Review: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 31 March 2010 14:50

Entertainment

Link is off the rails in this classic 'Zelda' adventure.

For this outing in the Zelda universe Link must restore the mystical spirit tracks that bind Malladus, the Demon King, imprisoned underground.  Apparently it will be a bad thing if he gets loose.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
	Developer	Nintendo
	Publisher	Nintendo
	Rating	G
NDS

But this may happen; the Tower of Spirits has been disrupted by a band of evil doers, and now the binding spirit tracks have disappeared.  Not only that, but the good Princess Zelda has been transformed into a shadow of her former self, a spirit in fact.

A young Link (or descendent there-of) must learn how to wield weapons, play the spirit flute, navigate the kingdom and restore the four regions' train tracks while capturing bunnies and winning postal lotteries along the way.

Game play is split into several distinct facets, with the on foot sections being the most recognisable for Zelda fans.  Using the stylus to guide Link around town, countryside or dungeon is pretty straight forward, which is lucky for early on in your adventure you will be tasked with many other onscreen actions.

Controlling multiple onscreen characters is required for many of Spirit Tracks excellent puzzle moments.  Drawing a path for one character to take and then switching back to the other to move in parallel is an interesting and effective puzzle mechanism that gets employed many times throughout the kingdom of Hyrule.

Later in the game, the Princess Zelda's spirit can inhabit the hulking bodies of Phantoms (the enemy Knights from the earlier Phantom Hourglass) to get Link past some tricky situations.

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