The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks | |
---|---|
Platforms | Nintendo DS |
Genre | Low speed railroad adventure |
Score | 7 |
Buy from Amazon |
This is a first for us, but this is our second full review of The Legend
of Zelda: Spirit Tracks on the First Hour. Paul first reviewed the game in
early February and praised it for its stellar action and improved
controls over Phantom Hourglass. He did note
some
issues with the train in the game, and while most of my opinions will
echo his, I would like to get my thoughts down before I move on to other
games.
This is Nintendo's second attempt at going for an
entirely stylus-driven Zelda experience. I'm actually still a bit
shocked that this works. It's not perfect, but it is definitely not
substantially worse than playing a console Zelda game, and in some ways
works better than the old 2D games. Paul said he noticed improvements
in the control, but either it's been so long since I played Phantom
Hourglass that I didn't notice, or... they didn't make any
improvements. I'm guessing the former as I was rarely frustrated with
the game control-wise.
Just like to quickly mention how awesome
it is that we got two Legend of Zelda games on the Nintendo DS,
especially considering it was nearly three years after the system
debuted that Phantom Hourglass finally landed. It'd be great to see a
third, but I imagine Nintendo will be refocusing their efforts on the
DSi or 3DS at this point. Hey, you can always hire Capcom to make more
portable iterations.
We also have a first hour review of Spirit Tracks if you'd like to see how it begins.
What I loved: The DS and Wii have
really let Nintendo's creative side shine the last few years, and I
think they've particularly done an excellent job delivering high quality
releases on the DS. Spirit Tracks once again shows that there are some
real geniuses locked up inside of Nintendo headquarters and somehow
they keep thinking up new items, weapons, locations, dungeons, enemies,
bosses, and instruments for Zelda games.
Pretty much ever since Ocarina of Time, music has been a
focus of Zelda games, Spirit Tracks introduces the Spirit Flute, which
takes advantage of the DS's microphone and some dexterous stylus
controls. Just blow into the mic to start playing notes and move the
flute around with the stylus to blow into different reeds. It actually
felt like I was kinda sorta playing a real instrument. Very cool!
There are some neat duets to perform, and while the game never
really throws anything too difficult at you, it's still challenging
enough to feel fun.
Boss fights are the hallmark of Zelda games,
and Spirit Tracks delivers. Many of the bosses feature multiple phases
and all of them require you to utilize the latest item you picked up to
its fullest extent. I had a ton of fun with most of them even though
they were still pretty challenging. Plus we get a truly epic boss fight
at the end of the game, there are no less than three stages of the
fight, and thankfully, the game saves in between battles. I was
actually feeling a bit down on the game until the final boss sequences.
Another
Zelda staple are the weapons and items, and while it's a mixed bag of
originality, they were still fun to use. The boomerang is back with
some added features of being able to spread around fire or ice, this of
course, is the heart of a few puzzles and is a pretty fun tactic to
employ. The whip and... pinwheel I guess, are new, and while the whip
is an excellent addition, the pinwheel is just sort of gimmicky (driven
by you blowing into the mic). While the game probably would have been
worse off without it due to some of the cool puzzles built around it, I
feel it needed some other neat feature to make it more useful. But
yeah, the whip is great, the idea swinging around like Indiana Jones
actually made this game a must-play for Paul.
Can't forget ghost
Zelda: creepy, yet delightfully unrefined.
What I liked:
The controls are still all based on the stylus (you can still use the L
and R buttons to help with wielding weapons) and it still works. There
were still times where Link would dash off a cliff or not perform a spin
attack when his life depended on it, but Spirit Tracks' difficulty is
not so off the chart hard that it really matters a ton. I really hope
that with the 3DS they can tighten up the stylus controls a ton.
One
of the biggest complaints I and a lot of other people had about Phantom
Hourglass was the temple you had to return to over and over again, well
Spirit Tracks more or less dumps this. You still have to do the whole
sneaking around stuff in a central tower, but this time you can skip the
floors you already completed. I'm not really sure how I feel about all
this, the puzzles varied between genius and obnoxious, and half the
time it felt like I was just getting really lucky with some of the more
action-based puzzles. The addition of your companion deepened a lot of
the gameplay, and if anything, this sequence was executed better this
time around.
All in all, the game's puzzles are pretty fun,
though a lot feel rehashed from Phantom Hourglass.
What I
didn't like: Controversy ahead! I didn't like the train!
Had
to get that out there. The train is your only way of transportation
between dungeons, towns, and other random plots of land, and it just
didn't do it for me. I loved the sailing in Wind Waker and Phantom
Hourglass, and riding a train just seems like a giant step backward.
When sailing, you had infinite freedom to go anywhere, explore islands
from every angle, or even just chill out and drop anchor. In Spirit
Tracks though, and pardon the gigantic, intentional pun, but being on
rails sucks. Where's the freedom? You just draw what tracks you want
to take and the game does it. There's no challenge except to fend off
bad guys or dodge the really obnoxious devil trains that are just
looping around.
Pretty much all you do on a train ride is shoot
your cannon at some crap to collect rupees and listen for the music to
warn you when there's going to be a short encounter against some
baddies. When the bad guys arrive, shoot at them a bunch and hope you
don't run out of train hearts. The worst of the enemies are the
snowmen, which pop out of the snow and throw their heads at you. These
guys did quite a few numbers on me, and combined with the slow speed of
the train, most rides were agonizing.
I also felt like I needed a
wider-angled camera or something as I was always panning it around left
and right looking for stuff. I'm guessing we'll never return to the
tracks again for a Zelda game, and I honestly wouldn't mind. What
happened to the days of A Link to the Past where you just hoofed it
around the overworld and when you finally got far enough in the game you
could teleport exactly where you needed to go?
The game's excuse
for side quests are just fetch and deliver quests using the train. I
like to do the side stuff to get away from the game's normal grind, not
do it even more. The game tells you to deliver some ice half-way across
the world before it melts, but oh yeah, make sure you go slow around
curves and pull your train whistle at the right times or your passenger
will get upset! Lame.
Spirit Tracks' graphics are also really
disappointing. It was really obvious while riding on the train that
most parts of the scenery were just flat objects propped up in a 3D
world. The rest of the game looked fine when running around and
fighting, but for some reason things just fell apart while on the
train. I honestly feel this was another step back from Phantom
Hourglass. Mind blowing, I know.
My final point: Please Nintendo,
the bow and arrow is incredibly overdone in Zelda games. Drop it
already! Also stop making the light arrows the ultimate weapon. How
does the Triforce essentially get dropped from the series but yet light
arrows are still hanging around way past their due?
Scores
Gameplay: 8
You can still do all the cool stuff like write on the maps to take
notes and the Spirit Flute is good fun, and somehow the stylus-driven
gameplay still works well enough. Ignoring the train ride sequences,
this game is a beautiful specimen of excellent control.
Fun
Factor: 6
Whip-swinging action and great boss fights are offset
by the train riding. I actually got so sick of it that I stopped
playing the game for two months, and when I finally returned I just went
ahead and beat the game without riding the train anymore. I will admit
I actually enjoyed doing the side quests for about an hour, until I
realized there were no decent rewards for doing them. Once I got my
sweet engineer's outfit for Link back, I stopped.
Graphics and
Sound: 7
I feel like this is another step back for the series on
the DS, as I believe the game actually looks worse than Phantom
Hourglass while traveling. If not worse, then definitely not an
improvement. Musically, Nintendo comes through again with some great
tracks.
Story: 6
Nintendo actually got a little ballsy
and let Zelda out of the cage to do something. But the final boss is
still kind of a disappointment story-wise, though at least they're not
pulling a Zant.
Overall: 7
A bit of a disappointment in
my book, but overall, Spirit Tracks is still a good game. While riding
the train could grow tedious, everything else was classic Zelda and very
fun. The game takes advantage of every aspect of the Nintendo DS and
it shows. While I can't argue that this is a must-play game, if you've
got the time, you might as well give it a shot.