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kd7sovThe Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Quite good, overall. For those of you who may not know, Spirit Tracks is a direct sequel to the previous Zelda title for the DS, Phantom Hourglass, which was itself a direct sequel to Wind Waker. It has very much the same visual style and playing feel.
Without wanting to spoil more than about the first half hour, the premise is as follows: Link is a young train-engineer trainee about to receive his diploma and the certificate that will permit him to drive solo. He lives in New Hyrule, which is covered in the Spirit Tracks - a network of shackles binding the Demon King, which serve double duty as train tracks. However, there is a man in the court of Princess Zelda (who, as usual, is a princess without any reigning relatives) who wants to destroy these tracks and release the Demon King. To complete his plans, he only needs one more thing - Zelda's body.
The controls are very much the same as in Hourglass, but somewhat streamlined; for instance, instead of drawing a small circle at the edge of the screen to roll, you now simply double-tap your target. Overworld movement is accomplished by following a route drawn on the map - along the tracks, naturally - but there's considerable option for rerouting at the track switches. This is good, because the tracks are also inhabited by bomb trains, which are slightly faster than your train's maximum speed and can instantly destroy it in a single collision. Naturally, they're armored, so your cannon can't hurt them.
Like Hourglass, Tracks has only a few major dungeons, interspersed with return trips to a central dungeon - in this case, the Tower of Spirits. Unlike in Hourglass, though, you don't have to retrace all the previous floors each time you return to the Tower. As usual, each dungeon grants you a tool that is used to defeat the dungeon's boss. My favorite boss battle was with the bow - using a minecart to get to where I could shoot the shiny patches on a lava colossus. Some Zelda veterans will be pleased with the tool selection, and others displeased - the traditional boomerang, bombs, and bow return, joined by the new Whirlwind (similar to the Gust Jar from Minish Cap), Whip (largely similar to the Hookshot or Grappling Hook), and the Sand Staff. I was rather disappointed in the Whip - it lacks the ability to tow Link to treasure chests or other heavy items, and has less range and combat power.
Music plays a significant role in this game - one of the first things Link gets is the Spirit Flute, a set of panpipes that can be played with the touchscreen and microphone. In addition to several tunes that can be used at any time and may unlock various bonuses or areas, there are several duets involving Link and an NPC that unlock new tracks.
This game contains several bonuses for people who have played Hourglass; for instance, after a certain point you can obtain the Shield of Antiquity, used by Hourglass!Link, which is the only place the Triforce appears in the whole game. Several characters, including Link and Zelda, are officially the descendants of their Hourglass equivalents, and one of the pirates from Wind Waker and Hourglass shows up as an old man.
All in all, this game lives up to my expectations of new Zelda games. Well done, Nintendo.
Also, it has a very awesome TV commercial.
Quite good, overall. For those of you who may not know, Spirit Tracks is a direct sequel to the previous Zelda title for the DS, Phantom Hourglass, which was itself a direct sequel to Wind Waker. It has very much the same visual style and playing feel.
Without wanting to spoil more than about the first half hour, the premise is as follows: Link is a young train-engineer trainee about to receive his diploma and the certificate that will permit him to drive solo. He lives in New Hyrule, which is covered in the Spirit Tracks - a network of shackles binding the Demon King, which serve double duty as train tracks. However, there is a man in the court of Princess Zelda (who, as usual, is a princess without any reigning relatives) who wants to destroy these tracks and release the Demon King. To complete his plans, he only needs one more thing - Zelda's body.
The controls are very much the same as in Hourglass, but somewhat streamlined; for instance, instead of drawing a small circle at the edge of the screen to roll, you now simply double-tap your target. Overworld movement is accomplished by following a route drawn on the map - along the tracks, naturally - but there's considerable option for rerouting at the track switches. This is good, because the tracks are also inhabited by bomb trains, which are slightly faster than your train's maximum speed and can instantly destroy it in a single collision. Naturally, they're armored, so your cannon can't hurt them.
Like Hourglass, Tracks has only a few major dungeons, interspersed with return trips to a central dungeon - in this case, the Tower of Spirits. Unlike in Hourglass, though, you don't have to retrace all the previous floors each time you return to the Tower. As usual, each dungeon grants you a tool that is used to defeat the dungeon's boss. My favorite boss battle was with the bow - using a minecart to get to where I could shoot the shiny patches on a lava colossus. Some Zelda veterans will be pleased with the tool selection, and others displeased - the traditional boomerang, bombs, and bow return, joined by the new Whirlwind (similar to the Gust Jar from Minish Cap), Whip (largely similar to the Hookshot or Grappling Hook), and the Sand Staff. I was rather disappointed in the Whip - it lacks the ability to tow Link to treasure chests or other heavy items, and has less range and combat power.
Music plays a significant role in this game - one of the first things Link gets is the Spirit Flute, a set of panpipes that can be played with the touchscreen and microphone. In addition to several tunes that can be used at any time and may unlock various bonuses or areas, there are several duets involving Link and an NPC that unlock new tracks.
This game contains several bonuses for people who have played Hourglass; for instance, after a certain point you can obtain the Shield of Antiquity, used by Hourglass!Link, which is the only place the Triforce appears in the whole game. Several characters, including Link and Zelda, are officially the descendants of their Hourglass equivalents, and one of the pirates from Wind Waker and Hourglass shows up as an old man.
All in all, this game lives up to my expectations of new Zelda games. Well done, Nintendo.
Also, it has a very awesome TV commercial.
