London, England - Longer ago than most of us can be bothered to remember (1989, actually), a game was released called Prince of Persia that took the platform game genre to a new level and has gone on to inspire more games than you can count. Now it's back in its third incarnation, and it's no surprise to see that it's had a 3D makeover. GameSpot was granted an audience with the game's developers and a chance to meet Jordan Mechner, the man behind the original POP.

　　It's not so long since Mechner himself was quoted as having dismissed the possibility of a 3D reincarnation of Prince of Persia; he was smart enough to recognise that a certain Ms. Croft, ironically taking her cue from POP itself, already had the market pretty much sewn up. Whatever the reasons for his change of heart, it's inevitable that POP 3D will face comparisons with the Tomb Raider games.

　　However Mechner didn't seem in the least bothered about such questions or indeed annoyed about the idea that Tomb Raider might have "stolen" his idea. "After all, I took ideas from the games that I was playing when I wrote Prince of Persia.," Mechner said. However, he saw the TR world as too empty with too much ground to cover from one action sequence to the next. "When I was thinking about Prince of Persia, I was thinking about the first ten minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark - I wanted to make a game like that," he said.

　　So it is with this version, with action all the way. Some three quarters of the game will be made up of exploration (avoiding traps and solving puzzles), but the remaining time will be spent in combat. The fighting promises to be far more satisfying than the trigger-pumping of Tomb Raider and its sequel, however. For a start, you'll be using a sword (or staff or double blades), and although the controls are simple, there will be a fair amount of skill involved, not just a speedy index finger. The only projectile weapon will be a bow and arrow, which will have limited ammunition and be used for puzzle-solving as well as combat.

　　Something like 50 percent of the puzzles and traps have been carried over from the original two Prince of Persia games. However, the reduced field of vision in a third-person 3D game (as opposed to flat 2D) has meant that some things are no longer possible - you can't see floors above and below you in a building, for example - while others possibilities are just emerging. Now, traps and puzzles are easier to see but by way of compensation, they're often harder to solve.

　　Red Orb claims that as much of the feel of the movement from the original has been retained, given the new environment. In fact, the designers went right back to Mechner's early Rotoscoping data - created by filming his own brother in action - to try and work out how best to reproduce the feel of the earlier games. The movement in POP 3D, however, is derived from studies of professional gymnasts.

　　Given that the game is in an early stage of development, it's already looking good, and Prince of Persia 3D's fine pedigree will go a long way ensuring its success, in spite of the inevitable Tomb Raider comparisons.