Prince of Persia Revelations at first sight seems to continue this trend, as the content of the game is almost the same as the second episode of the new Prince of Persia games, Warrior Within. Luckily, Ubisoft decided to add some additional chapters so that also the more critical consumer at least partly gets his wishes granted. I probably don't need to tell you how Prince of Persia is played; the swift and very acrobatic main character swirls around ropes, walks on walls as the best, and jumps over buildings more swiftly than Spider-Man.

A large part of the gameplay exists out of finding your way and solving puzzles to overcome certain obstacles and continue your search. Although I still found the first episode a bit more charismatic, this part has been made very varied and fun, and from all present parts, it could please me the most. The additional parts are also of a decent level and add something to the console version of Warrior Within. Of course the prince is more than a grashopper with a goal, after all he also has a sword!

You'll get to sharpen that more than once as like the genre dictates, the levels are filled with adversaries and of course the necessary bosses. Also here our hero has more than enough experience as the amount of moves at his disposal is very extensive and on top of that there's more variation possible by choosing a style with one of two weapons. Just like with the puzzles, the surroundings also play their role: you can use walls, poles and other stuff creativily to add some extra holes in your opponents. The holemaking can be called bloody; the prince no longer is the ideal son in law but rather a lean mean fighting machine. He doesn't back off from chopping of some heads or splitting enemies in two.

The prince wouldn't be the prince if he couldn't tamper with time. He hasn't learnt his lesson yet though as this time he plays with time as if it were lego blocks. This remains a great feature as this way you take away a lot of the frustration that comes with missing a jump or dropping off an edge. On top of that it doesn't stay just with the rewind button as there are also other possibilities to use the sand. Most noticeable is without a doubt some kind of bullet-time that gives you extra time to hit your opponent even harder.

Luckily a lot of time has been spent on the controls and the way your character reacts. In such a game this is extremely important and the people who've played the PC version with keyboard will no doubt say I'm right. Ubisoft doesn't fall for the trap but has managed to keep everything easily controllable, including the camera. What does spoil a bit of the fun are the loading times, like when starting up, but also while changing between the different areas. A bit less would have been more than welcome.

The graphics are amazingly good for a handheld but thanks to the PSP we're getting used to that more and more. Models move and are animated very natural, the surroundings are very detailed and also the graphical effects are in line. Here and there, especially with some sunlight, the playing is a bit more difficult due to the smaller and therefore less clear screen. All in all this doesn't hurt the game too much and also the occasional framedrop is something we'll let go this time. Too bad that the cut-scenes don't get credit due to the fast images and sometimes dark scenes.

The porting of the sound is less succesful. Whether the choice for hardrock music is the correct one, I wouldn't go into, but the often drops and tampering is clearly not a choice but a shortcoming. Certainly not a good point for those responsible for this part.