Prince of Persia Classic

Everyone's favourite member of Persian royalty shows no signs of slowing down, despite being almost a quarter of a century old.

The titular prince has starred in numerous games, had his own Hollywood movie, and even inspired a dubious range of toys, yet his exuberance appears undiminished.

The Xperia Play is his latest destination, although it should be pointed out that Prince of Persia Classic isn't an all-new escapade. Instead, it's the same game we've been playing on the iPhone and iPad, but enhanced to make use of the Xperia Play's unique slide-out gaming interface.

As such, things are largely as before - what we have here is a visually improved version of the original game from the '80s.

The character designs are taken from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, and on the whole everything looks hunky dory, with smoothly animated sprites and highly detailed backgrounds. It's just a shame that the first game's gore-splattered death animations have been removed entirely.

Naturally, the biggest point of interest here is the interface, and on the whole the Xperia Play's physical D-pad and buttons make Prince of Persia Classic much more enjoyable. It's easier to time your jumps, and the precision gained from having real buttons to press is considerable.

It's a shame that you lose the ability to enter a sprint instantly - as the on-screen slider let you do in the iOS edition - but it matters little, because the new method (whereby the prince begins to run after you've pressed the D-pad for a certain length of time) is actually more faithful to the original 1989 release.

Armed with a vastly superior control method, Prince of Persia Classic on Xperia Play is arguably the most impressive iteration of the game yet.

To make the purchasing decision even easier, Ubisoft is offering a demo version free of charge, so you can be totally sure that you're comfortable with the prince's unique brand of leaping and swordplay before reaching into your coin-purse.