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The mighty and righteous Sultan of Persia is out of the country at the moment, putting his enemies to the sword. Obviously, Persia can't run itself, so the Sultan has left Grand Vizier Jaffar (not the seedless variety) behind to run the show. Powerful and mighty as the Sultan may be, even he is unaware that Jaffar is a closet megalomaniac who has evil, selfish designs on Persia.

His plan for domination involves blackmailing the Sultan's daughter into marrying him, which isn't exactly good news for the player, who adopts the role of a young adventurer who's in love with the princess.

Obviously something has to be done about Jaffar, and you must orchestrate a cunning rescue attempt by infiltrating the flick-screen platform palace, negotiating the traps laid by Jaffar (wobbly platforms that give way to a colossal fall or even spikes that suddenly spring out of the ground beneath you!) and disposing of any of his minions that get in the way.

Unfortunately, things aren't quite going to plan. You've been captured and thrown into the dungeons and they'vet aken all your possessions - even your trusty sword! That's not all - the evil Jaffar has given the Princess one hour to decide whether she'll marry or not. You simply must rescue her before Jaffar becomes the Prince of Persia...

Prince Of Persia's platforming action reminds me a lot of that old 8-bit classic Impossible Mission. The other feature that has in common with Impossible Mission is a superbly animated player sprite - it's extremely lifelike and I defy anyone not to be impressed as the hero jumps, pulls himself over walls, and even clings on for dear life before plummeting down a hole!

One of the pleasures of Prince Of Persia is discovering its many surprises - watch out for wobbling ceiling tiles because they usually lead to secret rooms.

There's only one downer with this otherwise faultless product, and that's the fact that when you die you go all the way back to the beginning of the level - argghhhh! Still, watching Prince Of Persia is like witnessing poetry in motion - playing it is better still!