The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is the latest addition to The Legend of Zelda series and is also the long-awaited sequel to Phantom Hourglass. This time, it's a game for the DS. Yet another generation of the classic Link and Zelda pair has emerged. This time, instead of being a boat captain like in Phantom Hourglass, Link is now an engineer as he drives his train around various parts of the realm. After an encounter with the enemy, Zelda has lost her body and now follows Link in spirit form. Along the way, she'll take possession of metal knights known as Phantoms to help Link out on his travels. Together, they must travel from one realm to the next in order to restore the Spirit Tracks and the Tower of Spirits to defeat the evil demon that is threatening to escape, all the while battling various enemies and playing tunes on the Spirit Flute.

Spirit Tracks is certainly a must-have for DS gamers. It features hours after hours of exciting fun. If you've always wanted to be an engineer, try your hand out at the train and see how you fare. Even if you never wanted to become one, driving the Spirit Train around is always a fun task.

All the characters in the game are absolutely the cutest little sprites ever. Even the enemies, from the pudgy Moink to the round Spinut, are very cute. Sometimes it's almost heartbreaking to kill these cute little villains. The dialogue is also quite amusing to read, especially Zelda's sheltered life, and poor Link happens to be the victim of constant shaking.

The controls for Spirit Tracks have been introduced to a few new changes from Phantom Hourglass, though not much. You still control Link by using the stylus on the bottom touch-screen. His attack controls are still the same as Phantom Hourglass. Draw a circle to make Link do a spin attack or tap an enemy for Link to stab. However, you can now make Link roll around in the grass by simply tapping twice in the same place. This is much better than Phantom Hourglass, where players had to draw tiny circles near the bottom of the screen. The new improved control at least makes sure that Link will indeed roll instead of just running in that direction like it often did in Phantom Hourglass.

However, in dungeon mode, the player no longer controls only Link. Instead, Zelda can also now be controlled, as soon as she takes possession of a Phantom. To control Zelda, the player draws a path for Zelda to follow. Otherwise, she would just follow wherever Link goes. Zelda's role in the game is very useful as she will help Zelda solve obstacles. She can block fire or carry Link across lava pits. I personally find the controls for Zelda to move a little too fast. Often times I end up drawing inaccurate paths because of how fast the screen moves. However, when Zelda actually moves, she is ridiculously slow.

After each completion of a certain realm, Link will have to face a boss battle. The boss battle will span both screen so players must make sure to also check out the top screen in case the boss ever takes off and is preparing to strike. Players must use a variety of methods, such as combining the Whirlwind and Link's sword in order to defeat the first boss.

Instead of a boat, Link will no be driving a train through the Spirit Tracks. Players will find themselves constantly riding the train in order to go from one location to the next. Along the way, Link will find a bunch of obstacles, from Dark Trains to pesky animals hogging up the tracks. To chase away pesky animals, Link can pull on the train whistle to scare them off. For more annoying critters, there's always the well-aimed cannon to solve problems. Heheh. The train is rather slow, even at its top speed, but all is made up for the soothing music that plays during travel.

Speaking of which, the music is absolutely wonderful. It is very soothing to listen to and I often find myself prolonging a level just to listen to the awesome soundtrack.

A new feature to the game is the Whirlwind. After acquiring the item in the Forest Realm, the player can now use blow into the microphone to do a variety of tasks. When the player blows into the microphone in dungeon mode, a whirlwind is summoned to stun enemies, blow away piles of leaves or any other objects to solve puzzles (such as getting otherwise inaccessible keys or blowing away poisonous gas). You'll be using this quite a lot in the earlier portion of the game, so be ready to constantly puffing your cheeks to blow into the microphone. It might be a good idea not to play this game in public as this will certainly draw some unwanted attention as people try to figure out why exactly you're blowing at your DS.

There is also the new Spirit Flute, which also requires you to blow into the microphone in order to play tunes. The Spirit Flutes will be given to you by Zelda and you'll need it to play songs that will due a variety of tasks such as awakening statues or healing yourself. But, most importantly, you'll need the Flute to complete duets with the Lokomos (Guardians of the Tower of Spirits) in order to repair the Spirit Tracks and the broken Tower of Spirits. Players will need to tap the flute with their stylus and drag it from one pipe to another and blow with various degrees of length and speed to complete tunes. Playing the tunes can be somewhat difficult, as the player also has to move the flute at the same time.

For those that aren't so good at games or find themselves stuck in a certain puzzles, there is the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks Official Guide from Prima. The guide provides a thorough walkthrough of the game, from where items are located to how to defeat enemies. There's a dozen pictures with captions on every page, and there are also a ton of marked maps to help you find the desired object. There's also a legendary checklist at the end to help you make sure that you got everything, from heart containers to increase your life to various pieces of treasures. Even if you're not quite stuck, this guide is an excellent companion to the game. For one thing, the beautiful colors and graphics is every reason to buy it. The guide can be bought at various bookstores for $19.99. Thankfully, my local library had a copy so I was able to borrow it. With this guide, you'll no longer have to fear  getting stuck in the game again.

Overall, I am very pleased with this new game in the Legend of Zelda franchise. From soothing music to beautiful graphics, what more do you want? And, to top it all off, there's a perfect balance of suspense, danger, and humor to lighten things up a bit. This is a must-have addition for your DS game collection. It's perfect for people of all ages (though the rating says above ten). So, what are you waiting for? Go to your local game store and buy a copy of Spirit Tracks today!

UPDATE: It's been two months now since I last began playing Spirit Tracks and I'm now almost done with the game. I always find it amusing that whenever I pick up the game after a long time of inactivity, I always find the train to be going at a considerable fast pace. Afterward though the speed just slows down. I guess it's all just perspective now. One thing that I've noticed and has always bothered me is that if I ever save and turn off the game whilst in the middle of a dungeon, I am returned to the dungeon entrance when I turn on the game again. That means most of my progress (except for the items acquired and doors unlocked) is lost, and I have to redo everything. I find this to be extremely annoying and time-wasting. For example, if I had a lot of trouble getting past a certain puzzle and, after hours of failures, I finally got past it, I now need to work on spending  that amount of time again in order to advance. I wish the game-makers did not do that.