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When Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time arrived on PS2, XB and GC in glorious 3D in 2003, we finally had an action platformer to take on Lara and her tomb raiding adventures. The first huge outing for the retro classic delivered awesome and challenging platforming, with very little focus on combat. Any mistakes made (bad jumps, falls, etc) could be rectified by rewinding time for a second attempt.

The Sands of Time spawned two sequels in quick succession, both of which were good, but failed to match the quality of the first. 2008 bought us a new Prince and a fresh look at the franchise - gone was the English Prince and his quest with the sands, replaced by cel-shaded graphics and a new arrogant teen America prince. It was repetitive, it held your hand, but it was still fun.

When The Forgotten Sands was announced, it was like sweet music to the ears. Any fan of the last gen trilogy would welcome a return to the sands, as they certainly weren't forgotten in our minds. Sure, we could thank Disney and Bruckheimer for bringing the Prince to the big screen and inspiring Ubisoft to bring back the sands, but we had faith in the developer to make The Forgotten Sands more than just a movie tie-in. As many would agree that Warrior Within and Two Thrones weren't the greatest of games, perhaps the five year break would bring the series back to form and remind us all why The Sands of Time is one of the greatest games from the last generation. Perhaps it would even begin a new trilogy in the sands saga.

The game begins with the Prince returning to his homeland, only to arrive at the same time as an invasion. Wasting no time, you set out on a series of acrobatics to meet up with your brother, Malik. Malik is already on mission of his own to summon Solomon's Army for a little aid. If only things were that simple. Solomon's Army emerges from the ground bringing all of Hell with it. Turns out this army aren't keen on taking sides.

What follows is a game-long chase to meet up with Bro to reunite the medallions you both possess and put a stop to Solomon's Army. If only that was simple too. The story has very little to do with the sands of time, so if you're put off having never played the previous, then that shouldn't be an issue.

The familiarity begins - much like before, you'll spend the entire game navigating through a crumbling palace - running along walls, swinging on poles, slicing down curtains, jumping over gaps, avoiding spikes, hitting switches, and all of the above in one room at times. This is the Prince of Persia we remember, which is either a good or bad thing depending on what you thought of the series post Sands of Time. In some mindsets, more of the same is good enough, for others it's a long time to offer very little new.

With a five year absence this Prince has come back with a few new tricks though, including a new air dash, which can get you across bigger gaps, plus the new ability to freeze water. This power adds some fun to the relatively generic platforming. Waterfalls can be iced over to create walls to run across, while pipe leakages can be frozen to make poles to swing on. Naturally, this ability has a limited lifespan and can only be used by holding down the trigger button.

On some occasions, you'll need to freeze the water to make a pole, then unfreeze it mid-flight to be able to move through a waterfall, only to quickly refreeze again for another pole swing. This is a welcome aspect for the Prince pro, who'll no doubt find no challenge in the standard, run, swing jump platforming most of the game has to offer, but may need to repeatedly turn back time to survive the water obstacles.

That's right, there's also the welcome return of rewinding time, allowing you to fix those silly jumping errors or a deadly blow to the head from a skeleton. As always, this allows for some frustration-free trial and error during some of the challenging platform sections. Admittedly, the ability comes in limited quantities, and if you do run out then you'll meet the game over screen. Not that this ever becomes frustrating, as checkpoints are nicely placed, and when you've done a tricky platforming section once, the second time won't pose many challenges - unless there's saw blades or too much water involved!

To give you a break from the swinging and jumping, you'll often come across a handful of monsters to dispose of. Gone are the combos and the special dagger, this combat is all about swinging your sword until nothing remains alive. The monsters do gang up on you in large groups, making it easy for you to get stuck in the middle of them. A quick kick and a jump and you'll be back to safety, and hacking and slashing once again. It's generic hack 'n slash action, which is made much more interesting later in the game when some of the powerful element combat abilities are unlocked. Most notable of these is the Whirlwind, which does exactly what it implies, sending a small army up and around. Meanwhile, the Trail of Fire is another Ronseal job. These powers basically speed up the combat sections, and are slightly more interesting than hit, dodge, hit, dodge. Even the boss fights, as huge as they can be, can be won by simply mixing up dodging actions with some hack 'n slash on the ankles.

Although there may have been a long break and a reinvention since we last visited the Sands universe, with this game you'll be instantly familiar with everything about it if you played the original Sands trilogy. It's clear as day that Ubisoft decided to bring back story arc to coincide with the movie release - after all, if Bruckheimer's film is as successful as Pirates of the Caribbean then the game sales will fly through the roof (perhaps we'll even get a trilogy re-release, God of War Collection style - Wishful Thinking Ed).

With that in Ubisoft's mind, the game is not as great as it could have been, had it been given more planning, and more imagination to revive a new Sands saga. That said, I enjoyed my time with The Forgotten Sands, and found it extremely hard to put down. It just won't be remembered in ten years time, like the Sands we can't forget..

Positives:
+ Some nice new abilities.
+ It's fun to play
+ Rewinding time returns.

Negatives:
- Weak story
- Very very familiar
- Lacks challenge