Prince of Persia Zero

Persia has to be one of the most fertile places in the world when it comes to contemporary storytelling, though no two stories actually seem to agree about what it was actually like. Modern tales pitch Iran as something of tortured theocracy, while historical epics like to portray Persians as vaguely effeminate warmongers with a serious God complex. So where does the Prince fit into this litany of literary inaccuracy?

Well, somewhere near the top, as his duty is to bring us a Persia of wisdom, wealth and honour - though it regularly seems to find itself besieged by evil entities intent on dominating through Xerxes-esque tyranny. The well-designed streets of Babylon have proven the ideal companion to the thwarter of these evil maniacs, and it's great to see the free-running royalty return to the treacherous rooftops and precipitous ledges of the fabled city.

The story of Persia's woes, this time, is a little vague. The Prince simply wanders in from the desert and frees a mysterious hot babe, then proceeds to follow her through some decidedly dodgy terrain in an effort to figure out who she is and what she's up to. But a Prince of Persia story can be as nebulous and random as Ubisoft like, so long as we get to jump off lots of really high ledges, run along walls and slit the odd throat. And this latest acrobatic adventure doesn't let us down.

The game's blurb promises a significant degree of co-operative interaction between the Prince and his latest squeeze (Elika), though it's not quite as collaborative as might have been suggested. Not that it makes a great deal of difference to the gameplay, which is just as energetic and acrobatic as ever before – if not more so. Indeed, Elika feels more like a plot device than an integral part of the adventure, but she does add a few extra elements to the game that would otherwise have broken from the Prince's established talents.

The stunt-course environments test your keypad controlling capacity to its fullest, possibly pushing it beyond that of anyone who's not a seasoned text messager. But somehow - and it's genuinely difficult to fathom exactly what method the game uses to train your thumbs so efficiently – panicked button-mashing seems to work a treat, and the gymnastic extremes of the Prince play out wonderfully even in the most tense and fast-moving scenarios.

Every kind of acrobatic manoeuvre from the console games is included, from running along walls to monkey climbing and leaping from pole to pole. The actions are mapped quite plainly to the keypad (though using the D-pad on your phone is probably not an option, if that's your preferred controller), so running uses buttons '4' and '6', jumping straight up uses button '2' and jumping/running along walls diagonally is allocated to '1' and '3'.

In the heat of toe-curling haste, these buttons feel hard to remember and equally tricky to find, but the remarkably intuitive system seems to work without ever having to engage your brain nor fall back on simply pressing button '5' at precise moments to initiate preordained actions, and the ensuing stunts are quite spectacular.

Elika is more of a magician, and her skills lie in levitation and spells. So her adventure isn't quite the dazzling thrill ride you'd expect from a Prince of Persia game, but for the most part you'll be in royal shoes and only call upon Elika to lay foundations for some new exciting, free-running exploits. There are moments when she and the Prince join forces, but really this is just an extension of the system already governing the acrobatic antics you've been playing throughout. It's great to have them included, but they don't win many bonus points from us.

At times the scrolling can become a little jerky and disorientating, but really this is down to the beautifully detailed backdrops, superb character animations and impressive game speed conspiring to trick your eye, so it's hard to pick it out as a significant fault. The fact that such a good looking game can even move at the kind of speeds that cause you to rub your eyes and crack your neck between levels speaks volumes about the quality of play, and is the kind of problem we'd like to deal with more often in our pocket games.

In many respects, Prince of Persia Zero doesn't bring a great deal of new additions to the franchise, but considering this series consistently bags itself Silver Awards on Pocket Gamer, that's no bad thing. What we want is more of the same, with the prerequisite amount of extra refinement and dangerously lofty new levels to jump, run and fall from – and that's exactly what Zero delivers. The Prince shows no signs of slowing down as he gets older, and Persia once again provides the ideal fictional backdrop for a highly entertaining adventure.

Prince of Persia Zero

Nothing particularly new, but the Prince's free-running skills have improved yet again to ensure the cities of Persia provide a thrill-ride of vertiginous adventure for reckless royal heroes
Score
Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.