones-style puzzles and sword fights (though, okay, Lara prefers an AK47 to a scimitar). These days, however, there's one big difference between the Prince and La Croft: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is miles better than Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. The game features some quite extraordinary graphics and animation as the prince leaps and jumps with amazing grace and makes a number of moves inspired by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The controls are a dream too, especially during combat, and even the camera system--usually the Achilles heel of any 3-D adventure--is great, zipping to a fixed position if it looks like any of the scenery is going to get in the way. The Sands of Time has a bunch of new ideas to add to the usual mix, most notably the chance to control time itself. Each of the demonic monsters you fight will spill a quantity of magical sand when they die and you can use this to power the dagger of time and rewind, slow down or fast-forward time. This allows you to instantly recover from unexpected deaths and allows you to concentrate on having fun and playing the game. Excellent stuff. --David Jenkins
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