Prince of Persia Rival Swords

In Prince of Persia: Rival Swords, the Prince makes his way home to Babylon. With him, he bears Kaileena, the enigmatic Empress of Time, and unspeakable scars from the Island of Time. Instead of the peace he longs for, he finds his kingdom ravaged by war and Kaileena the target of a brutal plot. Her death unleashes the Sands of Time, which strike the Prince and threaten to destroy everything he holds dear. Cast out on the streets, hunted as a fugitive, the Prince soon discovers that the Sands have tainted him, too. They have given rise to a deadly Dark Prince, whose spirit gradually possesses him.

Rival Swords/Two Thrones is the conclusion of the Sands of Time trilogy, ...

In Prince of Persia: Rival Swords, the Prince makes his way home to Babylon. With him, he bears Kaileena, the enigmatic Empress of Time, and unspeakable scars from the Island of Time. Instead of the peace he longs for, he finds his kingdom ravaged by war and Kaileena the target of a brutal plot. Her death unleashes the Sands of Time, which strike the Prince and threaten to destroy everything he holds dear. Cast out on the streets, hunted as a fugitive, the Prince soon discovers that the Sands have tainted him, too. They have given rise to a deadly Dark Prince, whose spirit gradually possesses him.

Rival Swords/Two Thrones is the conclusion of the Sands of Time trilogy, but the homecoming hasn't gone down according to the Prince's plan. Instead of a sedate life spent getting fat and carousing with the Empress of Time, he finds Babylon burning, a foe once defeated returning immortal, and some maniacal madman installing wicked-confusing elevator systems throughout his city. Vexing for sure, made all the worse when his charge is stabbed in the gut and he inadvertently turns himself into a sand demon. Turns out, using magic to mess with space-time has a nasty way of coming full circle to kick you in the teeth, so by rescuing the Empress from her fate in Warrior Within, the Prince effectively negated his actions in the trilogy's first game, The Sands of Time. What this means is that the Vizier was free to enact his plans of world domination, and, after sidestepping a few plot holes, he promptly does. So, after joining forces again with an old ally for the first time, you're off to rectify your actions by bouncing around all nimbly-bimbly and skewering creeps with a blade--two skills the Prince happens to excel at.

By interfering with the Vizier's machinations, the Prince infects himself with enchanted sand. The power of the sands manifests itself in the form of the Dark Prince, a decidedly sketchy alter ego of the Prince that you'll occasionally morph into, complete with razor-sharp chains encircling his forearms and phosphorescent tattoos etched onto his blackened skin. Along with the new bod comes a new consciousness, which takes up residence in the Prince's head in a schizophrenic fashion. As the Dark Prince, your lethality is greatly enhanced, letting you eviscerate your enemies with a twirl of that enchanted razor wire. The drawback to this nearly unlimited power is that your life essence slowly ebbs away, though it can be fully replenished by picking up the sand charges that are liberally spread throughout the game. Having your life deteriorate certainly adds a sense of urgency to your actions and can increase the game to a near-frenetic pace, as you are pushed through puzzles and forced to find and bust up mobs or jars of sand so as to avoid becoming dust in the wind yourself.

Rival Swords on the PSP is as fully featured as its console counterparts, and it offers a lot of extra content to boot. While not necessarily enough to attract fans of the series who already fought through Two Thrones, the new levels and multiplayer functionality work well to pad out the package and improve upon an already great game. Even with the quirks in its presentation, Rival Swords will have no problems pleasing fans of both Prince of Persia and action adventures.