Review:
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

With the wait between home console Zelda games steadily growing ever longer, Nintendo has seemingly decided to turn the DS into the official adventuring platform of choice, as evidenced by this latest slice of gaming brilliance.

Continuing the story from Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, the pirates have settled and grown old on a continent covered by mysterious train lines – the titular Spirit Tracks. However, evil is afoot and the train lines start disappearing, leading Zelda to ask a newly graduated trainer driver (you) to help her to restore the tracks.

It’s obvious from the start that having Zelda accompany you through the game is Nintendo’s way of trying to shake things up. Unfortunately, that’s probably the biggest change to the whole format.

In spite of that, the game remains an absolute joy to play, with Nintendo having listened to complaints about the last game (having to keep replaying on dungeon over and over, sailing takes too long, etc) and choosing to fix them completely. This time, while you are always brought back to the same central dungeon, you are allowed to completely cut out the floors you have already cleared, to concentrate on having new experiences thrown at you.

These new experiences range from some genuinely brilliant head-scratchingly difficult puzzles – all of which are completely unique – to some fantastic new weapons, such as the microphone-based Whirlwind, the Indiana Jones-esque Whip and some others which shall not be spoiled here. In addition to this are the Spirit Pipes, pan pipes requiring the use of the microphone in order to play music in some cracking musical challenges.

As for the train itself, it’s far more enjoyable than driving in a straight line had any right to be. While it initially feels too restrictive, opening up the various hidden tracks soon reveal a plethora of routes to take to every location. Factor in the cannon to shoot the many enemies, the collectable rabbit minigame and the strategy brought on by having to avoid the Demon Trains and what you have is actually a better mode of transport than the boat ever was.