Developer: Nintendo of America
Publisher: Nintendo of America
Genre: Adventure
Rating: E (For Everyone)
Number of Players: 1
Platforms: Nintedo DS
Zelda the Phantom Hourglass Gallery 

This article was written by guest writer De'Lacy Watts

Attention! Attention! All gamers I have breaking news! The good people at Nintendo have done it again! What?! No one is surprised? Well, neither was I. With their latest offering from the Legend of Zelda series, lighting has been captured in game form. Taken from the timeline of Wind Waker, Phantom hourglass follows the story of a green clad hero and Tetra (read also Zelda). However in a rare occurrence from video games, the princess is captured. Still not surprised? I didn’t expect you to be.  As our hero you will dungeon crawl and solve puzzles using your items creatively to save our girl. So you may ask what has changed to make this game worth your time instead of just a link in the change (extra points for pun). This time instead of a top down/two-dimensional port, Nintendo took the mechanics of Zelda and re-tooled it specifically for the DS. The touch screen is utilized as your means of interactions from walking to attacking. That’s right no Z-targeting here. Somewhat an RTS or PC RPG approach makes everyone a beginner. The second screen on your DS is the map screen. Unexpectedly, we even have a new function for maps. The touch screen and your stylus are used to create a treasure maps of sorts, to leave yourself clues to the whereabouts of bomb-able walls and hidden underground caves. The innovations don’t stop there ladies and gentlemen. The DS microphone is used to call to enemies or NPC’s, as well as make you look like a fool in public.
     
All this innovations doesn’t come without its price though. While new and creative, the control system will drive you crazy if you let it. I can’t count the number of times I’ve stopped playing because I jumped off a cliff or into an ocean, or an enemy got a lucky strike. Also, bearing in mind that this is a portable system, the cell-shaded graphics didn’t translate as well as expected. Phantom hourglass had a bad case of the jaggies more often than not.  Through the good and the bad, Phantom Hourglass still comes out as one of the games to grab on Nintendo DS.