After deviating into goth-rock territory with Warrior Within, the third and final game in the "second-gen" Prince of Persia series returns a bit closer to its roots. The Prince and Kaileena have escaped from the Island of Time, only to find that Babylon is once again under attack by the Vizier. Players of the first game will remember that the Prince reversed all of his actions, so his kingdom was never destroyed - well, history repeats itself, as he also never defeated the Vizier. Kaileena serves as the narrator this time, but is killed early on. Farah makes a repeat appearance as the Prince's companion, although she has no memory of her time before with the Prince.

The Dark Prince

Farah returns

The gameplay is a mix of The Sands of Time and Warrior Within - the lame backtracking and time traveling elements are gone, but the more advanced combat system is still in place. Forget the stupid battle taunts, angsty voiceover and metal music - Yuri Lowenthal from Sands of Time is back as the Prince's voice, as well as the sweeping orchestral soundtrack. Yet the game is still darker and more violent than The Sands of Time. The game seems to have taken some inspiration from Ubisoft's own Splinter Cell series, as the biggest addition to The Two Thrones are stealh kills, which allow you to take out most enemies quickly and silently. Considering that combat is still the weakest part of the game, and fights drag on longer than ever before (outside of the passages played as Dark Prince, who is much stronger), it allows smarter gamers to avoid most of it, although you can still rush in and fight if you please. The Prince also learned a variant of Sam Fisher's Split Jump to hold himself in between narrow walls. Apparently, the release of God of War earlier the same year had taken its toll from the Prince as well, as stealth kills and boss battles are determined by quick time events. The frustratingly uneven distribution of save and reset points, on the other hand, feels more like a throwback to 1989.

Not far into the game, the Prince meets the evil Vizier. The villain seizes the Dagger, sacrifices Kaileena and turns himself into a sand god, while the Prince gets "infected" with the Sands, which turns him into part sand-monster at various points during the game. In these segments, the Dark Prince (as he's called) wields a huge chain, which can not only demolish bad guys, but is also used to swing Bionic Commando-style from walls and ceilings. The problem is, the Dark Prince's health is constantly depleting, so he has to pick up magical Sands every couple of seconds, making these parts feel like annoying time trials. The Dark Prince also plays a big role in the plot, as the "good" and "bad" parts of the Prince's personality argue and bicker like Gollum from Lords of the Rings. There are also a few exciting chariot race segments, although they can get quite frustrating, since the chariots tend to fall apart quite easily. The new additions are nice, but the gameplay and setting just feels too similar to the predecessors, especially since these have been coming out at a yearly pace. Judged on its own, however, The Two Thrones is still very good.

A year after release, this game was ported to the PSP and Wii under the name Prince of Persia: Rival Swords. The Wii version adds wiimote functionality for fighting, which doesn't seem exactly necessary, and also removes all of the blood in order to receive a Teen rating. The PSP version once again has a handful of extra stages.

Rival Swords (PSP)

Rival Swords (PSP)

The mini version of The Two Thrones finally brings over almost all moves of the "big" prince. Wall jumps are back, though not nearly as frustrating, along with pole swinging, air attacks and the obligatory wall running. The combat system is even more advanced, although unfortunately it also introduces quick time events, mostly with the bigger mini boss minotaurs and giant snakes.

The controls are much more responsive than ever before, in the beginning one almost gets the feeling that the game plays itself, until the later sections that require more complex input and make one notice the still not really as exact input recognition. Slow motion is used a bit more frequently, although for the most part it's activated automatically in particuarly cinematic situations, when the prince has to duck under a boulder or dodge the two giant snakes so they bump into each other with their heads.

Of course this wouldn't be The Two Thrones without the Dark Prince, and there are several fireplaces that serve as transformation triggers. Like on the consoles, the hero wears a powerful whip used not only to subdue enemies, but also to go Indiana Jones and use far away poles to swing out of dangerous situations. In best Prince of Persia tradition, the fight against "yourself" isn't missing, either.

The Two Thrones for mobile phones still has the disadvantage that it is for mobile phones, but if you get stranded on an island with no other gaming devices, it's one of the better action game choices you can make.

The Two Thrones (Mobile)

The Two Thrones (Mobile)

Prince of Persia had reached the height of its popularity—high time to milk the franchise with some spin-offs. Battles of Prince of Persia is supposed to take place in between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Babylon is under attack, but instead of going on a magic adventure on his own as he used to, the Prince hires troops to fend off the Indian Vizier's army and other enemies.

During the rounds, Battles plays out like any other turn-based strategy war game. You move your units, take care of the positioning of your troops and attack the enemy by pointing on the main map on the lower screen. The upper one is used for status information and the mini map. The focus on stylus controls is a bit inconvenient, as you have to press up on the directional pad while dragging the stylus over the screen to scroll.

However, Battles of Prince of Persia is also a card game. Prior to each turn, you chose one card from your deck (which can be configured in the options menus). Some are simply used for movement, while others represent the usual repertoire of status buffs and spells. Each card comes with a number, which determines how many units it can be used to. So when playing a simple movement card with number 3, you can move three units in that move. There's a catch, though: The game is further divided into "hours," and each unit can only be used once per hour. When both players have moved all their units, the game progresses to the next hour, and a new hand of cards is drawn from the deck.

Aside from the 24 story missions, you can also engage in simple skirmishes against another playr or the CPU. A map from the story missions is freely chosen for those, together with a winning condition (defeat enemy army, defeat enemy general, protect flag) and the size of your army. The graphics are functional at best, never eparticularly pretty (aside from the hand-drawn cutscenes) or interesting.

One cannot help but wonder about the existence of this game. Who thought fans of a series of platformers would be the ideal target group for a card-based TBS? Because of the limitation of moves per turn and hour, the game is extremely slow paced, quite contrary to the fast and fluid gameplay the real Prince of Persia games players knew and loved. Even the cover partly recycled from Warrior Within screams "half-assed". Definitely not a must-play title, even (or especially) for die-hard fans of the series.