Several years ago, an ill-wind blew out of the desert and into my hard-drive. The stench of Prince of Persia 3D made me forget how much I enjoyed the first two games so many years ago on my Amiga 500. The memory of the Prince of Persia would be forever tarnished in my mind ... or would it? As I stood in front of the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time package sitting on the shelf, I gazed unconfidently at and began to wonder. Could the series go back to its roots and be everything that it used to be with the tricks and traps and gymnastic like maneuvers that made it so memorable all those years ago? I am pleased to announce the answer is a resounding, hell yes. The unnamed Prince of Persia has returned once again and he is as nimble toed as he ever was. This time around he finds himself in a stunning new environment and has a few new tricks up his sleeve, but the smooth animation and quick moves that made him famous haven't left and are stronger than ever.

As the game starts, you are part of the invading Persian army to the Maharaja's castle. You sneak your way into the castle and make your way to the Maharaja's treasure vault. Your treasure? The fascinating dagger of time. As long as the dagger has enough sand within it, there are a few actions it has. You can rewind time up to ten seconds and change the path of the future you just lived; slow down time so that you move in slow motion and at each sand vortex, you will have a precognitive vision of the area that is forthcoming. After the assault on the castle, you are tricked into using the dagger for the evil Vizier, which unleashes catastrophic events turning all the warriors of the castle into sand creatures and causing more structural damage to the castle than an earthquake. As you realize the terror you have unleashed you must now find the giant hourglass that, along with the dagger of time, will help you undo all the damage you have done.

With your acrobatic moves, you make your way through the Sultans castle and quickly realize this isn't going to be an easy journey. There are collapsed ceilings, walls and floors everywhere and this is just the beginning. You have an incredible assortment of moves at your disposal including being able to run up walls and along them, jumping off them to ledges and other such objects that you can climb onto. You can swing to and from flagpoles and ropes, climb up pillars and shimmy across cracks in walls and just about anything else you can find. As you first start to use these moves, you might think that it will be confusing or frustrating especially when you have to pull off a 6 move jump to get to a certain ledge. Amazingly enough the prince is easy to handle and the jumps and intricate moves are even easier to pull off. The camera control can be a bit tricky at times but thankfully the developers have included a first person view as well as a landscape view button that zooms out far enough to show the entire area around you. It is a small but very useful feature that comes in handy when you need to plan your moves through a room.

The path through the castle is wrought with booby traps and locked doors but thankfully you aren't going through it alone. You have the Sultans daughter, Farah, by your side which adds another level to the game and helps break up the, what would be, boring areas through the castle. She helps you in battle with the sand creatures that now infect the castle and harps on you about getting to your destination when traversing through the castle. The conversations are a small, albeit great part of the game. The voice acting is superb and parts such as when the prince begins to talk to himself about Farah and then question himself as to why he is talking to himself is enough to make you laugh out loud. Although the jumping puzzles are the major part of the game, it is not the only action you have. Many of the traps and doors that need to be opened require you to move boxes or pull levers that are timed and add a hectic pace to the game play.

While the Princes fancy footwork gets him through most anything thrown at him, there are times that he will need to buckle down and fight the sand creatures that appear at certain points in the game. These battles are tedious at best and feel like they were thrown in only to slow the game down. Like the jumping and swinging, you also have some fancy moves during battles as well. You can vault over heads of some of your attackers and strike from behind, block, bounce off walls and even use the dagger of time to pull off some time related attacks such as haste and slow motion. The one thing about the battles that is annoying is that the creatures will continue to get up once you beat them down until you finish them off with the dagger. When you are doing this, it isn't the quickest move around and you are wide open to attacks from other enemies. During most battles there is always a health source in the area, so dying isn't a major concern. Although, Farah is usually present and has a bad habit of dying while you are busy being swarmed by enemies. Even though there really are only two boss battles through the entire game, these fight portions can be difficult at times and even more so, simply frustrating.

The game does a very good job of keeping each area fresh and new with different approaches to getting through, but sometimes everything might seem a little too beige. As you get farther through the game, the areas you travel through become larger and more spacious and at these times you are introduced to new moves that help keep the elaborate footwork of the prince from getting stale and repetitive. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is definitely one of the best games I have played this year and I really hope other game companies out there take a look to see how to make a third person jumping puzzle game right. Playing Tomb Raider or DareDevil or any other game with this many moves being pulled off so easily and so beautifully would be a blessing and be about time. There are so many things that are combined to make this game as good as it is such as the storyline, voice acting, animation and the final ending scene is the cherry on top. Throw in the two original Prince of Persia games that are available (one by finishing the game and the other by unlocking it) and the Xbox live online ability to download future content, Sands of time is a must have for anyone's game collection.