The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

This week we check out the latest installment of the classic Nintendo Zelda series, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Story

The quick back story is in ancient times a great battle between good and evil happened on the world.  The evil (Malladus) was banished and imprisoned by the "chains" that cover the world that all converge on a tower that is essentially the "key" to keeping the evil banished.  As time went on the battle became a legend and the "chains" became tracks for the steam trains.

Link is a train engineer in training.  He is on his way to the castle where Princess Zelda will preside over his graduation to Royal Engineer.  At the ceremony she slips a note to Link telling him she does not trust her Chancellor and to meet her secretly.   At the secret meeting she tells Link that the Spirit Tracks are disappearing but the Chancellor won't let her leave the castle to investigate.  She asks Link to help her.  To do so she ask Link to disguise him self as a guard recruit, ie. dress in the classic Green Link outfit.

They are able to slip out of the castle and take Link's train to the Tower of Spirits.  Before they get there though track they are on disappear and then they are attacked by the Chancellor and his second in command Byrne.  Link is knocked out and Princess Zelda's spirit is forced out of her body.  The Chancellor and Byrne take Zelda's body to be used a vessel for bringing back Malladus.

When Link comes to he is at the castle.  He soon finds out the Princess Zelda is a spirit that only he can see and hear.  Zelda believes that they must go to the Tower of Spirits to get her body back.  Once they get there they meet Anjean who explains what is going on and what must be done to restore everything back to the way it was.

And I stop there, going on would really start spoiling the story.  Let's just say it's another great Legend of Zelda story.  Nintendo does not disappoint, especially with one of it's own AAA titles.

Control:

The controls are almost exclusively the stylus and the microphone.  The stylus though is used the most.  It's used to guide Link, used for combat, guide the train on the tracks, fire the train's cannon and more.  Surprisingly it was pretty simple.  The microphone comes in use for a fan like weapon where you aim it with the stylus and then blow into the microphone to blow what ever you aimed at away.  At certain points you will use the microphone and stylus to play a pan flute.

 

Gameplay:

As with most Legend of Zelda games it's all about the adventure and puzzles.  Sure you fight monsters, but all the bosses have a set pattern to defeating them, the puzzle is figuring out that pattern.  Some puzzles will use Link's various weapons, others will use the Princess.  Since she is a spirit she can possess Phantom Guardians and use them to assist Link.  The Guardians are practically invulnerable so they are handy for blocking flame jets or walking through lava.  The only problem, even though she's possessing a hulking suit of armor, she is still afraid of mice.  This is where Link becomes "the hero."  :D

There is also a multiplayer game, but at the time of writing I had been unable to find friends to play.  It's basically a collect the gems type game where the winner is the one with the most gems at the end.

 

Graphics and Sound:

The graphics are really good on the DS.  They art style is taken from the Wind Waker, so more of the cartoon style.  The sound is great and classic sound effects and themes from the series abound.

Overall:

It's really hard to find faults with any Nintendo AAA title.  They know these are their system sellers and that there is a loyal fan base.  The story is fairy tale-like, not too heavy on the drama and enough humor to keep it all light.  Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will not disappoint any Zelda fans except those that didn't like the Wind Waker art style, even those fans will play it.

There is plenty to do in the game besides the main storyline, there are side quests like transporting cargo, or passengers, which becomes a bit of a mini-game in that they want you to drive the train a certain way.  Sort of a lottery in that you mail postcards off and you can win items.  You can even trade items with friends who have the game. 

All that said I do have a couple minor faults with it.  The pure stylus movement control did have a bug in that if I dragged it too near a doorway Link would automatically walk through it.  It was very frustrating in one village where the narrow path went right past a doorway for a hut.  The second is the playing of the pan flute.  While I commend Nintendo with coming up with the unique idea, I was a bit winded after trying to play some of the note combination's.

So overall I really enjoyed the game though.  It gets a 4.5 out of 5.  If you like adventure games with some puzzle solving, this game is for you.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is rated E 10+ for Everyone 10 or older for Mild Fantasy Violence.