One title almost guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye of any older gamer when mentioned is Prince of Persia. Originally released in the 16-bit machine era, it was a tight combination of puzzles, traps, frequent death and fighting, all against a time limit. It is also remembered for the fact that the two subsequent sequels were never quite in the same league. Now Jordan Mechner, along with the talents Ubisoft have at their disposal, has brought the franchise back to the life on the latest console platforms.

Not much has changed in the intervening years. There is still a prince, a princess and an evil vizier, but this time around there is a new twist in proceedings. The Prince's father, King Sharaman, has attacked and captured a Maharajah's palace in his quest for continuing glory. Within the palace are the legendary Sands of Time and the Dagger required to operate them. These two items, along with several Palace slaves and the Maharajah's daughter Farah, are taken to a local Sultan as gifts. However the Vizier tricks the Prince into releasing the Sands of Time from their hourglass, causing almost everyone in the palace to be consumed and turned into evil warriors. The Prince is protected by having the Dagger, Farah by her pendant, and the Vizier by his staff. It is these three characters that play the central role in the game as the Prince looks to undo what chaos he has unleashed.

The Dagger itself is the main focal point of the game. Firstly it is of vital importance during combat as your normal sword (up to a point) can only stun the sand warriors - they can only be killed by stabbing them with the Dagger. Getting them to that point can be tricky as each type has its own strengths and weaknesses in combat, and together with the variety of attacks at your disposal, means that combat does not get that repetitive. Disposing of them using the Dagger fills up the sand meters, which can then be used for time bending trickery.

This is where the other hook of the game comes in: the ability to warp time itself. The first ability learned is the one to reverse time back to a point and try again. It is a double edged sword, for it makes the game less frustrating than it used to be (frequent deaths have been a ubiquitous part of the PoP series), but on the other hand sometimes makes it a bit too easy to progress. Still, to counterbalance this, the Dagger's abilities can only be used as long as there is sand left in it.

The first couple of times something is mucked up there is panicked mental sense of, "Oh shi... woah press rewind, quick! Here he comes back out of the hole, using only the magic of the slooooow moooootion cameraaaaaa", but quite soon it becomes second nature to slam the L button to avert disaster. Other abilities of the Dagger include freezing an enemy temporarily and speeding up time to take out a group of enemies in the blink of an eye, much like a ninja Billy Whizz. All of these consume ever more sand from the Dagger, meaning they can't be over relied upon when fighting.

Combat may tire occasionally as sometimes the game throws twenty-plus enemies at the Prince in one melee, and it takes time to dispose of each one individually. On the other hand, there is plenty of opportunity to mix things up and develop skills and attack style. There is nothing like showing off as the Prince has been given an incredible number of animation frames and the movements seamlessly blend into one another from one attack to the next. Flash? Why yes, as you can go vault over a first enemy and slash them from behind; roll up to a second enemy; slice them across the middle and then high kick them onto the ground; turn to a third and freeze them with the Dagger; before turning to the first two and stabbing them to kill them; and finally returning to the third to slice through him. And all done with the minimum of fuss. The programming team obviously thought long and hard about how to make the combat as easy to use as possible and with that they have succeeded.

All of this sounds impressive so far, and it is very much so, but the real genius of the game lies in the plot and level design. The game is portrayed as if the Prince is telling someone a story of what happened, which means you get to hear aloud his thoughts and feelings whilst playing. This drags the player in and makes them immediately part of the action going on by making the game almost personable. Upon meeting Farah the Prince isn't sure whether to trust her, but he gradually warms up during the quest and by the end even contemplates marrying her to "cure her impetuitiveness". There is a great deal of humorous banter between the two individuals and a love/hate relationship is very much what develops.

The Prince needs Farah, and she needs him, because many of the puzzles and designs require co-operation to be negotiated. The level design is incredible and really evokes a sense of wonder, cunning and sheer deviousness on the designers' part to baffle and confuse the player. Everything has been linked in a specific, negotiable way, but the fun comes from figuring out just how to get about.

The Prince has always been a sprightly fellow and this game does not buck the trend. Besides the usual jumping about, there are context-sensitive areas where pressing the R trigger causes a special ability of the Prince to be used. Whether it be to wall run across a large gap, or to swing around on poles, a wide variety of different moves are available to traverse the very deadly environments. It is all handled smoothly and there is never a time when you curse the controls for letting you down, it is your fault for screwing up a section. Each room will require utilisation of some of the Prince's skills, and whilst the direction of the adventure is firmly scripted (ie. room A to room B to room C), there is usually more than one way to complete each task.

All this greatness and addictive gameplay has to come to an end at some point, and unfortunately in Prince of Persia's case, a little too quickly. First time through may well take less than ten hours to complete, with possible repeat playing naturally taking much less. But for that time, there are some of the most enjoyable gaming experiences ever to savour and the sheer scope of the game makes it seem like you've spent far more time on it than you actually have. It feels and plays very much like the original game did, and it evokes the same abiding memories of that classic throughout. But why should you be reading this, when the game is out there, just begging you to buy it and play through at a bargain price? For all Ubisoft's complaints about sales figures, this is a game that justifiably deserves a follow-up more than most in the current over-abundance of sequels, and rightly so that Ubisoft have decided to honour it with that.