Rated “E10+” For “Everyone 10+”
The follow-up to 2007’s legendary handheld boat ride is now on train tracks. Link finds himself on another adventure around the cell-shaded world before him in Spirit Tracks.
=====Story=====
Link is about to get his license in driving trains. To receive his engineer certificate, he must go see the princess of the land, Zelda. After the induction of the new engineer, Zelda whispers to meet with Link later. She reveals to him that she feels something is not right and fears for the worse. That all comes to when Chancellor Cole reveals his plot to steal the Spirit Tracks and revive the demon king. In order to do that, he steals Zelda’s body. Zelda’s spirit remains intact and she and Link set out to restore the Spirit Tracks and reclaim the young princesses’ body in the process.
=====Gameplay=====
Spirit Tracks is pretty much a copy/paste of Phantom Hourglass in terms of controls. You use your stylus for everything; fighting, lifting, talking, choosing, map plotting, and more. The tools have been polished off a bit to feel better, but not any different than Phantom Hourglass.
Spirit Tracks deletes and replaces the boat used for travel with a train. They do handle similarly with the exception of the train being confined to the visible train tracks. If there are no tracks, you can’t travel there. While it may be restrictive compared to sailing the open seas, it does cut down on possible worthless traveling and keeps you on track (pun intended). Although traveling by train can feel boring after a while just like Link’s previous boat ride. You may find it annoying rather that relaxing to travel due to the fact that you must keep your train running and not stopped by enemies on the field. Add to the fact that demon trains can end your adventure in one head-on collision, you may be wishing that Epona was still around for you to ride on instead.
One component of gameplay that gets a shine this time around is the use of the built-in DS microphone. The Spirit Flute will be used throughout your adventure to progress the story. While some use of it will just be to reveal secrets or call birds closer, the main use will be when playing the tunes of the Lokomos who are helping you restore the Spirit Tracks. These songs reveal more tracks on your map and point to where you need to quest through next. Some songs (Lokomo related or not) may be simple, but a few might have you running out of breath with multiple practice sessions to get the tune and timing down correctly.
=====Difficulty=====
Other than remembering to breathe while playing your Spirit Flute and instant death train collisions, Spirit Tracks still has more to prevent you from completing your quest. Like any normal Zelda adventure, you have dungeons to explore and items to gain in order to continue forward. But who ever said that those were always a breeze? Dungeons are a must, item finding is a must, and puzzle solving is a definite must.
As the dungeons increase in length, the puzzles will cause you to scratch your head (or check online FAQs) to figure out what you’re supposed to do. These are more apparent in the central dungeon of the Temple of Spirits. While the timer in Phantom Hourglass’ central dungeon is gone, it doesn’t mean it’s any easier. That’s the developers throwing you a bone because you may spend a few too many minutes trying to figure these out.
These difficult dungeons are where Zelda will prove her worth to you as she can inhabit the empty shells of phantoms and use their individual powers to help light the way, crush blocks, teleport, or carry Link to hard to reach areas. You can simply have Zelda follow you around, but you will have to separate for one or the other to help the other of the other get from one point to another. Controlling Zelda is as simple as driving a train or sailing a boat. Plot out her course and she’ll go with any walls, sand traps, and the occasional mouse stopping her progression.
=====Content=====
Just like any other Zelda game, there is plenty to do. Aside from the main quest eating up anywhere from 10-20 hours of your time, sidequests are always abound. You can catch wild rabbits. You can transport people from city to city onboard your train. You can ride the rails and find hidden portals to make travel easier. You can participate in contests. You can find stamp stations. All of these and more will inevitably get you what you want; more Heart Containers. That’s more hours than you can fit in an hourglass.
You may also choose to get more parts for your train, but that’s optional. Using the normal default train is all that’s needed. If you’re into customizing, then you’ll want to spruce up your train.
While you do have trademark items of the series such as bombs and the boomerang, new items such as the whip and sand wand are great inclusions. While most Zelda games make you use the new item for a selected amount of time to accomplish immediate tasks, Spirit Tracks makes sure you use them a lot before you should even think about putting them away.
=====Final Thoughts=====
Spirit Tracks is yet another great adventure for Link. Characters from previous titles starring Toon Link reappear (Anouki, Gorons, Linebeck, etc) as well as the inclusion of new ones (Lokomos) add to this growing series of Zelda adventures. With the inclusion of Zelda being playable along with you for the first time, this will be one of the more challenging and rewarding quests for long time Zelda fans. The story is familiar and may be a bit predictable, but the lighthearted humor thrown into this series is a nice touch in for those not always wanting Link and Zelda to grow up and be serious.
Rated 5 out of 5
IGN Review
X-Play Review
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