Post Description

The Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands retells the story of an acrobatic young Prince who must triumph over supernatural forces to save his family and his kingdom. An evil fire spirit is snuffing out royalty and the only way the Prince can end the slaughter is by befriending the God of Time"s daughter. Players run, jump, and perform perfectly timed leaps past environmental dangers while occasionally engaging in some light sword-play. 
Instead of mimicking the console version of the game and going for three dimensional gameplay, the Forgotten Sands on PSP is rendered in polygons, but plays like a side-scroller. The Prince"s ability to control time (a mainstay of the series) is also relegated to specific objects. That means he can freeze a whirlwind in place or speed up an enemy"s movements. When it comes to dying, players simply get a set number of do-overs before they respawn at strategically placed save points throughout each level. It"s a great design decision and allows for an engaging, challenging experience that is perfectly suited to the handheld. 
As the game progresses, players are able to wield more control over objects in the environment. Objects are automatically highlighted by a glowing orb known as Helem, who also provides little tutorials to the player throughout the game. Telling Helem to speed up or slow down time is handled through the L and R buttons. So as players jump and climb around objects they"ll also have to tap the shoulder buttons with expert timing to clear the path ahead. Helem, is mostly in the right place when you need her to be, though you can also move her with the analog nub, though this is awkward and not recommended. In the more difficult sections, practice eventually makes perfect, though maybe not without multiple playthroughs. 
In addition to the platforming there are a few end-bosses. These battles are a nice way to spice up the gameplay but they also feel uninspired and repetitive. The game wouldn"t suffer a bit if these segments were simply dropped from the game or shortened considerably.