If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it right? That little mantra right there seems to be Nintendo’s motto with Zelda (save for that cel-shading incident a few years ago), and it’s not hard to see why. With sales of over 52 million copies since Link first took a bow on the NES back in 1987, it’s a series that sits alongside Mario as one of the strongest strings in Nintendo’s bow, and if something sells then you don’t go twiddling around with the recipe too much. Much like the train of which Spirit Tracks is based around the second DS Zelda title therefore mostly follows the path you would expect it to.

Set a few generations after the characters and events of 2007’s Phantom Hourglass, the general story is that a tower that was created to protect the land from evil has been broken up into little pieces, and another unsuspected blonde kid has had to don Link’s fabled green slouchie and tunic in order to go questing forth to restore not only it, but also the network of rail lines that traverse the land too. By pottering along railway lines to and from various locations you eventually gain those familiar bits of equipment and little red hearts to strengthen you enough for the battle ahead.

Whilst initially it might seem like the train is a large departure away from previous methods of travel in the series, it quickly becomes apparent that it is in effect the boat from Wind Waker/Phantom in a slightly different skin. Throughout the game you constantly unlock new track sections – in some cases major updates, in others minor for bonus items – and by travelling along these tracks you flit between the usual Zelda selection of dungeons, each designed around the particular quirk of whatever piece of equipment they hold for you.

These pieces of equipment are, of course, one of the main joys of the series to discover and use, hence I won’t spoil the fun for you here by going into detail about what they are. They do make great use of the DS’s touch screen however, with some of the solutions to puzzles being particularly clever and requiring a great deal of scribbling and deft penmanship to guide Link through. The other main plus is that, alongside the introduction of these tools, the game gently curves the difficulty level upward at just the right rate, giving the player just the right amount of challenge without ever presenting him with a brick wall progression stopper. One thing that I should warn you about, however, is that there are two pieces in particular that require you to blow into the microphone, which pretty much rules this out as a commute playthrough unless you enjoy looking like a tit.

Those of you who played Phantom Hourglass will no doubt remember the Ocean King’s Temple, possibly one of the most controversial and annoying parts of any game through the series. The idea was that as you ran through the game you would unlock new areas within this central dungeon, which you then had to traverse all the way through (with shortcuts on occasion) each and every time. Nintendo clearly learnt their lesson this time around; although the Spirit Tower needs to be revisited, it is across thirty floors divided up into a number of sections that you only have to wander through once. Thank chuffing fudge for that.


Going back to the point about using the DS’s touch screens, it is also a pleasing fact that this time around a lot of the niggling little issues that beset Phantom Hourglass have been ironed out. Control over Link by gliding the stylus around feels slightly more precise, with a dodge roll being performed by a swift double tap in a direction and a circular sword swish being unleashed if you drag the pen around Link in a likewise motion. Whereas portions of the previous game got snagged up in silly little control issues, this time around it’s a heck of a lot more fluid.

The boss battles – another of the series’ staples – are present and correct, and as much as with the dungeons that precede them they all require use of particular weapons and items to conquer. A particular favourite of mine is an early boss in which – no kidding – you need to blow poisonous gas off a giant beetle’s arse and then give it a good whacking for massive damage. It’s surreal, it’s ever-so-slightly silly, and it’s ever-so-Zelda.

That theme of silliness runs pretty much throughout the game, giving it that pleasantly light-hearted feel of its predecessor. Link often gets a whack to the head and lies on the floor with his eyes spinning around, whilst the princess (who accompanies you throughout, but not in the form you might expect) often gets right into the action and comes up with some pretty amusing comments. There’s also the usual range of oddball characters to chat to and, a little later in the game, complete train journey missions with for added bonuses, and the music bounces along in the background, flitting between bouncy and brooding without ever being particularly jarring to the ear.

There is a token multiplayer effort loaded in for good measure once the campaign is dusted after about a dozen hours, but sadly there is no online option for it. Instead it’s multicard play and download play based, and rather than having a number of Links run around slashing at each other with swords you are instead tasked with collecting treasure, with the player who has the most at the end of the time limit being called the winner. It’s amusing in a way, but it’s highly unlikely to be anything other than a one-off curiosity rather than a staple of your multiplaying diet.

Still, it’s... well, as said, it’s Zelda. It’s good. It might be resoundingly familiar, but the simple reason of that it has worked before, and it works again with Spirit Tracks. It does nothing to jump out of the safety zone, and that’s mainly because it doesn’t really need to; it’s still one of the finest action adventure games out there, and goes to show that whilst other game characters fade away with time (poor, poor Sonic), when treated carefully even a gaming pensioner like Link can still appeal and be as relevant today as he ever was. Good on you little fella.