The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass is the first Nintendo DS Zelda title, and while there are some kinks that need to be worked out for the next one, this is still an impressive outing. The game capitalizes on the system's hardware capabilities, both in terms of its visuals and its use of the touchscreen, and the gameplay, while flawed in parts, still captures the essence of the classic adventure-based action from the other "Zelda" titles.

"Phantom Hourglass" adopts the same brightly colored, cartoonish style that is featured in "The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker"—the former is, after all, a direct sequel of the latter—and I find it impressive that a DS game can so closely emulate the graphics of a Gamecube title. Granted, the game is mostly played from a top-down perspective (with a slight angle), relieving the system of doing the heavier work of drawing sprawling 3-D landscapes that stretch out in front of Link. Nevertheless, the game looks great, with impressive 3-D models; one that stands out as particularly well done is the ship you use to sail around the ocean.

The game's touch controls are well implemented, mostly going beyond what many other DS games suffer from: basic tapping to perform tasks that could just has easily have been done with the push of a button. That's not to say that there aren't some unnecessary uses for the touch screen; the idea of moving Link by essentially dragging him along with the stylus (while on the screen he is led by his fairy guardian named Cielia) works well but could have just as easily been handled with a d-pad. Likewise, there are some puzzles that are intentionally designed to be lengthy, requiring you to take notes in your journal by scribbling on the touch screen in order to remember all the steps necessary to complete them. They tout this note-taking as a "feature," but it's really more of a nuisance than anything.

For the most part, however, the controls are a unique way to handle many of the game's actions, my favorite being swordplay. Different gestures or taps on the screen perform a series of different moves; for example, drawing a circle around Link causes him to perform a spinning attack with his sword that hits and knocks back any enemy in the general vicinity. These kinds of actions on the touch screen aren't difficult to perform—if anything, they become something of a second nature—but they're still a noticeably creative and interactive way to execute many of Link's actions.

That being said, there are also gimmicky aspects of the game that take advantage of some of the other DS capabilities besides the touch screen that aren't necessary at all but are still pretty neat to see. One of my favorite is when Link comes across a complex symbol that he thinks is important enough to be copied onto his notepad. How can you copy such an intricate design perfectly into your notes? By making an imprint, of course! You actually close the screen of the DS and when you open it again, a print of the symbol is in your book and again, while it was just a little gimmick, I thought it was incredibly creative.

The gameplay in "Phantom Hourglass" is similar to that found in any other "Zelda" game; a satisfying balance of platform and action, with a puzzle thrown in here and there that needs to be completed to open a door or something of the like. You acquire and use all of the classic weapons and tools from the "Zelda" games, including your sword and shield, bombs, a boomerang, and a grappling hook. It's simple, but it's fun and that's what has worked for the series for years, so I didn't expect too much of a deviation here, even if it is mostly the same stuff that I've seen before, with the occasional DS twist (e.g. drawing the path you want your boomerang to take with the touch screen).

The game doesn't always keep you engaged, however, with excitement tending to come in spurts, which is typically a result of the constant need to travel places by boat, which gets boring fast. Navigating by plotting a path on the touch screen is a nice touch, but once you tell it where to go, it just operates on auto-pilot and it's just a matter of waiting to arrive at your destination. Yes, there are some enemies and pitfalls that you can run into on the water, but for the most part, they're more of a nuisance than a challenge, especially when you get further along in the game and your boat can sustain and dish out more damage. There is some reprieve from this monotony in that you can find a few golden frogs scattered about the ocean that will teach you a pattern you can draw that allows you to warp to their location at will. Still, this doesn't allow you to immediately arrive at any of the various destinations that you must travel to—it only gets you closer—so you're still subject to sitting around while your boat chugs along your designated path, and that is just straight-up dull.

Another element that disrupts the momentum of the game is that you traverse and/or backtrack over much of the same ground, since there is one central location, the Temple of the Ocean King, which you continue to revisit throughout the game. The way the game plays works is that you possess an item known as the Phantom Hourglass, which holds only a certain amount of sand (time), and should you run out of sand while in the Temple, you begin to gradually lose health. So, you can only travel as deep as you can into the Temple before running out of time or hitting an impassable barrier, at which point you acquire new information that allows you to travel to a new island. In turn, you travel to said island, complete a quest, and acquire more sand for your Hourglass, ultimately allowing you to traverse further into the Temple. Unfortunately, this format results in covering much of the same ground repeatedly as you go back and forth through the dungeon to get what you need in order to progress.

Granted, there are a few teleports that open up between the start of the dungeon and a particular floor as you get deeper, which helps expedite the process when you are trying to return to the deepest location you have unlocked in the Temple, but you still have to go through many of the same areas and face the same enemies over the course of the game.

The game is a decent length—you can get through the story in about 15 or 16 hours without stopping to explore or get sucked into some of the addicting mini-games—but it could have been longer if the game was more of a challenge. I never really found myself particularly stumped by any of the puzzles or challenged by any of the enemies. The only parts of the game that ever called for more than one try on my part were the stealth/platform sections when I had to sneak around the Phantom Guardians (which you cannot attack or harm) in the Temple. Beyond this, I was basically able to blast through the game without any formidable obstacles, making it for a shorter experience than it could have been, had it been more fleshed out with the element of higher difficulty.

I would like to commend the developers, however, for extending the playability of the game by introducing a competitive online multiplayer mode, which, up until this point, was unprecedented for the "Zelda" series. It's a brave and somewhat unorthodox idea—one that is sure to upset many a fan—but it's surprisingly fun and well-presented. Players take turns over a series of rounds alternating between playing as Link and playing as a Phantom Guardian. The goal when playing as Link is to collect as many gold triangles as possible—which are scattered around the map—and return all of them to a designated area. Bigger triangles are worth more points, but they're also heavier and cause Link to walk slower, putting him at greater risk of being caught by the player who is playing as the Phantom Guardian. There are also spots on the map that Link can step into that allow him to turn invisible—so long as he remains in said area—making him more difficult to track and catch. Once all the triangles are collected or Link is caught, the round is over, and whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins. The gameplay and the fact that there is also a ranking system involved (with players earning or losing points on their record for wins and losses) suggests that this mode was developed with a substantial amount of care and was not simply tacked on.

Part of what makes "The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass" such a success is that it's a huge package for a handheld game. There's a lengthy story with plenty of extra side content to be found here, with impressive visuals and an entertaining multiplayer mode to boot. It's not perfect by any means, but for a portable "Zelda" title, it does a pretty good job of keeping players entertained.

Score: 8.3/10