The Legend of Zelda series has always been a fantastic example of decently minimalist game philosophy within it’s genre. Similar to what Half-Life is to shooters, The LoZ is focuses on a fairly simple story told through a silent protagonist that accumulates items and weapons that will aid him in becoming more powerful and more versatile throughout the game. And the series has always managed to keep very fresh, constantly producing new and exciting adventures while maintaining it’s original epic and fanciful feel. No place is this more clear then in Nintendo’s latest quest with their pointy-eared hero.
Gimmicks are what tend to characterize each installment of Zelda, as you can probably tell by the names of almost every single game. Each one has a new tools that will be pinnacle to gameplay from ocarinas to boats to staffs that control the seasons. However the gimmick found in Phantom Hourglass was not exactly…good. Increasing the length of time one has to go through the most annoying dungeon in the world is not a needed addition to the game, and Hourglass became excruciating around the mid-point. Luckily, Spirit Tracks forgoes that nuisance for much more interesting gameplay elements: the Spirit Flute and Princess Zelda, herself.
The story is a fairly straightforward one, princess captured/save world. But now it’s only the princess’s body that’s been held hostage which leaves her soul free to help out Link on her quest to rescue her. Like Wind Waker and Hourglass the overworld is all about moving from point A to point B on a vehicle, this time though it’s a train. Denying his usual warrior-hero look, Link starts in an adorable engineer’s uniform with a single desire to be a conductor. Instead of being knighted, he is christened an engineer Zelda is essentially killed and turned into a ghost, where the two heroes have to go on an adventure to stop a demon king’s resurrection across the rails and return the princess to her body.
On the rails you’ll come across the same stock villages and races you’ve come to know and love, and there’s the familiar hub dungeon from the last game, but this time without constant retreading or timers. You’ll also collect a variety of new and interesting tools to compliment your list of standard LoZ gadgets, like a snake whip and whirlwind (a fan that you use by blowing into the mic). Probably the most unique of these items is the ocarina replacement for the game called the Spirit Flute that uses the DS’ controls surprisingly well. You both blow into the mic while move from note to note with the stylus, and it is astonishingly fluid.
The other major addition to the game is Princess Zelda, who’s companionship makes for really interesting puzzle solving in the hub dungeon. She will take control of a number of different phantoms (big armored baddies) and can be used to break through obstacles, carry Link across lava, and other interesting uses. There are a few bad moments with her where she’ll get caught on something when you try and call her back to you and during fights with multiple powerful enemies where you’re fumbling between both characters, but thanks to being able to manually control her easily these are never deal breakers, and the hub dungeon levels end up as the most entertaining parts of the game. I was always looking forward to returning the tower so Link could be joined by his companion for tag-team puzzle solving fun.
The train aspect of the game is charming but flawed. The linear travel across an open world has never felt so linear or long and boring. There are no straight paths to take from point A to B like in Phantom Hourglass, it’s always long and winding railroad tracks which eventually get really old. On the other hand the scenery is lovely and I never got bored of tugging the rope signaling the horn or shooting the cannon at every rock along the way. Those last two complements might sound really boring, but they were the only entertainment aside from annoying enemy attackers, so they were really the greatest saving graces I could find for the travel system. Like I said: charming but flawed.
Aside from saying that the stylus controls are an improvement upon Phantom Hourglass there’s not much else to the gameplay. It’s a Zelda game, they tend to be self-explanatory, but frequently a lot of fun. For anyone that loves solid action adventure games, and especially those that love Zelda should go out and get a copy if they already haven’t. It’s one of the best games I’ve played in the series and one of the best games I’ve played this year.
[...] by solid stylus controls, which are both simple and easy to learn. Aside from a few other wonderful games, I have never seen the DS controls used so [...]