"Unfortunately, this game is too easy."

Along with the Mario games, the Zelda series is one of the most popular to ever come to Nintendo consoles. Nintendo DS is now graced with its first Zelda, a game that has nothing to envy to its older brothers. Either if you're a huge fan of the series or merely a new player, you'll find in this game an incredible experience.

It all starts with Tetra, an important character of the past games, exploring a mysterious ship, which the group of heroes found in the middle of the ocean. When problems arise, Link tries to save his friend, only to fall into the ocean and lose his consciousness. Later, he reaches the shores of an unknown island, where a character known to those who played the Wii version of "Twilight Princess" will make her unexpected appearance. Soon, you'll get your usual sword and an epic quest will unfold.

Initially, you'll just be able to access a small part of the world map, but as you advance further you'll uncover a lot of new islands, each with its very own purpose, and this is where things get interesting. Unlike many other games of this series, your adventure won't be restricted to a single continent. Instead, advancing in the storyline will allow you to gain new abilities and useful items, which you'll later have to use in a special dungeon. What's different about this dungeon is that, unlike many others, it is available as soon as you start playing. Then, as you acquire new gameplay elements, you'll be able to go further into its depths, eventually reaching the last floor and unlocking important items in your way there. This place is also populated by immortal enemies, who tend to kill Link with a single touch of their sword, hinting that the player should hide from them instead of resorting to physical attacks, unlike he would do in other locations.

Apart from this unusual dungeon, there are also many others in the game, which focus on more classical elements, such as solving several puzzles. Usually, you'll have to activate some switches in a particular order, or solve small riddles to proceed to the next area, where you will ultimately face a boss battle. Here, those tend to focus in a particular weapon, which you must repeatedly use in order to achieve your victory. Such detail makes them too predictable, allowing everyone to defeat their opponents without much effort, something that older players may dislike.

In fact, that's one of the biggest problems of this game, its lack of difficulty. It may be just right for those who are less skilled, but the audience who played the previous games may find this one to be too straight-forward, too predictable and not hard at all.

With the adventure taking place across several islands, one could think that it should be too hard to reach new lands. Fortunately, it isn't. A few minutes after starting your adventure, you rescue the captain of a small ship, who will later prove to be an important ally. At first, his transportation may look like a small fishing ship, but after exploring some more islands you'll get new upgrades, which you can equip your ship with. Those will always include the important cannon, which allows you to shoot at those annoying enemies found in the ocean, but you can also change almost anything about it, using specific items that you'll be finding during your adventures.

Mentioning the controls is also important, as you'll be mostly using the stylus to control Link. If you want your character to walk, you should point the stylus to the space immediately in front of him, but by pointing it to a larger distance you will allow him to run. Striking enemies with your sword is done by merely tapping them, but you can also draw a quick circle around Link to make him strike all his surroundings at once. After unlocking other weapons, such as bombs, arrows or the classic boomerang, you may have a slightly harder time using them, as no in game explanations are ever given on how to do so. Soon, you'll be thinking "I didn't know I could do this!", which hints that this game may be more focused at those who played the previous games, as they will already know about all they can do with certain weapons.

Apart from the moving Link via the stylus, every other function of this console is used in some way. Some puzzles make you blow some air to the microphone, in order to open a door, while others hint that you should draw some sort of secret pattern in order to do so. You can even write all over maps, giving important indications or pinpointing places that you may want to visit later on. When it comes to your ship, you don't actually control it. Instead, you just point out the route that you want it to take, during which you may shoot at monsters, natural barriers or just anything that crosses your path.

It is possible to complete the main storyline in around 35 hours, but play time is greatly increased by playing the many quests and mini-games that this game has to offer, some more interesting than others. Collecting all of the boat's parts may take a really long time, and so does the complete exploration of most areas, as they contain small sections that may can't be accessed the first time you visit them. However, as this game is obviously a RPG, its replay value would be severely limited, if it wasn't for the mutiplayer functions. There, those who purchase this game will be able to enjoy a small version of the special dungeon, with a player controlling Link, who will try to collect Force Gems, and another having the task of preventing such collecting, issuing defensive instructions to three Phantom Guardians.

If you're going to try this option via the local wireless or Download Play, it will all go fine. However, if you decide to enjoy the online Wifi capabilities of the game, via Nintendo Wifi service, it will be slightly more problematic. Not only there are plenty of opponents who tend to "magically" disconnect when they're losing, but most sequences also seem to suffer from harsh lag, preventing you from playing as you may have wanted and giving an unfair advantage to some of the players involved. Some sort of cooperative mode would have been great, but there's none in this game.

Graphically, this title is among the best that the console has to offer. Once in a while you'll be seeing some misplaced pixels here and there, but there are barely any graphical glitches. Every character was designed in a way that makes them look younger, with all their animations being close to perfection, along with the environment where your adventure takes place. Overall, the game is so beautiful that you could confuse it with some game released for more powerful consoles.

Characters weren't given voices, but they can be heard in a very limited number of occasions, grasping or showing their fear, but never using any words. Generally, these sound effects are great and fully fit the sequences where they were included, unless we're referring to Link's sword - oddly, it sounds more like a slingshot than a strike of a sword. As you may suppose the music is also great, pleasing your ears and seducing you in a way that may prevent you from lowering the volume, unlike it happens in other games of this genre.


With an American and European release coming in just a few months, importing this title doesn't seem to be worth your money, as knowledge of the language is obviously required to fully enjoy it. Instead, when you see it on the shelves of your local store, feel free to pick it up. Like many other Zelda games released in the past, this one won't disappoint you.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/07, Updated 09/09/07

Game Release: Zelda no Densetsu: Mugen no Sunadokei (JP, 06/23/07)