Narrowly avoiding death.

Bah! Back in the day, sonny, we didn't have any of these fancy time-shifting abilities; if we died, we died. And in the original Prince of Persia we died often, and hard, and got very frustrated - so is it any wonder that we greet the remake of the 1989 original as Prince of Persia Classic with a hearty cheer?

So before you start wondering how you missed another title in the franchise, take a look at those screenshots; another thing we didn't have back in the day was the third dimension. Yes, when Prince of Persia Classic finally arrives on the Australian Playstation Network on Thursday, it will be in all its 2D, side scrolling, jumping and slashing and swearing mightily at the fiendish level design glory, with added benefit of shiny new animations and character design, as well as a few nasty surprises for those who know their way around the original. And since this is the Prince we're talking about, they probably involve dying.

Aaaaand again.

Reincarnated as third-person action games The Sands of Time, The Two Thrones and Warrior Within, the Prince has made a bit of a comeback on the last batch of consoles, and is expected to continue his success on PSP and DS as well as the upcoming next-gen title, the as yet un-subtitled Prince of Persia.

His modern success, however well-earned, relies heavily on the original premise, and somewhat on gamer nostalgia, a powerful beast indeed. If your memory stretches back to 1989, or the many years afterwards when the prince could still be found leaping about and dying in various horrible ways on PCs everywhere, check it out! Prince of Persia Classic hits the PSB this Thursday, and is also available via Xbox Live for 800 points.