By Matt Slagle
The Associated Press

Whether it's bumping the wrong button or an ill-timed power outage, I've often wished I could turn back the clock while playing video games.

Now comes Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, possibly the best ever antidote to bad joystick decisions.

The new game for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and personal computers gives you abilities that would make even Albert Einstein's brain spin: you can slow down time, speed it up or freeze it entirely.

After numerous death leaps from soaring cliffs, my favorite time trick quickly became the one which reverses time.

Prince of Persia begins with a ferocious battle in a vast palace set in medieval Persia. You play as the youngest son of King Shahraman of Persia on a quest to recapture the magical but deadly sands of time.

Time isn't the only thing on the young prince's side. He's got the agility of a dancer and practically defies gravity while sidestepping walls and swinging around flag poles like an acrobat.

Prince of Persia has easy-to-master controls to go along with the death-defying maneuvers. You'll need to master them all to get around, over and under obstacles like metal spikes and spark-spitting saw blades which undulate along walls.

Like too many other console games, you can only save the game at certain checkpoints, which in this game appear as swirling funnels of glittering dust called "sand visions."

Admittedly, the checkpoint save system serves an admirable purpose: it allows you to see a sepia-toned "vision" of the upcoming level. The preview is short but handy when figuring out how to complete trickier levels.

The unleashed sands of time have spawned an army of undead sand creatures. You'll need your sword, some nifty acrobatics and then a final thrust with your dagger of time to dispatch them.

While there are some neat acrobatic fighting moves, all the hacking and slashing became annoyances on the way to bigger and better adventuring: figuring out how to get around obstacles and solving puzzles.

Your character also serves as the game's principal narrator. If you die, you have an unlimited number of backup lives.

Graphics were stellar on the Xbox version I played.