It definitely feels like a Prince of Persia game and that's a good feeling to have.
What players of the previous generation's trilogy will be right at home with is is the acrobatic prowess displayed by the Prince. There is plenty of wall running, ledge climbing, and pole swinging that needs to be accomplished to effectively traverse the landscape and buildings. The basics are fun and easy to manage.
What is new are the creation powers that are bestowed to the Prince as the game progresses. These powers will allow you to create mini-tornadoes (of a sort) that raise you up to reach high places, they will allow you to create grab points on smooth walls, and they will let you create a sort of force field allowing you to float stationary in mid air. These bubbles make it easier to get across gaps too large for a single jump, or safely break a fall that would have resulted in injury or death. You can also chain the creation powers together to reach impressive new heights. These three powers make for some thought provoking puzzle platforming, and I feel they help evolve the game-play into something new.
What you may miss, if you've played the other titles, are the time manipulation powers of the Sands of Time. The most notorious one probably being the ability to rewind time, which made the challenging platforming much more bearable than having to rely purely on checkpoints. To compensate for this, you get life orbs. For each life orb you have filled, you'll be sent back to the last safe ground you were on should you die. So if you fall of a ledge, you're automatically transported back to a safe spot on that ledge.
Combat is also spread throughout the levels. Some of your foes are charging animals, armed and shielded knights, archers, transporting vixens, and more. Combat controls are mostly handled through the motion controls. A combination of movies from the Wii-mote and the Nun-chuck will allow you swing your sword with light and heavy attacks, throw enemies, and perform area attacks. The odd boss battle pops up and follows a typical once, twice, thrice method of taking them down. That is to say, the boss will follow an attack pattern, and at the right moment you'll make your attack. After taken down so much of their health, the attack patter will change slightly, and you repeat your actions two more times with some minor variations.
There's a decent selection of nooks and crannies in the game to explore that will lead to hidden life-upgrade areas or to items such as chests with contents that will increase your upgrade bar. When the bar is full, you'll gain new skills and stronger attacks. There's also a version of achievements or trophies that you can aim to get throughout the game. The additional unlockables, such as bonus speed run levels, bonus 2D levels, and even the option to unlock the original Prince of Persia game, means this disc comes packed with extras over and above the main game which itself will likely give you at least 10 hours worth of game-play on your first time through. There's lots of value packed on to the disc for lovers of the series.
As for difficulty, things don't get too crazy until about the last third of the game. Then you'll reach some challenges that really keep you on your toes. The biggest issue I had with the game is that sometimes the most difficult part was the camera. There are times when it makes it difficult to tell which way you're facing, so you make a jump towards a ledge, only to realize that you should have been just a little more to the left and now you've fallen to your death. Thankfully there is a hint system that tells you when you're lined up properly that does help in many of these situations. The fact that there's 1 button that does 3 different things depending on where your pointing the controller can also cause some frantic moments when you have to be moving quickly. These issues, although annoying, weren't too impairing for most of the game. They may have caused some frustration at times, but weren't enough to keep in the way of most of the fun.
I was unsure if it would live up to its predecessors when I first put it in, but in the end I was impressed. It doesn't add to the Prince of Persia mythology in any valuable way, but more often than not the game-play was enjoyable. Although it won't take over as my favourite Prince of Persia game, it was a nice addition that exceeded my expectations.