Spirit Tracks picks up a good hundred years after Phantom Hourglass. Shortly after the credits roll in the last game it seems Tetra and Link finally happened upon a good sized chunk of land and dubbed it Hyrule after the long-lost kingdom of yore. I won’t get too in-depth on the details but the long and short of it is the Princess Zelda ends up a body-less spirit and Link, being the only one who can see or hear her, has to save the day.

The setting is bright and vibrant but best of all it is ripe with references to Zelda lore. Small details like a stained glass mural of Tetra in Hyrule castle and the new Hyrule soldiers being clad in green garb in honour of the now legendary kingdom founders enriches the game’s lore. Also a gamer with a keen eye will find other references peppered throughout the game including a great cameo of a familiar face after the second dungeon.

I am going to get this out of the way right now; yes, there is a central dungeon in the game you will be returning to, to unlock new areas like The Temple of the Ocean King from Phantom Hourglass. Do not fear though, this time it is actually a good thing. The temple still has an element of stealth, but it is not the main focus of the Dungeon. You are no longer timed, you can take all the time you want and the dungeon itself will not try to suck the life out of you. Finally, once you clear a set of floors, that is all, you can move right past them the next time you come back so you do not have to resolve puzzles or retread floors previously cleared. Beyond that, the dungeon is actually a lot of fun to solve. Each of the sections have a different theme that range from things like a typical fire-theme with lava pits and flame hurling traps, while another floor will be pitch black and have you navigate with no map, lighting torches along the way. The developers really went all-out with some really smart level design.

This extends into the main temples you will be exploring as well. One of the greatest faults of Phantom Hourglass was the dungeons came off as somewhat generic with them having limited individuality and reusing the same puzzles a little too often. Spirit Trackshas a highly unique set of dungeons, each with unique elemental themes and puzzles. For example the first dungeon has a major focus on using wind to solve puzzles and clear toxic gas. Each dungeon has a puzzle theme like this so you won’t come across two dungeons that use the same template.

At their heart, Zelda games are all about the items and tools the player will take advantage of, and how they are used throughout the game. Spirit Tracks has the classic tools you would expect from a Zelda game like the boomerang and bombs, as well as a mix of all new tools like the whip and a fan the player controls by blowing into the DS microphone to create gusts of wind. That said, there is a much greater use of the microphone in this game. With the fan, the player simply aims and blows into the mic to create gusts. Normally, this would be a cause for concern but the mic is surprisingly intuitive. There is no need to bring the DS much closer to your face than it would already during normal gameplay. The game also sees the return of music focused gameplay with the new pan flute item that works mostly like the Ocarina from Ocarina of Time.

Zelda games have traditionally had a lot of optional content that rewards exploration and Spirit Tracks is no different. There are plenty of treasures to collect, including a stamp side-quest that has you filling out a stamp book with icons from every location in the game, rescuing wildlife and more to discover if the player is willing to invest the time.

Another major fault of Phantom Hourglass was that it lacked its own identity; it was trying too hard to replicate the look and style of Wind Waker since it was designed as a direct sequel. Spirit Tracks has the same cel-shaded look to it, but has a lot to set it apart. The music is more a mix between Celtic woodwinds and guitar pieces that gives it a western or wild frontier feel. The music is also more varied and players will not hear the same songs repeated quite as much as in the last Zelda DS title. Graphically it is one of the best looking games on the system. The environments have a good feeling of depth to them and the overworld has some simply stunning scenery when considering the hardware limitations.

It is still not a perfect game, of course. The challenge level still feels a little low. Puzzles are not as complex as they could be. The answer is sometimes too obvious and some puzzles are repeated in sometimes more elaborate ways. It is a shame since the way you solve puzzles can be brilliantly designed but they did not get more challenging.

Also the train mechanic is a fun, but limited, way to travel. There is still all sorts of exploring to be done but with pre-determined tracks across the entire game it doesn’t give you quite the same level of openness of some older games in the series. Also, even at its highest speed it can still take up to five minutes to get from one place to another. Thankfully there are warp points scattered across the map that makes getting around much easier and faster.

Finally the game tends to play it safe in the Zelda formula. You will be doing everything you expect in a Zelda game, explore the new area, a few quests to reach the next temple, complete a dungeon, return to the Spirit Tower and repeat. Each section has a lot of new and interesting things to do but the overall formula does not deviate very often.

All said, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is not just a good game, but a good Zeldagame. It is one of the strongest games in the series on a portable system, able to hold its own with the likes of Minish Cap and Link’s Awakening, making it easily one of the best releases this year on the DS. If you plan on delving into the many optional activities it will keep you occupied for a good long time.

Likes:

• Good implementation of the DS microphone
• Game feels more fleshed out
• One of the best Zelda games in recent memory

Dislikes:

• Not challenging enough
• Train portion of the game is too restricting
• Repetitive puzzles

Review Score

 / 

The review scale at LevelFortyTwo is between 1 and 5. A score of 5 is considered an amazing game, 4 is a well-done game with only minor issues, 3 is in the middle; not great, but not bad, 2 is a very problematic game, and 1 is absolutely terrible.

I'll start with what I consider to be the most disappointing part of the game: the train gameplay. It runs similar to Phantom Hourglass's boat gameplay, with the stylus used to fire the cannon at varying lengths. However the enormous difference between the two is that you cannot control where you go. This makes the travel portion of the game incredibly dull after the initial "jumping in". Overall, it seems like the train portions (the game's namesake) could be the least exciting part of the game.

The dungeons –  although they seem to be very similarly designed –  actually have an enormous addition from Phantom Hourglass - not only can you control Link, you can now control a Phantom (which you will recognize as the giant Knight-like enemy from the previous game). The Phantom can be used to solve new puzzles, as well as a useful tool to explore new areas, due to the fact that it is completely invulnerable to fire and lava. The demo even had you jump on top of the Phantom as he walked across a pit of lava, while Link was busy attacking enemies along the way.

Finally, I ended my time with Spirit Tracks with the boss battle on display. It was very similar to the bosses from previous games, though that doesn't mean it still isn't exciting. Of course Link pulls out his new weapon (in this case, a cyclone controlled with the microphone), and targets it at the boss' obvious weakpoint. The boss I battled was an enormous beetle (pictured above). Upon defeating him, I was pleased with the interesting use of this new weapon. Although the game seems to be lacking major press from Nintendo, getting hands on with the game has made me very interested to pick up the game when it releases.

You can read our full review of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Track here.