Before Twilight Princess there was The Wind Waker, a charming GameCube adventure that was considered a masterpiece by some and a disappointment by others. A big factor in the factioning of opinions was the graphics style of the two games, with Wind Waker using a cel-shaded look reminiscent of animated Disney films. Phantom Hourglass is a sequel to the Wind Waker, so for this adventure the cel-shaded art style has been retained. This time there’s no use arguing which style is better as the DS is not capable of realistic 3D graphics a la Twilight Princess.

The game play itself has been overhauled, making this quite a bit faster paced than the Wind Waker, and less exploration heavy. Zelda on a handheld is a conundrum – where the console games are among the most epic you’ll play, that style doesn’t suit the nature of handheld gaming, so this is not your huge voyage into the great unknown to save Hyrule from impending doom, but rather an adventure of not-quite-so-epic proportions to save a friend that fell into the arms of a ghost ship. It works well, and what it loses in grandeur it makes up for in accessibility and freshness.

Controlling the Unnamed Boy

Once Link (or Bob, should you choose to name him this, and I will do just that since Nintendo does not insist on calling him Link), is washed up on the shore after his travel companion Tetra falls into the Ghost Ship’s otherwordly hands, the first thing you’ll notice is the control interface. Being on the DS, the developers thought to eschew any traditional method of control and use the touch screen exclusively. It works a charm, for the most part. Running simply requires holding the stylus on the point you want to run to, similar to Animal Crossing, while sword-fighting has you tapping on enemies to stab and flicking the stylus to swing. Of course, Bob can do his trademark spin-attack, and in a stroke of intuitive genius Nintendo require you to make a circle movement with the stylus to initiate it.

My ‘for the most part’ qualifier is there because there are times when Bob just does things I don’t want him to do. Sometimes I want him to swing his sword and he decides he’d rather just walk towards where I tapped, and getting him to roll into trees to shake out the Rupees that are in them (obviously, what else are trees for?) is really quite difficult as it involves little circle motions being made while you’re still trying to direct him in the right direction. But, I am more than happy to admit that the controls have given a breath of new life to the game – using items like the boomerang (oh the spoiler!) is so easy because you can simply draw the path you want it to follow.

The Legend of Zelda, the Unfeatured One

The story is typical Zelda fare, except this time no mention of Zelda is made other than the opening cut-scene which retells the events of The Wind Waker. Those still wishing to be surprised at events in The Wind Waker should try to have someone else sit through the introduction for them (although, you’ll miss the beautiful cardboard cut-out art). I have not played a Zelda game where Zelda has featured so little, and that’s saying something. I wonder if the next one will even have Zelda in it, and then how will Nintendo explain the title? Some other staples of recent Zelda games are gone too, like finding the map and the compass in dungeons. In fact, traditional dungeons are far less important in Phantom Hourglass – they’re on the whole quite short (but still have some very memorable bosses) and much more time is spent sailing around and exploring the overworld, and in the game’s centrepiece, the Temple of Time.

The Temple of Time and Again

Your overall enjoyment of Phantom Hourglass will be closely tied to how much you enjoy the Temple of Time as it is a dungeon that is revisited many times in the game. Each time the goal is to get deeper in the dungeon within a time limit (being the amount of time the sand takes to fall through the titular Phantom Hourglass) in order obtain an ocean map that will allow you to travel to new islands. This dungeon also has stealth elements which, coupled with the time limit, can be a little on the stressful side. The stealth mechanics are of the puzzle variety, where figuring out the optimal route or how to proceed is the most important thing, not twitch skills. Execution of your plan is never really a problem due to the highly intuitive controls but also due to good dungeon design that doesn’t rely on accuracy and fast reflexes. There are many areas which also stop the clock when you stand in them, giving you time to breathe and get your next move ready.

Each time you enter the temple to grab a new map you have to repeat the earlier levels again before getting deeper which can be a touch tedious, although I did enjoy trying to improve my times. New items that you acquire along the way do open up shortcuts, so you’re not exactly repeating the same steps every time. The single cleverest feature of the game is the ability to draw on your maps, making notes or circling things of importance (like those strange posts you see all around the place – I bet some item will allow you to do something with those!). The Temple of Time needs this, as it helps to make notes of paths to follow and the order of switches or even paths of guards.

Bob of the Vast Ocean

The adventuring part of the Wind Waker, where you spent time just exploring the vast oceans, is greatly reduced in Phantom Hourglass. There are still islands to be discovered and treasures to be dredged (and huge fish to be caught), so you can spend time just wafting around on the sea if you want to, but you’re offered much more direction than in the Wind Waker, and you seem to get places quicker. Those who find Zelda games a little overwhelming will enjoy this one more, and those who like to be free to discover will probably miss the scale found in the console games a little.

Most players will be happy that sailing does not consume nearly as much play-time as in the Wind Waker, since the scale of the seas is smaller. There is also a warp point for each of the four sectors, and you don’t have to play the Ballad of the Gales every time you want to travel in a different direction since you just draw a line on the map with your stylus to indicate your path, and then press go! Your little ship can be customised by finding new ship parts and fitting them, and you can even trade your spare parts online with those who might have found different ones. There is also a two player game (playable online as well as locally) included, dubbed “Hide-and-Go-Seek,” which translates the dodging guards mechanic from the Temple of Time into a game of cat and mouse between a player controlling Bob and a player controlling three Phantom Guardians.

Is it up to scratch though? After the Twilight Princess, it was evident that Nintendo had reached the pinnacle of that formula, and Phantom Hourglass is just the thing for people bored of, or new to, the Zelda series. There is a light-heartedness, and a simplicity that suits handheld gaming. The controls are as intuitive as they could be and all game play is basically 2D which makes the dungeons a little simpler and harder to get lost in. Someone craving an epic 40 hour Zelda of the past might be disappointed with Phantom Hourglass, but I found it highly entertaining and very compelling, a breath of fresh air among action-adventure games that doesn’t take itself super-seriously, but is still polished to a dazzling shine and paced superbly.

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