Review by: Brandon "Prince of Air" Cackowski-Schnell

Your main enemy in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is an army of sand based zombie soldiers. They look like soldiers (well, demonic soldiers but you get the idea), walk like soldiers, swing a sword like soldiers and in all other ways act like you'd expect a shambling, undead warrior to act. However once you kill them they dissolve into a pile of empty, soulless sand. It's not a bad way to describe Ubisoft's latest trip back to the Sands of Time trilogy as the game has all of the things you'd expect in a Prince of Persia game, but seems to be missing the most important thing—its soul.

Set in the time between Sands of Time and Warrior Within you once again play the Prince who, upon arriving at his brother Malik's kingdom finds it beset by an army of invaders. Malik is on the run with his defending forces quickly being overwhelmed by the advancing army. You eventually reunite with your brother and watch as he unleashes King Solomon's army in the hopes of using the summoned forces to beat back the invaders.

As is usually the case with summoned, mystical armies, Malik gets more than he bargained for and instead of having to fight the army of a rival kingdom you now have to fend off a force of undead beings "as endless as the sand itself". Whoopsie. Soon, you and Malik are divided and only by reuniting the medallions you each carry can you hope to stem the tide of granular evil, but before you can do that you'll have to contend with the crumbling palace, the activated palace defenses, a giant Ifriit controlling the army and your brother who is none too pleased at the notion of giving up his half of the medallion.

If you were to make a list of all of the things you'd expect to find in a Prince of Persia game, namely dramatic feats of platforming, fast paced combat, witty dialog and an attractive companion, they're all here, unfortunately they're just not all done as well as you'd like.

The platforming is mostly excellent and with the addition of three new magical powers: the ability to freeze water, an air dash that shoots the Prince towards an enemy and the ability to recall a lost piece of architecture, making your way through the expansive castle environments is tricky but never punishing. The new powers are used to open up the platforming possibilities rather than act as gimmicks and make for some of the best platforming experiences in the series.