Reviews// The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Over in the temples teamwork isn't a factor. The dungeons there are based on the area's theme – snow, ocean, forest, that sort of deal. As tends to be the case with Zelda games, the design of the puzzles in there is superb. In the snow temple, for example (SPOILER!), you have to find, move and then ring three bells in sequence to open a series of doors. Great. Easy. Except you have to ring them in the right order to form a tune. But where's the musical score to show you what to do for that last bloody door? The other ones have just been out on display as you've been looking for the bells, but I searched the level twice and found nothing. It was buried under some snow, as it happens. Said snow needed clearing out of the way using the boomerang and a handy flaming torch (SPOILER ENDS). The clues are all in the environment and just evident enough that you can find them and give your brain a workout without having your hand held. I would say, however, that while the puzzles tend to strike just the right note for older gamers, they might be a bit frustrating for kids.

Yes, they still make Zelda games for kids! You can tell that they want kids to buy this because it has that cutesy design and a lead character who's meant to be from ye olde Hyrule but still talks how a borderline elderly Japanese games developer thinks American teens talk. Sometimes, games are actually for kids.

Another element of the game that might prove frustrating for younger players is the small matter of the boss battles. The design is fantastic, cleverly incorporating elements of the environment or teamwork that have to be puzzled out on the fly if you want to avoid a bashing. They are, however, perhaps a bit on the difficult side for younger players at times. On the flipside, they provide a decent challenge for saltier players. Since there are no difficulty settings, you're left with a no-win situation.

The control scheme feeds into that difficulty. Actually, I feel a bit weird even referring to it as a 'scheme'. As in Phantom Hourglass, absolutely everything is handled by the touch screen. It's a little baffling, actually. People bemoaned the absence of traditional controls in Phantom Hourglass, and how difficult could it be to map the fairly basic controls to the d-pad and face buttons? For most of the game the touch-screen-only controls are fine – you move the stylus to move Link, tap to attack or interact, map out where you want your boomerang to go with sweeps across the screen... you get the idea. Most of the time this works better than more traditional controls would. Occasionally, however, things get a bit more frenetic (in places such as the boss battles) and your own hand hovering over the touch screen becomes a hindrance.

And the blowing! There's far too much huffing into the mic, whether it's to create a mini-tornado or play your magic pipes. It does start to get tedious. This is far from being a deal breaker, however, and is only a problem for small chunks of the game.

To complement the chunky single-player campaign, there's a multiplayer option for up to four (up from two in the last game), making use of either multi-card play or single card download play. The basic framework is not dissimilar from the battle mode in [i[Mario Kart[/i] – you have to snatch up as many force gems as you can, beating the other players and using various traps and goodies sat in the environment to do it. It's diverting for a while, but lacks much by way of depth. That's fine, though. The meat is in the single-player experience.

The presentation and writing are just as good as you want them to be. It's cute without being too sugary and the characters are fun without being alienating to older players. Spirit Tracks doesn't demand that you've played Phantom Hourglass, but if you have then story beats such as the (sort of) appearance of a certain sea captain and scraps of not-too-obtuse dialogue will raise a smile.

SPOnG Score: 91%
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is a mighty-pleasing experience. It offers plenty of depth for seasoned Zelda fans without alienating newcomers. At times it might prove a little demanding for younger players, but hopefully its charm will prompt them to persevere. Spirit Tracks is certainly a worthy addition to any DS owner's collection. Buy it!