Better than Phantom Hourglass - but is that enough?
The Legend of the Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS is Nintendo's newest take on the land of Hyrule. It tells the story of an ancient evil that has been inexplicably imprisoned by a series magical railroad tracks and is hell bent on busting loose but Link and Zelda together embark on an adventure to seal the evil away once more. It's standard fare for the series but the forgettable, yet forgivable, story is forwarded with well written dialog from a host of new personalities.
By now you've likely formed a strong opinion on the cel-shaded look that Wind Waker introduced to the Legend of Zelda series. That controversial style carried over into Link's first DS outing, 2007's Phantom Hourglass with positive notes.
In the hundred years since, the land of Hyrule has advanced in technology with the addition of trains but this steampunk-lite twist looks exactly like you would expect it to. Visually, Spirit Tracks is on par with it's DS predecessor and brings almost nothing new to the table. Regardless, it is handily one of the best looking games on Nintendo's handheld.
The music in Spirit Tracks are some of the best the series has seen in a long time. There are the occasional remixed classic Zelda tracks but for the most part all of this new adventure's arrangements are brand new. The woodwind and steelpan island-themed overtones of Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass are carried over and evolved into some real bumping tunes. The overworld theme in particular is quite standout, being easily the best part of traveling the rails, which is a good thing since you'll be spending a lot of unnecessary time conducting Link's newest toy - the Spirit Train.
The gameplay in Spirit Tracks is where the game really shines. Spirit Tracks is one of those rare DS games that is controlled entirely via touch. Link is moved by simply dragging the stylus in the desired direction and interaction is as easy as tapping on the desired person, enemy, or item. The simplicity of this control scheme is very functional and never frusrtrating. The overall Legend of Zelda pattern of: enter dungeon, find item, kill boss remains intact. None of the new main dungeon items are particularly interesting but the puzzle structure and bite-sized nature of the dungeons themselves make them quite easy to like. At some points it feels like the dungeons are a bit too short and linear, particularly the first few, but with the game's shift in focus from combat to puzzles you get some deviously creative problems to solve - all done via stylus. Princess Zelda actually provides quite a bit of help in the central and recurring (but not repetitive) dungeon - the Tower of Spirits. Outside the Tower of Spirits, Princess Zelda acts much like Navi or Tatl, serving mostly to further the story. Within the Tower of Spirits, however she can possess massive suits of armor with varying abilities to help Link in progress. This almost co-op experience is one of the few refreshing new elements in this new adventure.
The only blemish on Spirit Tracks' luster is, unfortunately, the biggest new edition. Between dungeon crawls Link will ride the rails on his trusty new train. Controlling the train is initiated by simply drawing your desired route on the map and pressing go. While in transit you can adjust the speed of the train, choose which direction to go at any forks, shoo livestock off the track with your steam whistle, or blast at enemies and random boulders for treasure. The novelty of this on-rails snore-fest is quickly dissolved and getting around the map almost always feels like a chore. It's clear that the developers were looking for a way to spice up land travel within Hyrule without having a true overworld, but it ends up with the same problems that Phantom Hourglass' ocean travel had. As a side effect of the the poor train travel gameplay, almost all the side quest in Spirit Tracks are reduced to fetchings. It's not a major loss however, as almost none of the side quests are worth doing to begin with.
In the end excellent controls and fun, clever dungeon crawling are otherwise mired by boring train action and monotonous side quests - yet Spirit Tracks remains a fun game overall and is a welcome, if stale, addition to the Legend of Zelda franchise.
