Prince of Persia is probably my second favorite vintage game after Metroid so I was excited to see how well they'd pull off another sequel. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the gameplay was, and it had a better story line than the original. It's definitely a game worth checking out. The fluid movements that were so impressive in the original are 15 years ahead on the new game, and include climbing up poles and jumping pole to pole, swinging on ropes, running across walls, running up walls, swinging around poles like a gymnast and walking on ledges and beams. It was so fun that I found myself playing even when I shouldn't have been wasting time.

When I finally finished the game, it popped up this message: "Prince of Persia I Unlocked". I looked under the special features and saw that they had included the original Prince of Persia as well of Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame. I played through Prince of Persia 1 for nostalgia's sake and expected that when I finished it, Prince of Persia 2 would be unlocked, but that didn't happen, so I had to google for how to unlock it. It turns out that during the game, there's a secret passage that unlocks it, so I went to my nearest saved game and played long enough to unlock it. So then I started playing number 2 through. The D-pad on the Xbox controller was driving me nuts, since it was so easy to jump by mistake, and I constantly found myself jumping straight into a spiked wall or off a 12-story ledge when I had meant to step slowly. There was one section that I spend several hours attempting, and finally gave up because my thumbs were so sore. Anyway, last night I got almost to the end and got stumped. This morning I discovered how to finish the game quite by accident. The end was a little too weird.

So the verdict:

• Original: Very cool, but too hard on the Xbox controller.
• The Shadow and the Flame: Cool, weird ending, and also too hard on the Xbox controller.
• The Sands of Time: Awesome, and great gameplay on the Xbox.