Home Games The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Zelda: PH

Action Adventure
Releases: 10.01.07
Nintendo
Nintendo
ESRB: Everyone

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Link circa Wind Waker returns with some new stylus love.

by Sarah Schutz

The arrival of a classic game series on a new console strikes fear and trepidation into the hearts of many. Loyal fans don’t always take drastic change so well. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on the GameCube took some risks and released to mixed reception, so when it was announced that the new DS Zelda game would take off where Wind Waker left off, many Zelda aficionados were a bit nervous, myself included. Could we take many more hours of sailing aimlessly? Could we take any more of the nearly too cute and cartoony take on our precious Link? I am pleased to say that any sailing involved is given better navigation and the newest installment of the Zelda series makes effective and satisfying use of the stylus and DS capabilities. And while Link is adorable in his Wind Waker-esque glory, the game’s challenging puzzles promise that while the game is not necessarily a wolf in sheep’s clothing, it does have a bit of a bite.

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass shares the same overall style as Wind Waker, but with a fresh new DS twist. Tetra returns, only to be taken away by a Ghost Ship, so Link and a few fresh faces follow in hot pursuit. While the Phantom Hourglass shares some Zelda archetypes like hidden islands, sunken treasure and dungeons chock-full of puzzles, the DS’ stylus allows for some new puzzle trickery. Rather than scratching notes on the closest scratch of paper, Phantom Hourglass uses the DS stylus capabilities to allow you to write notes on your maps to help you solve puzzles and remember the location of hidden treasures. While this is a handy-dandy addition, they’ve stepped up the difficulty of the puzzles to make up the difference. The Phantom Hourglass itself is the game’s central effort to up the anty on the dungeon difficulty. Dungeons are now basically timed, with the hourglass ensuring your safety until the time runs out. While it’s an interesting twist on a classic, it all starts becoming very repetitive along the way. The stylus and the inevitable minigames that it brings are an entertaining divergence from the traditional Zelda path, but that alone can’t carry a game.

The Phantom Hourglass does, however, also introduce a new multiplayer feature that serves up a few solid hours of amusement. Battle with friends to take turns navigating monsters and collecting triforce pieces. And do so while wondering how it is that the Nintendo DS has better online capabilities than the Wii. Regardless, hardcore Zelda fans and more casual gamers alike should give Phantom Hourglass a shot. The stylus makes for a fun new take on the series and provides obsessive-compulsive perfectionist gamers like myself newfound note-taking capabilities. And really, if you’re a gamer or DS owner, it’s the first Zelda game on a new platform. Can you really avoid it? And honestly, would you want to?

Intuitive stylus gameplay puts a new twist on a classic

Dungeon gameplay gets a bit too repetitive.

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