The game is actually set about a hundred years after the events of Phantom Hourglass, but the only way you’d really be able to tell is by the elderly Niko, the pirate from Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass. As the game opens, Link has set off to Hyrule Castle to receive his engineering license. There he learns of the Spirit Tracks, a set of railroad tracks that keep the demon king imprisoned in the Tower of Spirits.  Eerily, these tracks are disappearing from the world, so the pair set off to the Tower of Spirits to restore them. Along the way, Princess Zelda is separated from her body. In this state she helps link as a Navi-like assistant, though she can also control various phantoms Link will encounter

Like Phantom Hourglass, the game’s biggest accomplishment is the stylus control, but that is also its single biggest flaw.  When the stylus inputs work, they are great, and this is true for about 90% of the gameplay.  Where things start to fall apart is boss battles.  The controls are imprecise to the point of being game breaking, as stylus commands can easily be mistaken for one another, and the addition of Phantom Zelda only adds to the confusion. The maneuver to pick up a bomb is pretty much the same one to stab it, making it explode right there.  This is annoying, and it will happen more times than you care for.  While this is manageable most of the time, boss fights often require exact and careful movements, which the controls make extremely difficult.  It simply is not acceptable that when you want to stab a boss, Link blunders into the intended target.  Controlling Phantom Zelda has similar problems, as sometimes instead of moving her, you’ll just walk to where she’s standing.  And then you get hurt.  And then you probably start swearing.  It’s so bad that the last boss battle is more about being lucky than any actual skill.  All of this could have been avoided by building the game around the directional pad with stylus input for items, a control scheme that would put less emphasis on stylus movements and more on overall gameplay.

There is one surprising aspect to Spirit Tracks that practically salvages the game.  Though Zelda games are known for their lore, individual games are usually somewhat weak on story.  Using the graphical style of Wind Waker, Spirit Tracks tells volumes of story without a single word by relying on facial expressions and body movements to great effect.  Princess Zelda is an early standout, conveying her thoughts easily even in Phantom form. You wouldn’t think that the gigantic lumbering Phantoms from Phantom Hourglass could be so feminine, but through their movements, every action flawlessly tells the story that the creators were going for.  Of course, there is plenty of plot in the form of text boxes, but it pales in comparison.

Graphically, Spirit Tracks gives players the experience they have come to expect.  The game is gorgeous.  Dungeons are detailed, and the overworld is pretty.  Everywhere you look, there are bright, colorful graphics, and the game pushes the limits of what the DS can do for sure.  This is, by far, one of the best looking games on the handheld to date.

Spirit Tracks also scores high marks for its music, but unfortunately, there are few new songs except for the overworld theme.  Since you’ll spend most of the game on your train, the bulk of what you’ll actually listen to still manages to be fresh and catchy.  It would have been nice for more new tunes, but it still does pretty well. The game also does moderately well with its sound effects, but it’s nothing new.  Fans of the series will recognize pretty much all of the sound effects from past games, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Sadly, that’s where most of the praise for Spirit Tracks ends.  Many people lamented the boat of Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, but the train of Spirit Tracks is far worse.  It has only two speeds going forward: slow and slower.  It is an absolute chore getting anywhere in the game because it takes so long to get anywhere.  Warp points are accessible later on that do cut down on travel time, but they don’t shorten things by enough and end up being too little too late.  And unlike a boat that can go pretty much anywhere, trains are limited to tracks.  You can only go where the tracks go, so there is no such thing as a shortcut.  To make matters worse, there are enemy trains on the same tracks, and if you hit them, you die.  Players must be careful to avoid them, sometimes changing course to avoid certain death.  This nearly always results in a longer path.

Another major flaw is that this game seems very much like Phantom Hourglass all over.  Once again, the world is broken into four quadrants that you gain access to in turn, and each has a dungeon.  After you finish each one, you’re off the Ocean King Temple…. err… Tower of Spirits.  Fortunately, each trip to the Tower of Spirits features new floors that can be accessed without going through the previous ones, but it’s still somewhat annoying.  The game feels like a second quest through the previous title, not a new game that stands on its own.  Everything feels reused, including some of the monsters.

Phantom Hourglass was a very short game, but Spirit Tracks is even shorter.  Not counting the Tower of Spirits, there are only five proper dungeons to explore, and a fan of the series could probably guess four of them.  There are also fewer items to use.  In all, Link gets six sub weapons to his disposal, and three of them are bombs, a boomerang, and the bow and arrow.  This does mean that there are three new items, and this is a welcome change.  Despite the new tools, two of them feel similar to previous items from other Zelda games, so only one is truly original.

One final problem is the overuse of the Spirit flute. Zelda games apparently simply must have a musical instrument of some sort, so this game is no exception.  The problem is that you play the flute by actually blowing into the microphone on the DS.  That wouldn’t really cause too much trouble, except with harder songs, the DS tends to not recognize that you’ve stopped blowing to skip to a different note.  Shorter songs are almost as bad since they are a measly two consecutive notes long.  Much like the game as a whole, it feels like a good idea that was very badly implemented.  Worse, the microphone can pick up background noise when played on the go, such as on an airplane, and the DS will interpret this as constant input whether you are actually blowing into it or not, rendering any of the flute segments that do not have consecutive notes unplayable. One wrong note, like the one in between the ones you’re going for, and the song is ruined.  At least there is no penalty for retrying missed songs.

As mentioned before, Spirit Tracks is pretty short.  The game lacks a timer, but you could probably finish it in no more than 10-20 hours.  There are some mini-games that could lengthen your playtime, but they primarily involve the train, so some will probably not take the time to do them. Aside from a few tricky puzzles, the game is pretty easy on the whole.  The only difficulty comes from using the stylus to attack.  Figuring out how to deal with bosses isn’t challenging by itself, though getting Link to do what you need via the stylus is another story.

In the end, Spirit Tracks feels nearly exactly like its predecessor.  If you really liked Phantom Hourglass, you will like its landlocked clone.  If you were not a fan of Link’s last DS excursion, just save yourself the trouble and skip this one.  This one is only for the more diehard fans.

Tales of Graces
Source: Dengeki

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Dragon Quest IX
Source: Famitsu

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Final Fantasy XIII
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The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Hexys Force
Source: Dengeki

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Dragon Quest IX
Source: Famitsu

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Final Fantasy XIII
Source: Game Watch

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The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Source: Game Watch

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Mass Effect 2

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

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Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment

Before going into the specifics of the demo, it should be noted that the game uses the same control scheme as Phantom Hourglass. If you’ve played that, you’ll feel right at home in Spirit Tracks. If not, you’ve got some learning to do. Link is completely controlled with the stylus. You drag it to move him, and you tap on enemies to strike.

I started things off with the dungeon. It begins with Link and a phantom, similar to the ones seen in Phantom Hourglass. By using the stylus, Link could draw a path for the phantom to move and interact with enemies and switches. Aside from being useful in taking out some monsters, the phantom was also instrumental in puzzles due to his resistance to fire. In one case, the phantom blocked pillars of fire for you, and in others, he carried you through pits by acting as a controllable platform.

Halfway through, Link picks up the Gale Boomerang, and it allows him to push keys over pits and through fire. Most of its use, and the problems with it, shows up in the next demo, the boss fight.

Of the three demos, the boss fight is by far the easiest. You square off against a bug that produces some kind of foul mist from its rear end. The strategy is not hard to discern; smack its rump. Not surprisingly, this isn’t enough to finish the fight. Soon the bug takes flight, begins spitting exploding pill bug monsters, and periodically dive bombs Link. If hit once, these new foes curl into bombs, but if you hit them twice, they explode. The answer is equally obvious as the previous round; use the boomerang to lift up the bombs when the bug dives in on the player. In practice, this sounds easy, but since you have to use the stylus, it’s harder than it should be. The boomerang shoots out in a straight line in front of Link, and from what I could tell, you can’t simply rotate Link. You have to face the right direction and then select the boomerang, a task that would be infinitely easier with more traditional controls.

The final demo showed off the train, and for all intents and purposes, it handles a lot like Link’s boat in Phantom Hourglass, except the track is set and you can change your speed or even go in reverse. Bombs can be fired by tapping on the screen, and Link can sound the whistle by pulling a chain. For the most part, the whistle had little use, but it did scare off friendly animals without having to blow them to smithereens.

The path has several switches, and the player has to navigate the track. This is very easy, but the later sections of the track had some other trains. You have to be careful which way you went; if you hit another train head on, you die. Though it sounds kind of complicated, it was very easy to maneuver around all of the other trains without having to slow down or go in reverse.

When you get to the end of the path, Link runs into a big stone Gohma looking monster, and you have to shoot it in the eye with bombs. This was actually kind of hard; as the fight went along, the boss got faster and harder to hit. Fortunately, I managed to kill the boss just before it was about to claim my last heart.

All in all, this is more of the same action we saw in Phantom Hourglass. If you liked that game, you’re going to find a lot to like here. If it wasn’t your cup of tea the first time, you’re probably not going to be won over by the new additions.

Of three possible scenarios — dungeon, boss, and train — I chose the dungeon. Gameplay seems to be exactly like it was in Phantom Hourglass; everything is operated by the stylus. I had to guide a knight-like Phantom through the dungeon and work with him to solve puzzles involving fire and switches. Controlling Link with only the stylus was pretty awkward at first, but it became easier after a couple of minutes.

If Spirit Tracks is indeed a clone of Phantom Hourglass with different dungeons and whatnot, I’m not particularly excited. However, this does mean that Phantom Hourglass fans will be pretty excited. The real disappointment was that the demo was ridiculously short. There weren’t very many stations, and while the booth staff kept players cycling through quickly, three minutes in one scenario is not enough for a thorough impression.

While navigating the game’s titular train, Link will have to choose which track to use in order to manage his speed and avoid obstacles. Players will also have to use a whistle to scare animals off the tracks, and a cannon to defeat monsters trying to derail Link’s train. While in dungeons, Link will be joined by a giant suit of armor called the Phantom, which can be directed with the stylus to help Link solve puzzles and defeat enemies.

Source: IGN