"A must have for your DS collection. Another knockout by Nintendo."

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a great game. I had an enjoyable experience playing this game, and I am sure you will also.

[Controls 8/10]
At first, I was a bit upset by the lack of D-pad movement, as I am sure many many people were. However, it does not take long to become accustomed to, and it really isn't as terrible as people describe it. You use the stylus to attack and move.

It sounds cruddy I know, but Nintendo did include something that helps to prevent mixing up movement with attacking. You can tap the enemy with your stylus, and Link will attack that enemy with his sword. To move you hold your stylus against the screen in the general direction you wish to go. Perhaps the most troublesome part of this is rolling. You have to draw tiny circles at the edge of your screen, but again, you get used to it. Controls don't make a game, the game itself is what matters.

Then there are really fun elements to it. You can draw a path for your boomerang, and it will fly across that path. You can even mark the in-game map, and make notes of important points or draw your heart out on it if you really want to. You also draw the path that your ship will be sailing to.

But this game makes use of more than just the DS's stylus. It also uses the microphone..and the DS itself. In one spot of the game you must copy a symbol from a map on the wall to your map. And you do this by actually closing the DS, as if you were pressing the maps together to transfer the symbol. The microphone is used to yell for specific people's attention, and to accomplish other tasks such as blowing out a fire.

[Story 9/10]
In the beginning you start off with a cutscene of Link and Tetra, from Wind Waker, on a ship. You are looking for a rumored Ghost Ship, and in this cutscene they find it. Tetra decides to jump in and with a scream she seems to disappear. Link attempts to go after her by jumping to the boat but he misses and falls into the water. Link then has a vision of Tetra and he is unable to help her.

After this vision Link awakens on an island to see a (gasp!) fairy. You talk with the fairy, and then you go to speak with its mysterious owner. In a short while you obtain a sword, and begin your quest to save Tetra.

[Replayability Factor 10/10]
First off, this game isn't a very short game. The average playtime for this game (just completing the story) is around 20 hours or so. Depending on how skilled you are this time may vary. However, if you plan on completing everything the amount of hours played rises greatly. You have many things to do, including the famous collect all of the heart pieces. But you also can collect new parts for your ship, minigames, and even power-ups for your sword.

Then you can always do the 3 heart challenge, a challenge popular among the Zelda community in which you try to go through the entire game without collecting extra heart pieces, no easy task.

If you do everything you can possibly think of, then you always have WiFi. This can add many more hours to your play time of Phantom Hourglass.

[Multiplayer 9/10]
The multiplayer in this game is very fun. One person controls the "Phantoms" and the other controls Link in a Capture-The-Flagesque game. Link gets to run around trying to collect these golden pyramids not unlike triforce pieces and bring them back to his "square". This square will be red or blue, and will be where you bring these pieces. Once they are set down on your territory, the pieces will change to your respective color.

These pyramids have different sizes, with the bigger pyramids being worth more points, but Link also carries them more slowly. The other person will be in control of three phantoms. You send these vicious guys across the map using your stylus to prevent Link from gathering the pieces.

The players switch who they control (either Phantoms or Link) every round A round ends when either:
A. Link's time runs out
B. A phantom lands a hit on Link

When you switch places, the new Link is able to go around and collect pieces as well, but he can also attempt to go to your territory and steal some to create a sort of double whammy effect. If he gets it to his territory you no longer have the points for that piece and he does. There are three rounds, each consist of both players playing on each side once.

There are many different stages that have different strategic elements. To add to the excitement, there are power ups scattered across the stage for both sides. They appear in red or blue orbs, each color for its respective team. You can collect your own items (ranging from adding +30 seconds to faster walking for Link to a decoy Link for Link and from -30 seconds, to bigger swords, and activating the air walls for the Phantoms) and you can destroy your opponent's "orbs".

Something interesting to note is that if you are playing the Phantoms, you see the map on the bottom screen and order the Phantoms to places via the map. But also, you can only see where the Link player is when he is holding a pyramid piece. But even if he is holding a pyramid piece, you are unable to see him if he enters a safe zone, where Phantoms are unable to walk. These zones look similar to your territory zones and are really the same as the safe areas you see in the Temple of the Ocean King in the single player game.

[Graphics 9/10]
The graphics were okay, but some things really bugged me. In-game play was good, but in the cutscenes, Link really looks very ugly with his huge eyes. The shading in the cutscenes was also a bit bad, but other than that I have no reason to complain. In-game looked perfectly fine and was very enjoyable.

[Sound 10/10]
This is a give-in. I have never heard any Zelda game where I have not liked the sound and is one of the reasons I have great respect for Nintendo. The music for their main franchises is...well...addicting. From Mario, to Metroid, to Zelda, and to Super Smash Bros. (especially Brawl's limitless soundtracks) it is just fantastic.

Of course many of the classic sounds are still in there, such as when you figure out a puzzle in a dungeon. The other sounds are nice, for example firing the canon from your ship.

[Summary]
This a very great game and is well worth the purchase. It will bring you hours of playability. This is a must-have for the DS. This is actually one of the few DS games I've really enjoyed (though that might be due to the fact that the store here seems to purposely decide to exclusively sell crappy DS games).

[Final Score 9.1]

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/08

Game Release: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (US, 10/01/07)