Another handheld Zelda, I was half interested, half apprehensive when I realised that Ahmad was too deep undercover on a ButtonMasher sponsored initiative to conquer Asia to send him the game. My main point of concern was something that might not faze the enamoured Zelda/Nintendo fan, but to me it was off putting, a locomotion powered dungeon crawl.
My worst fears were quickly realised, but shunning off the initial resentment I felt towards the ridiculous plot I quickly began to realise that this game was just as viable as any other title that didn’t go for extreme real world accuracy and grittyness. The absurdity of the story involves Link receiving his engineers degree that allows him to conduct trains across magical tracks, or “spirit tracks” if you will. Some ancient evil is about to be released by dastardly evil doers, it coincidentally falls to you to save the day, problem is, the tracks are disappearing.
Past the story lies an experience very similar to that found in Phantom Hourglass. Puzzles, dungeons, travel (via train), in fact, if someone were to re-label it “Phantom Hourglass continued with a new zany plot” I would probably buy it as a legit title. If you enjoyed Phantom Hourglass and felt like you didn’t get your fill then this is a perfect opportunity. The formula for progressing through the game becomes very clear after the first section is completed. Find map, enter sanctuary, play song, go to temple, battle boss. There are little things that are added in each segment, a new tool/song/weapon, and then restoring power to the tower.
Use of the maps to make notes is again an important part in solving the puzzles using the hints that are turned up during your journey. The implementation of blowing on the screen to play the music was a genius stoke that had my son and I enjoying the game together, it also made me laugh every time he started doing a little dance to the music when we managed to play a song successfully.
There were features of the game that I didn’t even try, the battle mode? I’m not even sure what that does, sounds slack on my part, and while I will admit a certain apathy towards the idea, my main reason for not trying it was that I found the single player campaign far more compelling the the promise of some attempt to differentiate the title from it’s predecessor.
Closing Comments
If you haven’t tried Phantom Hourglass then I would strongly recommend Spirit Tracks. It offers interesting game play and challenging puzzles in the formula that Zelda fans will enjoy and other will struggle to wrap their heads around at first. The story is ridiculous but if you just take it for what it is, fun is there to be had.
