Time Rewind Mechanic

A 2003 action-adventure reboot of the Prince of Persia series, featuring time-rewinding gameplay and a story of a Prince who must undo the release of the Sands of Time.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2003 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The game was released on the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and Windows in November 2003. The Sands of Time is a reboot of the Prince of Persia series created by Jordan Mechner, who served as creative consultant, designer, and scenario writer for The Sands of Time.

Quick Facts

First appears: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Key item: Dagger of Time
Function: Undo player actions and deaths

Lore & Background

The game follows an unnamed Prince whose father sacks an ancient city at the instigation of a traitorous Vizier. During the attack, the Prince obtains an artifact called the Dagger of Time, while his father's army captures an hourglass containing the mysterious Sands of Time. Visiting the palace of the Sultan of Azad to present the Sands as a gift, the Vizier tricks the Prince into releasing the Sands, transforming the people of Azad into savage monsters under his control. Together with Farah, a young Princess who knows the power of the Sands, the Prince works to correct his mistake and foil the Vizier's evil plans.

Reader's Guide

The gameplay revolves around the Prince's platforming abilities, broken up by fights with the creatures created by the Sands. A key mechanic in the game is using the Dagger to rewind time if the Prince makes a mistake while platforming and use it to kill and freeze enemies. The Prince restores health by drinking water from pools and fountains. Collecting Sands increases the Prince's power, and drinking from hidden magic fountains increases the Prince's maximum health.

The Prince's main contextual move is wall-running. The Prince can also climb along and across ledges, walk along beams, swing on and jump from poles, jump onto and between pillars, and swing on ropes. In combat, the Prince fights monsters with dual wielded melee weapons: his sword and Dagger of Time. After being damaged by the sword, enemies can only be killed by stabbing them with the Dagger of Time, which gathers up the Sands inside them.

The Sands the Prince collects from enemies and the environment are tied to his magical abilities. The most basic power is Rewind, the ability to rewind time by up to ten seconds. In combat, once the Dagger develops special power 'tanks', the Prince can also use any of three more offensive Sand Powers that can slow time, freeze time for a single enemy, or freeze time completely. Each use of power uses up one Sand Tank.

More powerful abilities are powered by Power Tanks. Starting out with a small amount of Sand available, its capacity can be increased by collecting Sand from enemies, along with Sand Clouds scattered around the palace. Large columns of Sand within the Palace grant visions of future areas and act as save points.

Did You Know?

Concept work began in spring of 2001, after Ubisoft acquired the Prince of Persia catalog.
The game used Ubisoft's Jade engine, originally designed for Beyond Good & Evil.
A sequel, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, was released in November 2004.
As of 2014, the game has sold over 14 million copies worldwide, across all platforms.
A remake of the game was cancelled in 2026.