The second of my purchases to be played was The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. While I had not played The Wind Waker beforehand (one of the few Zelda games I haven’t played), Phantom Hourglass did take a minute to explain what was going on and bring me up to speed in its opening sequence. (after I named my character Link, out of respect for the Zelda mythos)
So after watching the rest of the story, I dove right in.
The same cartoony style used in Wind Waker returns here. However, it doesn’t look as good as it would on a big TV, but you make do with what you’re offered. Given what it has to work with, everything still looks good
Sound-wise, all your favorite Zelda tunes are there–I heard Zelda’s Lullaby and a little blip of Outset Island in the opening sequence–but my biggest smile was reserved for the beloved Zelda theme, heard towards the end of the sequence.
Gameplay is where it gets a little clever–everything is controlled via the touch screen, which wasn’t too hard for me to learn, but it was certainly a change of pace from mashing buttons. I’m still learning what swipes do what, however. Another little quirk was the ability to mark stuff yourself–my map now has two X’es on it marking where I need to go.
I’m sure the story’s gonna get interesting once I get farther in.
SB’s score: 9/10
Happy gaming,
SparklingBlue
