Pros: Good fighting setup; Decent Voice Acting; Nice atmosphere
Cons: Controls and enemy combat can be frustrating; camera can cause issues now and then.
The bottom line: While plagued with minor bugs that can cause major frustration, Sands of Time is a must-have action game for the Gamecube.
The revival of the Prince of Persia universe was one well-met by gaming magazines and is generally lauded as a good game.

Story (2.5/5)
While nothing to write home about, the story in Sands of Time is as decent as it is cliche. Evil man betrays country and joins invading one, naive prince of invading country is tricked into releasing a great evil and must now put it right, yadda yadda.

The story, however, does not flesh out much. There's an inclusion of heroine and some mystical fountain that extends the Prince's health (which is never really explained), but it's still completely flat. It leads to a good game, so I can't fault it too much, but it would have been nice to have more intrigue.

Gameplay (4/5)
Aside from the control problems listed below, gameplay is great. The game uses "free-form battle" to allow the Prince a wide variety in how he moves during battle and throughout environments. If you can get to it, you can probably use it in some manner. You can divide gameplay into two categories: battle and acrobatics.

Acrobatics allow the Prince to move about the environment in a way not seen often in games. With the use of the R button, you can run along walls as you run next to them. If you run right at them you can run up them, resulting in either a backflip off them or a nice jump away with a timely A button. The Prince also is able to shimmy along, up, and down walls, using various outcroppings to help him along. The outcroppings are all pre-ordained, so it's not as "sand box" as one may think, but this doesn't detract from the fun. Leaping from column to column, battling bats while hanging from a ledge, and balancing along a beam are all other things that the Prince will do in his adventure.

These acrobatics tend to be very well implemented-- the main complaint is that some tend on context. This is mainly apparent with wall moves. If you run at the wrong angle, you move up a wall instead of along it. This can become very frustrating, especially when you need to be continuously moving. You can also be rolling towards an edge, hit the A button once too many times, and jump off the edge instead.

The fighting implements a lot of the acrobatics-- run up a wall and jump away to slash into an enemy, or hang from a ledge while attacking. You can use a combination of the A and Y buttons to use the sword and sand dagger, respectively. The Y button will, when connecting, stab enemies and cause them to be "Restrained" where they slow down severely and turn gray, with another press causing an instant kill to the enemy. You can also include dodges and the ability to bound over enemies. Some enemies cannot be jumped over-- when you attempt to do so, the enemies will push you off, hurt you, and often counter-attack. Unfortunately, with the moving camera there will be many times when you go to side-dodge, but instead try to jump over the enemy.

When fighting, you are also able to guard. However, some attacks will stun you momentarily so you are unable to react. This isn't a bad thing, but you may have multiple enemies gang up on you and strike you repeatedly without a chance to guard, leading to many annoying deaths.

Overall, though, fighting is still fun as are the acrobatics. Some fast-paced portions of the games that require constant thought and movement can give a great rush.

Controls (3/5)
I can sum this up in one sentence: "I zigged when I meant to zag." The development team for Sands of Time seem to have missed various buttons altogether, as though they didn't matter. The D-pad is relegated to only one command (wide-view).

But even when they did decide to use buttons, they didn't seem to understand how to properly implement them. Many actions are context-sensitive with the same button. This wouldn't be bad if it were properly implemented. For instance, after I have everything unlocked I do a quick flick of the L shoulder button and time slows. If I hold it for a half second longer (while guarding) I get thrown into a "hyper" mode where the Prince basically goes Rambo on all enemies (a very nice effect). If I hold it any longer, I start to rewind time.

Unfortunately, I often wound up meaning to slow down time (or accidentally hitting the button) and holding just a bit too long, forcing me into reverse. It's bad enough that this messes up my attack motions, but the game is also unforgiving in that just using it for a fraction of a second will use an entire tank of sand (which allows the Prince to use time moves), something that can really hamper you in the game.

The camera has three modes: Free range, fixed, and first-person. Free range isn't too bad, at least when you're controlling it with the C-stick. However, it will rotate on its own during battles, causing the direction you're moving to change and thus the attack you're doing as well. The fixed camera helps to take care of this problem, and you can zoom in closer on the action. This can be a big help, but obstructions can come between you and the camera. It's fairly good about changing when you move to a different area-- however, it will go to a non-fixed mode, so there may be times when the camera moves to a very unfriendly level. Good practice with the camera will help you tremendously. However, it can still be a major pain throughout the game.

The combination of fickle controls and an iffy camera can make this game very frustrating, especially in the early levels. Once you play through it a bit, you get the hang and it's not as much of a problem.

Graphics (4/5)
One of the better looking Gamecube games, especially for its time. Environments are highly detailed and the Prince has wonderful animations both for fighting and just for general aerobics. The game provides a "wide use" camera that zooms far out to capture the general area the prince is in. Since you can't control the zoom, it's fairly useless in battle or for timing jumps, but it does give a very nice view of the scenery and is worth taking in at various locations.

Though it has a middle eastern setting, the team didn't go with a color pallet of "brown". There's very good use of color when it's appropriate as well as a few particle effects.

However, even though the areas are highly detailed the characters and enemies tend not to be. There are sharp points all along the character models and many of the enemies are bland and repetitive.

The game uses a few choice FMVs, and where they are used they fit well and look great. Lip synching is particularly good, although during speech in regular gameplay no attempt seems to have been made at it.

Audio (5/5)
Sands of Time has a wonderful, if perhaps overused, soundtrack. Much of the music is inspired by Middle Aastern melodies, but there is also an infusion of alternate rock. The sounds tend to fit well the current atmosphere, including fighting.

The voice acting in the game is also quite good. However, there are times when it might be cut short. Certain lines of the Prince, usually small comments upon death or pause, sound as if they were recorded from a cell-phone. His longer portions of speech are clear, though, and carry strong emotion.

These small problems do almost nothing to detract from the overall audio, though.

Conclusion (4.2/5, not cumulative)
Unfortunately, Ubisoft's seeming lack of quality assurance keeps this from being a five-star game. Still, while the Sands of Time have many small bugs that can lead to much frustration, the game is certainly a must-have for those with both a Gamecube and an interest in action. There's almost no replay value, but at the cost of the game used these days it's still worth the price of admission just for one ride.

There are a few scant extras, most notably the first Prince of Persia game. There are also some small "making of" videos that can be of interest.

Recommendation (See my Long Bio for an explanation)
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