Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for the Nintendo GameCube is flat-out a fantastic game, with crisp graphics, smooth gameplay and an engaging storyline. For a taste of what the action is like, take one part Tomb Raider, one part Enter the Matrix and one part Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Shake well and pour. Garnish with the ability to completely control time, and you’ve got Ubisoft’s latest multi-platform cocktail.

In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (or just PoP for short) you will play as the Prince, heir to the throne of Persia. While visiting the Sultan with his father, our hero discovers a magic dagger and keeps it as a souvenir of his first victory in battle. Little does he know that with this dagger he will unleash a scourge upon the Sultan’s kingdom, turning everyone into mindless sand creatures with the desire to kill. With the help of Farah, daughter of the Maharajah, the Prince must use the magic dagger to bring peace back to the kingdom and mend the rip he has created in the fabric of time.

The gameplay is simply superb. The Prince is as agile and graceful as a cat, and the game really focuses on the his athletic prowess, since a considerable amount of time will be spent hanging from ledges, running along walls and swinging from poles to reach your destination. These motions never seem awkward, and the pure silky smoothness of his movement is enough to keep you staring in awe at your TV. Although some of the enemies put up quite a fight, you will need to rely more on logic and timing than simple button mashing. The puzzles are well placed and clever, and the time control feature adds another layer of depth to the game, giving it a unique element of play.

In order to bend time to your will, you must first fill your sand tanks with the sand you collect from defeated enemies. This will give you the ability to manipulate time in various ways. The Power of Revival, for example, gives you the power to rewind time, and will probably be the most useful. The Power of Delay will slow time for everyone around you, and can give you a slight advantage when you are surrounded by a group of enemies. The Power of Restraint will let you freeze an enemy, which is not only helpful but also dead cool to watch. The Power of Haste accelerates time, so that you can wipe out a swarm of enemies in the blink of an eye. The Power of Destiny gives you visions, which will show you glimpses of your future, revealing the path to take to reach your next destination and a preview of the adversaries that await you. These powers blend in seamlessly with the story and the gameplay, rather than seeming like a gimmicky add-on.

The only thing that detracts from this game is the camera angles. You have quite a few different options with the camera, but even with these choices it is still sometimes hard to get a good view of the action. There is the normal third person view, with the left thumbstick moving the Prince and the "C" button being used to look around. The "Z" button enters first-person mode, allowing you to look all around, including up and down, but you can’t move while you are in this view. The directional pad is used to access the "landscape camera", which will show you a panoramic view of your surroundings. Sometimes the camera will switch to an awkward angle at the most inopportune moments, for instance when you are fighting a small herd of sand creatures and the game decides that you would have a much better view from behind that large column behind you.

The graphics in PoP are excellent, and there’s a lot of great detail throughout the game, such as the way the mortar will erode from between stones as the Prince runs along a wall, or the cloud of dust that rises from a crumbling ledge. When you get to the Sultan’s Menagerie, just take a moment to look around. You won’t be disappointed. The trees outside sway in the breeze, and you can see the clouds rush by in the night sky, past the beautiful full moon. The flames of the torches look so real you can even see the smoke rising out of the flame.

Not only does the fire look real, it sounds real. You will be able to hear the flames crackling as you pass under the torches. When you go outside at night you will be able to hear the crickets chirping softly in the background. The music also sounds good, really picking up in tempo and intensity during a serious battle. The dialogue between Farah and the Prince sounds natural, and it is rather entertaining to listen to them antagonize each other. The conversation is really impressive in the way that their voices react to the environment, sounding further away when the two are outside, or echoing off the walls in an empty stone chamber.

I love this entire game, but there are few details that really stand out. One of them is the health regeneration system. It is really small, but I think that it is clever. Instead of picking up health packs or potions, the Prince can fill his life meter by drinking water. At the beginning of the game he will mainly be getting water from decorative fountains, but you will learn that any water will do, including ponds and waterfalls. I also enjoy having Farah along for the ride. It is nice to have company, and I found the dialogue between her and the Prince humorous.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of the "must have" games of the year. Every thing about this game is fantastic, from the beautiful graphics to the well-planned level designs to the smoothness of the controls. Some games focus on graphics and effects, while others concentrate more on the story and gameplay. This is one of those rare offerings that proves a game can have it all.

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