E3 2009: Impressions of 'The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks'

So, for a while now on the podcast, I've been pretty adamant about my distaste for the new Zelda game coming to the DS, Spirit Tracks. So, you'd think that when E3 rolls around, I still wouldn't care about it.

So now, I've seen a new gameplay trailer, I've seen a developer walkthrough, and yaknow what? I'm starting to like the game just a little more.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still hate the idea of traveling on a train, as opposed to exploring the entire world using your boat. A train simply gives you less freedom since you're limited by tracks. However, the new dungeon stuff looks pretty compelling.

For anybody who's played the multiplayer mode in Phantom Hourglass, they're taking one of the Phantom Knights from that mode and giving you control over him in some parts of the dungeons, creating some new types of puzzles to solve. For example, in the new gameplay trailer, they have the fire-resistant knight walk past some streams of fire, blocking them from shooting out, while link follows along on the bottom ledge. Also, all of the combat and dungeon gameplay seems ripped directly from Phantom Hourglass, which is a good thing, because that stuff was all very compelling.

Overall, I feel like The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is probobly going to turn out to be the "Majora's Mask" of the DS Zelda games. Somewhat fun, but overall just not as compelling as the first game.