Review: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)

Posted on 17. Jan, 2010 by Mark Cullinane in DS, Featured, Reviews

For a game that tried so hard to court the casual audience so enamoured with the Brain Training phenomenon, Nintendo’s last DS Zelda outing, Phantom Hourglass, managed to irritate players as much as it awed them.

Whilst the excellent Wind Waker-inspired cel-shaded art style won plaudits, its ambitious sailing mechanic won admiration and its new focus on more cerebral puzzles freshened up proceedings markedly, the game’s insistence on you repeating the central dungeon again, again and again- and with a strict time limit no less- managed to put off many a gamer from seeing through an otherwise top-quality adventure to its end.

So this reviewer was understandably concerned when Nintendo announced that their next Hyrulian adventure on the dual-screened handheld would not only follow the tracks (ahem) laid out by  its predecessor, but that it too would feature a central dungeon that would have to be conquered gradually through repeat visits.

It turns out that such concerns were unnecessary, because in Spirit Tracks, Nintendo have crafted a sequel that rights just about all the wrongs of its predecessor. Remarkably, it does so whilst remaining utterly true to the template laid down in the previous game. You see, everything in Spirit Tracks has its direct analogue in Phantom Hourglass. Structurally, it’s nearly identical, with the game sending you out on a map-collecting quest in order to gain access to the lands at each of the four cardinal compass points. Temples reside in each of these lands, and after each one is beaten, you’ll need to travel back to the Tower of Spirits, the game’s answer to the much-hated Temple of the Ocean King.

Similarly, the game’s new mode of transport, the train, is a direct transplant of the previous sailing mechanic, albeit less flexible, given the literally on-rails nature of the tracks. Using the stylus, you plot a course around the game’s world map, which, like the last game, is represented in gloriously pixellated 3D. Then you wait until you reach your destination, taking the time to pick off the occasional enemy with a tap of the stylus and a blast of the cannon.

The core gameplay, too, is impossible to distinguish from its forebear, with the same stylus controls, the same moveset, and the same engine powering the game’s- identical- 3D graphics on a 2D plane.

On paper at least, it sounds disappointingly similar. Fortunately, in the execution, if not the concept, Spirit Tracks manages to become a wholly more satisfying proposition than the last iteration.

Take the dungeons. Despite increasingly weary familiarity with the structure, each of these are tight, focused  and with plenty of smart ideas to spread around.

Most significantly of all, the central Tower of Spirits dungeon marks a substantial improvement over its predecessor, abolishing both the arcane time limit and the need to repeat portions of it again and again. In effect, this makes every return to the temple a brand new experience. It has some fresh new ideas, too: with Zelda (or at least the ethereal part of her) in tow, the ability to commandeer the dungeon’s soldiers, the Phantoms, presents the opportunity for a new approach to Zelda puzzling. Thankfully, the developers knew this too, and have devised not only a strong new character-swapping mechanic, but also a host of puzzles that take full advantage of it. Indeed, as you venture further into the bowels of the tower, these puzzles reach remarkable heights of complexity- but never unfairly so. Gamers insulted by the ease of some of the last game’s teasers will find plenty to get their teeth into here.

These very ‘traditional Zelda’ switch-based puzzles make an excellent counterpoint to the increasingly logic-oriented focus of the puzzles outside of the temples. Like the last game, riddles and cartographical puzzles abound- usually necessitating the player to scribble notes on the screen to keep track of instructions.

But what of the game’s central gambit, the trains?

Despite some initial concerns that it would feel more restricting than the sailing of previous iterations, I’m pleased to report that this new mechanic is an impeccably-designed one, and surprisingly exhilarating. In order to hold the attention of gamers through the point-to-point journeys, Nintendo have thrown a few nice ideas into the mix. Like the last game, players have access to a cannon in order to ward off the enemies that attack the train, or just to destroy rocks and other debris around the landscape. The sense of control you have over the train is impressive: you can, for example, dynamically alter your train’s course at junctions, toot your horn, and adjust the speed of the engine, all by swiping the touch-screen Even small touches, like requiring players to stop the train precisely at the platform, rather than triggering an automatic animation, are pleasing one.

Most ingeniously of all, the developers spice up proceedings nicely with the addition of enemy trains on the tracks, which move just a little faster than your own. Given that collisions result in instant death, navigating the overworld whilst simultaneously avoiding the paths of the oncoming trains requires dividing your attention carefully between the action on the lower screen and the map on the upper screen.

It all adds up to the most engaging form of transport that  Nintendo have come with before in the Zelda series, besting the horseback traversal of previous iterations as well as the sailing from Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass.

Yet, For all Spirit Tracks’ success in resolving the kinks of the previous game, and adding some smart new ideas of its own, it’s not all good news. The only real complaint that can be levelled at this title is that it remains wedded to tradition.

Storyline wise, there are no themes that could be considered even remotely original, even within the Zelda series. Once again, you play a young boy destined to save the kingdom by collecting a series of nubbins from a series of strategically placed temples, whilst fighting an ancient evil. It’s a formula that has served the series well for two decades, but isn’t it time for something new?

The well-honed rail mechanic is a joy to play with.

Clearly,  it’s not just me that is beginning to feel a little jaded. Nintendo, it seems, are so bored themselves with rehashing the same old generic forest/ice/ocean/fire themes present in Hyrule that they can’t even muster up the energy to give them distinctive names anymore- content to call them, you guessed it- Forest Land, Ice Land, Ocean Land and Fire Land.

Eleswhere, the game maddeningly sticks to established series conventions. Experienced Zelda players will know, for example, the precise order in which Link will gain the ability to use a sword, bombs, and a bow and arrow.

Dialogue with other characters remains disappointingly basic and inconsequential, with player input reduced to the occasional ’yes’ or ‘no’- in many cases, with the exact same effect.

And while I’m at it, why must we go through the help-Princess-Zelda-escape-unseen-from-Hyrule-Castle-garden routine for what seems like the umpteenth time? And why must just about every Zelda game include a musical instrument,  merely because it worked so well in Ocarina of Time?The novelty, I’m afraid, is long gone- even if this one requires you to blow into the handheld’s microphone to activate the notes.  It is evident that that Nintendo are utterly beholden to series conventions, whether they add anything significantly worthwhile to the game or not.

This game, then, is Zelda by the book. And while Nintendo can justifiably argue that they wrote the book in the first instance, if the Zelda series is going to remain at the very pinnacle of videogame design, then a revamp is sorely overdue. Just as Nintendo booted Mario into the 21st Century in style with the wonderful Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda’s time for radical progress has come.

But while the unwillingness to update key aspects of the Zelda design for the 21st century rankles more and more with every iteration of one of gaming’s most revered series, its so difficult to be overly critical when it is so far ahead of the competition on just about every score.

Aurally, for example, Spirit Tracks blows the last game out of the water (yes, I went there). Whilst Phantom Hourglass was content to have the same two or three tracks play out at every island and every dungeon, Spirit Tracks boasts of a substantially higher number of compositions that give the game’s areas a unique sound and feel. The game even boasts of a few numbers that can stand proudly with the best the series has to offer. The soaring, exhilerating music that accompanies Link as he traverses the world on his train wonderfully captures the frontier spirit so integral to the game’s atmosphere- and is a track that surely deserves a full orchestration.

Similarly, the quality of the bosses on offer deserve praise. Usually spanning dual screens, the temple guardians are bombastic, multi-stage affairs that tread the tightrope between satisfyingly challenging and just plain difficult with aplomb.

I could go on, and tell you about the mini-games, the train upgrades, and the entertaining multiplayer mode- but Zelda has always been a game best explored for oneself.

In sum, Spirit Tracks, whilst remaining rooted in Zelda tradition, is so accomplished in its vision, so stylish in its presentation, and so rip-roaringly confident in its execution, that it stands proud as one of the DS’ most accomplished and entertaining titles, and earns our unequivocal commendation.