I’m not much for chronic wrist pain, which is why I choose my
portable entertainment carefully. This fact comes up often when feeding
my DS addiction, as too many of its games have bombed by overusing the
touch screen. Call me crazy, but I prefer not to hold a game system
like an archaic claw.
The latest series to go touch-only is Nintendo’s biggie, The
Legend of Zelda. The fact that Phantom Hourglass pulls off
the switch without wrist cramping is impressive in its own right, but
that minor success isn’t enough change in a series that, more than any
other Nintendo franchise, is defined by pushing boundaries. The kid in
green tights still traverses a large world, digging through the usual
dungeons (fire, ice, etc.) and using the usual items (sword, bomb,
arrows, etc.). But the game’s new touch system runs smoothly, and it
creates some unique gameplay moments, like drawing paths on the screen
to send bomb-mice out for battle.
The change in controls has also had a surprising, and somewhat
negative, impact on the game’s depth. You can now draw on maps and save
notes for later; however, the game gives you fully detailed maps from
the start, which means one of the series’ core concepts—figuring
out convoluted dungeons—has been rendered moot. Most of the usual
scavenger hunts and item varieties have been nixed as well, making
Phantom come off like Zelda comfort food.
This streamlining of the gameplay will annoy many Zelda fans,
but the growing crowd of semicasual DS gamers will enjoy touching their
way through Phantom‘s hours of exploration. That’s not to say
this is Zelda for moms; a few abrupt spikes in challenge, like
the timed tower challenge, will prove too aggravating for the Brain
Age crowd.
Nintendo tries to give every level of player something to enjoy
here, but the resulting imbalance is Phantom‘s fatal flaw. Too
few twists for old-schoolers, too many rough patches for weary
newcomers. Still, it’s not a junk game. For starters, the cat-and-mouse
online battle mode is a first for the series. And Zelda‘s high
standard of quality is upheld in most other respects, like the best 3-D
presentation yet on the underpowered DS, the relatively engaging quest
and, well, the all-important lack of wrist agony. 