Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands [Wii]

The game starts with the Prince heading towards the Kingdom of Izdihar to find his princess and claim the kingdom that were both promised to him by his accompanying genie. The Prince wasn't quite careful with his wishes, because the Kingdom is in ruins and is cursed by a mystical witch. Therefore, he must defeat the witch and restore the Kingdom to its former glory.

Those that have played the Xbox 360/PS3 version will realise that despite the same name, the game is completely different in both game-play and story. This is a good thing, because not only do Prince of Persia fans get another game (assuming they have multiple consoles of course), but it is also a better game.

It starts off playing out like a usual PoP game, where the levels are linear, and you must navigate through the kingdom by running across walls, jumping back and forth between walls, avoiding traps, and solving puzzles.

In the 360/PS3 version, the Prince could freeze water which added an extra level of skill because these sections required timing. In the Wii version, the Prince can use Creation Power; create Spirit Hooks, Whirlwinds and Magical Spheres.

At the start of the game, the Prince can only use his powers on the marked areas, but later on in the game, you can place them more freely, and only the areas with vegetation prevent you. Spirit Hooks allow the Prince to grab hold of them which helps chain sections of wall running. Whirlwinds allow the Prince to gain height and so are used at the start or the end of the jumping sections. Magical Spheres are acquired fairly late in the game and allow the Prince to remain suspended in the air which is useful to cover large gaps because you can jump into, then out of the bubble.

There are many tricky sections towards the latter stages of the game which require observation and logic to combine each of the powers between your jumps. Should you fall to your death, you are re-spawned to nearby to re-attempt the jump and lose one of your sand slots.

In most PoP games, the re-winding of time is up to the player so its slightly disappointing that the feature is removed. Once you lose all your sand slots, the game auto loads your last save which won't be too far back, given there are an insane amount of fountains where your game is saved. It seems strange why they didn't just make it auto-save instead of having a save point every couple of corners.

When areas are unlocked, you must open the puzzle door. A pattern is shown on the door and you must connect the dots using the remote to recreate them. This starts easy, but the pattern on the doors later in the game start spinning as you try to recreate them which can make them incredibly tough.

There are the occasional combat sections too where the basic slashes are caused by waggling the remote. These sections are a nice break from the platforming and don't occur too frequently. You also have a few powers at your disposal. You can freeze enemies by pointing the remote and pressing B, and dragging upwards attacks with a whirlwind.

I found the controls very responsive and worked very well in both combat and platforming sections. The Forgotten Sands takes around 10 hours to play through, and there are plenty of unlockables too with extra challenges and even the original Prince of Persia game which makes it a highly recommended game.