GENRE
	Action Adventure
	DEVELOPER
	Nintendo
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	LOCAL WIRELESS MULTI-PLAY
	Yes
	Wi-Fi/GLOBAL ONLINE MULTI-PLAY
	No
	MICROPHONE
	Yes
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Games like The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks demonstrate a singular point that seems strange for long-time gamers who have seen video game console generations come and go: even at more than five years old, must-have games for all owners of the DS are still coming out. Spirit Tracks is not only an improvement upon its forebear Phantom Hourglass in story, music, world and gameplay, but it has the ingredients to make it one of the best Zelda games to have come out. Everyone has a favorite Zelda-- for many it's Ocarina of Time, for others it's the very first NES Legend of Zelda and for others it's Link to the Past. Yet even as a handheld sequel with touch-only controls, Spirit Tracks may rightly become some Zelda fans' new favorite in the franchise.

A lot of Spirit Tracks' success has to do with how much of the familiar it provides-- visit a charming themed town, go to a well-designed multi-level dungeon, discover and earn a weapon to beat the dungeon's fun, sizable boss, and repeat-- while also coloring outside the lines of the classic Zelda template. Ganon's not in this game, which is common in the handheld Zelda titles, and we have a brand new foe to take on that hasn't been in any other Zelda titles. Also missing is the Triforce-- though you'll see a lot of triangular iconography throughout the game-- or any blatant courage/wisdom/power motif. There are no great fairies nor Tingles in animated form, and you don't have to collect pieces of a heart container-- you just collect the containers wholesale, one at a time, to extend Link's life bar. Link's an actual train engineer first and foremost, not a farmer or a warrior-to-be. Link's defining green uniform is explained as something quite banal and a mere accessory to a silly side quest at the start of the game, and the tunic and cap can even be ditched (sacrilege!) for a completely different costume later in the game, provided certain conditions are met and the player wants a nontraditional Link running around on-screen.

Yet perhaps most importantly, the primary object of protection and rescue in so many Zelda games, the princess Zelda herself, has her soul ripped from her body and becomes an important playable character from the start of the game to the end. She doesn't pop up for a cheesy deus ex machina moment while fighting the game's final boss like she usually does; she's not living a weird cross-dressing or costume-party-inspired double life, she's a princess without a body and perhaps more in touch with 21st-century sass than any of the previous Princess Zeldas, thanks to some amusing localization of a great script. Spirit Tracks isn't in full Boy and His Blob or Double Dash territory, though: Zelda's only playable in the game's "hub" dungeon, the Tower of Spirits. Still, having Zelda so involved everywhere else as a guide, observer and questioner puts much more story in the gamer's hands, and that's a welcome relief since Link, unsurprisingly, remains as mute and dumb as he ever has been, seldom expressing more than a cartoony or cliched heroic reaction in predictable moments.

Bonus points: this game's story isn't a simple dream. (There have been at least two Zelda games with that plot device, and that's definitely two too many, Nintendo.) Instead, a Lucky Charms-styled politician concocts a way to resurrect a demon god who, previously, had been jailed within the aforementioned Tower of Spirits. The train tracks spidering from the tower through the world's four realms (forest, ice, volcanic and oceanic) are actually "chains" that kept the demon god stuck in the tower. Yet thanks to the evil leprechaun's (he's not really a leprechaun; this is just to make the visual clearer for you) plot to possess Zelda's body with the demon god's spirit, the train tracks have disappeared and can only be restored by conquering the local dungeons in each realm, and then conquering the corresponding set of levels within the tower. Once all four chunks of the tower are back in order (along with their realms' corresponding train tracks), Princess Zelda is optimistic she and Link can foil the leprechaun's demonic resurrection ceremony and get the princess her body back. Yes, the tower is a spot Link must return to throughout the game, but unlike Phantom Hourglass's ocean temple, the same levels are never played twice (unless you really want to) and there are many, many more floors to go through, and their challenges are much more concerned with classic Zelda game puzzle solving instead of Metal Gear-styled stealth.

The Princess Zelda gameplay angle comes from her ability to possess the phantoms that were previously invincible figures of destruction in Hourglass. When Link gets his sword juiced up with magical gems, he can whack a phantom from behind, which provides a chance for Zelda to leap into the suit of armor. Once taken over by Zelda, the phantom will follow Link around the tower's floors, and Link can also direct the phantom to walk certain paths, flip certain switches or attack certain enemies by drawing a path out on the touch screen. At first the phantom provides basic transportation safety-- blocking jets of fire or carrying Link over magma-- but when new types of phantoms with special powers (torch-lighting swords, crushing boulder rolls and cross-dungeon warping), the puzzles get to be rather tricky, particularly in the final levels which require a healthy juggling of phantom forms. Zelda-possessed phantoms also figure into some boss battles, which makes things quite tricky, sometimes due to good game design but just as likely due to the limitations of touch screen-only controls and a bad camera angle-- problems that only show up a minimum of times, but since the rest of the game's so expertly put together, they really stick out when they arise.

Spirit Tracks is a sequel to Phantom Hourglass, which was a follow-up to GameCube's Wind Waker, bringing us to the longest streak of consecutive Zelda storyline in the series' history, especially if Wind Waker is even considered a sequel to Ocarina of Time. Like Wind Waker, Spirit Tracks' story occurs a century after its prequel, though Spirit Tracks feels like more of a sequel than even Hourglass was, thanks to numerous references to the past in character dialogue and even several ancient character cameos, if not third generation descendants.

While Spirit Tracks is a sequel to at least two previous Zelda games, the world train engineer Link traverses within is basically brand new and primarily land locked, save for a quarter of it that's made up of islands. No boat travel occurs in this game; instead, trains are the main mode of transportation-- they even steam across bridges built over the ocean area. Obnoxious fan boys initially derided the train concept as infantile, whilst others whined that a train would remove some of the "adventure" previous free-range Zelda prequels have had, but both camps of complainants are wrong. Since Ocarina of Time and perhaps even Link to the Past, Zelda games have been relatively linear: a clear path or objective is always defined, and optional side quests sit on the margins of the game's tale. Sure, you could try to ride Epona somewhere off the beaten path, but often to little reward or to a territory you shouldn't be in because you don't have the strength or special weapons needed.

Spirit Tracks still provides a large world, but by keeping overworld travel on set paths, the monotony and aimlessness caused by randomly walking or sailing around in previous Zelda games is mitigated. The game designers don't want to waste your time, and that keeps this game's pacing, aside from a couple small backtracking missions near the end of the main storyline, chugging along. There are also plenty of optional quests and mini-dungeons, so if gamers really want to run around and find a far greater number of side quests than should be expected in a handheld Zelda game, they'll find them in abundance. What's more: driving a train is fun, as is expanding its capabilities and switching its cars out with differently designed cars using the game's treasure as currency.

As with Link's onscreen walking, running, sword swiping and special weapon using, train conducting is handled with the touch screen. Since the game world's train tracks become rather labyrinth-like as the game goes on, a preliminary path can be traced from point A to point B, but at any time while on the rails, the gamer can choose to go left at a T-intersection instead of the originally planned right by throwing an on-screen switch, move a lever to speed up and outpace invincible, demon-possessed trains, tap into the distance to fire a cannon at marauding pirate kidnappers and other monsters, or tug an on-screen pull to blow the engine's whistle. All the while, the rapid chugging of the engine and wheel gears keep perfect time with the game's overworld traveling music, which, with its simple acoustic guitar, banjo and pan flute, may be one of the best Zelda compositions of all time.

This being a handheld Zelda title, gamers shouldn't expect eight dungeons, but the main dungeons provided are cleverly designed and the bosses can be a greater challenge than expected given the lower difficulty Hourglass had. Perhaps more exciting are the new weapons in Spirit Tracks that are genuinely novel and fun to use, from a leaf-constructed wind blower that requires blowing into the mic, to a wand that raises pillars of sand that form bridges, block hazards and roll structures around. There's even a snake-styled whip Link earns, which is more fun to use than the usual hookshot gamers typically see and potentially, thanks to touch screen controls, one of the best implementations of a whipping gameplay mechanic used in a 3D video game world.

Even if sticking to the main checkpoints of the storyline, hours of adventure are ensured for a single player, and as aforementioned, the optional side quests increase in number and prevalence. Once near the end of the game, some gamers may be tempted to charge forward to the final boss encounter, but others will want to take time to complete more of the side quests, many of which feature fun mini-games related to Link's secondary weapons, and often reward additional heart containers to Link's life bar, if not brand new sections of train track that lead to unplotted mini-dungeons not seen or hinted on the overworld map.

Gamers interested in multiplayer fun can participate in a "collect the most gems" mode where gamers race as competing Links through one of six maps, trying to outrun phantoms and trigger traps that will cause opponents to drop their gems. This is a fun diversion added to an already meaty single player mode, but in lacking Wi-Fi Connection support and requiring local play where everyone has a copy of the game, this is a mode certain to not see much action for most gamers.

Fortunately, even if never touching the multiplayer mode, gamers will be hard pressed to say they didn't get their money's worth in Spirt Tracks. The outstanding soundtrack extends beyond the overworld travel theme into towns, dungeons, and the requisite "Link plays an instrument" (in this case, a pan flute-- much niftier than a little ocarina) segments to unlock major dungeons. The visuals are as sharp as they were in Hourglass, yet with even more texture and detail than its predecessor's. The gameplay is also polished and strong as well, continuing to prove the impossible feat of designing a game with a multitude of complex game mechanics all being distilled into stylus-based touchscreen controls. Dungeons are as creative and tricky as ever, and with more variety and challenge than Hourglass's set. Yet, getting back to the beginning, it's all the liberties this Zelda title takes with the Zelda formula-- from basic mechanics to costuming to Zelda's role and personality-- that tie the package together and make it truly a gem. As much as Majora's Mask proved an experimental, exciting and for many fans, superior upgrade to Ocarina of Time, Spirit Tracks bests Hourglass and many other Zelda titles before it. If the next Wii Zelda title will throw even more Zelda staples out the window, and Spirit Tracks represents the shape of things to come, then bring it on. In the meantime, this handheld Zelda title is not to be missed.

9.5/10