Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (Mobile)

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It isn't long before you're introduced to the prince's dark side. From that point, whenever you touch the flaming braziers found in each of the levels, you'll transform either from the regular flesh-and-blood prince to his dark counterpart, or back. The two characters look different but control mostly the same, though they've got a few unique qualities to distinguish them. In his human form, the prince is armed with twin scimitars and can run along walls to reach greater heights. Meanwhile, the dark prince fights with a chainlike weapon whose reach is much greater than the sword; and though he can't run on walls, his chain works like a grappling hook. These slightly different mechanics help give the levels a good amount of variety, especially after you factor in some deadly boulders, a few giant serpents, some dramatic slow-motion getaways and near-misses, and a good number of nasty axe-wielding minotaurs.

With this many dangers to contend with, the game can get fairly challenging at times. However, a liberal checkpoint system prevents you from ever getting set back more by more than 30 seconds or so, should you die. At the hard difficulty setting, you're limited by the number of times you can continue in each level, which makes some of the later stages relatively tough. Even so, you should be able to whip through the game in a couple of hours. While mobile action games aren't known for their epic length, this shortness of The Two Thrones is probably the main reason this isn't a much better game on the whole. Besides, the game's story just feels disjointed. You hear about this evil vizier but you never even face him--you just learn that he was apparently defeated. But hey, at least you get some sexy pictures of sultry ladies who seem to be highly appreciative of the prince's help in between levels. There's a bit of replay value as well. The game ranks you based on your performance in each level, and the survival mode keeps throwing zombies and minotaurs at you, making for a decent but simple diversion.

The game's choppy animation is made up for by well-drawn, dynamic character graphics, so even though there aren't a lot of frames, the frames you get look good. The audio is less noteworthy; the game's sound effects are largely just bleeps and bloops that don't fit very well, and the mood-setting title theme goes away when you start a level. Nevertheless, the action itself is what really matters in The Two Thrones, and it's quite fun while it lasts.

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