CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER

Format: PSP. Publisher: Eidos. Price: £34.99 Family friendly? Yep.

IF you were lucky enough to find a PSP hand-held beneath the tree on Christmas Day then Championship Manager will probably be high on your list of "must have" games for the new console. Championship Manager on the PC has endured something of a rocky season since Sega snagged the development team behind the original and left Eidos with just the brand.

But Champ Manager on the PSP doesn't face the kind of competition that makes critics so unforgiving of the PC game. In fact, developer Gusto Games has done a fine job of cramming a quart into a pint pot. All the major stats and strategies available to players of the PC are present and correct. Navigating the screens is a breeze - getting around is almost as simple as clicking with a mouse - and the in-game 2D engine is simple but fun.

The matches themselves are more of a step back to earlier Champ Managers. A PSP doesn't have the processing power to compute every minor detail so players are treated to more of an "edited highlights" package. As you'd expect, matches can be interrupted for substitutions, changes of formation and tactics. Sometimes, though, I felt as thought all the tinkering in the world wouldn't affect the outcome.

Mind you, it's certainly a technical feat just to get this running on the PSP and a world away from earlier stabs at hand-held football management like Psion Soccer manager. In fact, Champ Manager on PSP is an impressive debut game. Football fans can buy it knowing they will find plenty to enjoy despite a few bugs.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: TWO THRONES

Formats: PS2, Xbox. Publisher: Ubisoft. Price: £39.99. Family friendly? No, 16+ I'm afraid.

ANOTHER game that's been around since the dawn of time (well, the ZX81) is The Prince of Persia. Just like Championship Manager, it's been through a difficult period following the departure of the man who first gave life to the franchise and brought it back for a modern day audience in 2003. The last game - Warrior Within - was too dark and brooding for many fans who urged Ubisoft to go back to the drawing board.

Prince of Persia: Two Thrones attempts to wrap up the story by combining the best bits of the previous two instalments. The game takes up the story directly after The Warrior Within as the Prince returns home to Babylon only to find the city in ruins and his people enslaved.

The enigmatic Sands of Time have been released and even the Prince himself is tainted by their mystic powers. He becomes, quite literally, two people - the good prince who wants nothing more than to free his lands and the Dark Prince, a brooding alter ego who gradually begins to take control.

You'll have gathered that gamers can play as either Prince, who have distinctly different powers and fighting styles. The Dark Prince is more powerful but you cannot remain as the bad guy for long - he needs to replenish his life-force via the sands of time and that is most definitely "not good".

After the fairly mediocre second instalment last year, The Two Thrones is a return to form. The developer clearly listened to the criticism of Warrior Within and returned to the puzzle/action/adventure template that made Sands of Time such a hoot.

That means less reliance on tedious combat (although there's still plenty of swordplay) and painful one-liners in favour of more swashbuckling acrobatics and heart-in-the mouth cliff-hangers.

One of the great new features is the speed kill move, a lightning attack that requires timed button stabs for successful takedowns - but looks terrific when you master it.

Some of the bosses are tough (and the final one is virtually impossible) but, generally, the gameplay is well balanced. The graphics, too, are as sharp as you can expect of a PS2.

If this is to be the Prince's final outing (Two Thrones neatly wraps the trilogy up) then it's good to see such a legendary gaming icon go out on a real high.

Personally, I reckon Ubisoft won't be able to resist the temptation to bring the old fella back on the next generation of games consoles.

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