The original Prince of Persia for the Apple II computer gained a fair bit of fame when it debuted in 1989. Mixing puzzle elements with solid swordplay action in this side-scrolling adventure, and topping everything off with insanely smooth animation (for it's time), the game really was quite a bit of fun and influenced many other games that followed. Although the series saw a 3D "revival" in the late 90's, the whole affair turned out rather bland and was dismissed quickly. Now, the developers of Splinter Cell have gone and gave the series a proper 3D sequel on all of the major consoles. It's been getting rave reviews and the gaming community is loving it; Ubi Soft must have been able to predict this success, as it asked for a Game Boy Advance version of the game to compliment the others.

Admittedly, I was skeptical. While I was hoping for a fun sequel in the same side-scrolling vein as the original, I feared that the game would be half-assed and rushed out the door to meet a release date alongside its bigger brother. Unfortunately, the game leans a little toward the latter than the former, but that's not to say it's terrible. In fact, quite a few neat little innovations are introduced here. Just as in the console versions, you can use the "Sands of Time" to help save your butt when you do something dumb. As long as you have enough sand in your little meter, all you have to do is hold the 'L' shoulder button to make time move backwards. Jump off a cliff? No problem. Run into some spikes? No big deal. Rush into that fight a little early? Alrighty... The concept works surprisingly well, considering the power of the GBA. As you progress through the game, you'll also gain more "Sands of Time" powers, such as slowing and pausing time.

That's all fine and dandy, and in a nod to the older titles, there are a fair number of puzzles you must solve in this game. Many of them require you to take advantage of your Sands of Time abilities. You might have to slow down spinning blades, have platforms stop in their tracks - things like that. Boss fights, similarly, ask you to use your special powers to defeat the enemy. These touches help make the game maintain a unique edge over other platformers being released.

There is a larger focus on action over puzzles than in the original, however. In fact, the Prince is really quite nimble and you'll be doing a lot of jumping, climbing, landing on moving platforms, and so forth. The level design isn't the best, though. You'll sometimes have to work on puzzles that make you travel across a large section of the map, meaning you have to traverse over the same terrain multiple times. The actual traversing isn't really that exciting, either; in fact, if it weren't for the Screw-With-Time feature, this game would be terribly generic.

Combat is tantamount. Aside from some help via a sidekick that shoots arrows, you'll basically be using your dagger the whole time. Swing, swing, swing! Enemy AI is no fun to fight. Foes tend to stand still and wait for you to come near, or simply charge at you and run back. There's really no sophistication here at all - it doesn't even make for much mindless fun after a little while. Hit detection is poor. This is especially apparent when you stand over a fallen enemy to drain them of their power (and this recharge your Sands of Time meter). There is a small animation where the Price brings his dagger down to the body of the creature, but if the dagger doesn't hit the right spot, you have to re-maneuver until you hit the nail on the head. It's annoying, to say the least.

Not counting tiresome, monotonous background imagery, the graphics in this game are pretty good, especially the animation is quite stunning. The Prince moves with so much fluidity that you'd swear there must be a thousand frames in each simple animation. Enemy sprites look pretty good, both in the art and graphical departments. I did get sick of the repeating room themes, but overall, there's a good graphics engine pushing this game.

The sound is a bit of a mixed bag. It's never outright bad, it's just not very impressive. Sound effects are the boring, tried-and-true type. Music ranges from "pretty good" to "tinny mess", but it usually leans towards the good side of things. There isn't really much else to it. It's nothing you'll really get sick of hearing, but I did wish for a little more work on this aspect of the game.

There's also a bit of a story presented in the game. It's something that essentially follows the plot of the bigger-budget Prince of Persia, but it really isn't presented that well here. It's hard to grow attached to characters represented by still art screens and text boxes, with no voice-acting or video like the console version's. I guess the game gets it's point across, but don't expect to play this one for a gripping plot.

So, is it worth it? It's true that the Sands of Time ingenuities are impressive, especially on the Game Boy. And it's also true that they make for some fun puzzles and boss fights. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be lying to say that the core game play didn't really strike me as anything too special. Running and jumping, endlessly swinging my dagger in levels that could use some better design, eventually got on my nerves. It is a solid game, overall, but unless you've already checked out every good action-side-scroller on the GBA, I can think of a number of games I'd recommend before this. Actually, here's a better idea: go and check out the new 3D version of Prince of Persia. That should be more satisfying!

Score: 6.9/10