Zelda games are consistently traditional, and that's okay. Nintendo hasn't really changed much about the series since Zelda II, and that was one of the least-popular games in the franchise. Then they went back to the roots and produced Link to the Past, Link's Awakening (my very first video game), Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Ages / Seasons, Wind Waker, Four Swords, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, and Twilight Princess. I figure that we can give them a break for Zelda II.

Nintendo's focus on tradition is why I find it so particularly satisfying that Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is such a departure from the usual flow of Zelda games. It's different, but by no means is it a lesser game – in fact, it's great. The story seems to take a back seat to the stylus-based action and the general excitement of uncovering the new region of Hyrule. To be completely honest with you, I think that it works out pretty well that way. It's not as engaging as Ocarina of Time, but do you really expect that out of a handheld version of any video game franchise?

(Okay, God of War: Chains of Olympus was pretty awesome, even compared to the first God of War...but this is frickin' Zelda. Zelda demands perfection.)

Hit the jump and read our full review to find out just exactly why Spirit Tracks provides the Zelda series with some much-needed steam.

Spirit Tracks is not as focused as far as story is concerned, but the main elements are still pretty simple to figure out. Link is an engineer. Princess Zelda is killed off by the villain, Malladus, early in the game. Zelda's spirit follows Link around because he's the only person that can see or hear her. With Zelda's royalty and Link's courage, they use the magical Spirit Train to explore Hyrule. By ridding the land's temples and dungeons of evil, the pair can restore the “spirit tracks” and the Tower of Spirits (I'm completely done saying “spirit” after this review). These legendary railroads are what binded down the power of Malladus in the past, and if they are restored, Zelda hopes that her ghost can re-enter her body and continue living on as the Princess of Hyrule. Sure, there are cameo appearances and some enjoyable plot-related scenes, but the story never really takes off. Spirit Tracks certainly doesn't pull you in like its predecessors, but that really isn't the worst thing in the world.

Meet Link, the engineer.

The gameplay is copied from the first DS Zelda game, Phantom Hourglass. That is more than acceptable, considering that Phantom Hourglass is widely considered to be one of the best DS games of all time. It deserved it for making the touch screen an enjoyable interface rather than a chore or a gimmick. Spirit Tracks does more of the same, for the most part, but some new tricks are pulled out of the bag. The overall feel of the game is much better, and Link's movements are very responsive. Using his items is simple; you can equip one at a time and “quick-draw” the item with the Left trigger. This allows you to become a crack-shot with the Bow, but it makes boomerang puzzles and bomb-throwing much easier. Link's dodge-roll is much easier to do this time; rather than drawing little circles on the edge of the screen (Phantom Hourglass, dumb), you double-tap in the direction that you wish to roll (Spirit Tracks, brilliant). It's so much more intuitive that combat is immediately better.

Zelda's role in the game changes from tour guide to puzzle partner in the Tower of Spirits, which is a lot like the repetitive Temple of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass. You'll revisit the Tower of Spirits after completing each major dungeon, and you'll have to solve puzzles as you progress through several challenging floors. Zelda's spirit can possess the Phantom enemies that patrol the hallways of the Tower, and when Zelda becomes a Phantom, she can do all kinds of things. She can distract other Phantoms so Link can pass by without harm. She can teleport to the location of the camera-like floating enemies in the Tower and trip switches for Link. She can walk through lava, fire, and all kinds of pain that would be the end of Link. At the end of each section, Zelda and Link find another part of the “Rail Map” of Hyrule – very much like in Phantom Hourglass. The Tower is more enjoyable than the Temple of the Ocean King, and you don't have to re-play each section when you revisit the tower later in the game. There's a stairwell that leads up to the floor that you are supposed to start on, but you can always check out the previous floors if you found an item that would clear a previously-blocked path to treasure.

Zelda can be directed by drawing her path on the touch screen, and she can do things like flip switches and defeat enemies for Link. She can also distract the Phantom guards that patrol the halls.

Another new wrinkle is the Spirit Flute, Link's musical instrument of choice in Spirit Tracks. The Spirit Flute is a pan flute, and it is used with the touch screen and DS microphone. You have to blow into the mic and move the flute back and forth with the stylus to play the notes, and you also have to learn how to play it in the correct rhythm. It's an interesting new feature that works well once you learn how to do it right. If you haven't learned to play the flute well enough by the middle of the game, some areas of the game can become frustrating. There are times where you are required to play a song to advance the story, and if you can't complete the song, you can't move forward. This happened to me before I was able to enter the Fire Temple – the third major temple – and I was stuck for more than two days, trying to play a stupid song. I would open my DS after slamming it shut and tossing it aside, and I'd repeat the process. I tried the song more than fifty times before I learned how to play it correctly, and that was absolutely miserable. That wasn't the greatest move by the designers...there should have been an option to skip it, or for the game to really show you the correct way to play the song. It's a pretty neat feature, but it really sucks when you get stuck playing a song – something that was actually a lot of fun to do in the previous Zelda games.

The controls and the Spirit Flute aren't really the biggest concerns about Spirit Tracks, though. I think most Zelda fans were worried about the train factor. To be honest with you, the train is so much *#&@ing better than that abomination of a sail boat in Phantom Hourglass, and even that was an improvement on Wind Waker. The idea of exploring Hyrule on rail roads is definitely restrictive and eliminates some of the freedom that you'd normally have in a Zelda game, but I didn't really care at all when I was playing. Riding around on the train is pretty damn fun, actually. Shooting at enemies that roam the areas of Hyrule is fun. Delivering passengers from town to town and completing side-quests – fun. Finding the hidden rabbits and collecting rupees from blown-up boulders? Fun. I'm okay with the train, and I'm going to say it one last time...it's better than the boat. Much better. Riding around on Epona will always be better than the train, but I was absolutely fine with being an engineer in Spirit Tracks.

Say what you want, the train is actually pretty fun. It doesn't give you the freedom of roaming the land on a horse, but it still feels like an adventure.

Moving on, Spirit Tracks really ups the ante when it comes to its overall design. I just can't believe that Nintendo is still finding clever new ways to use the boomerang on the touch screen, like throwing it into an ice flame and then drawing a circle across water to form a solid ice path. The new puzzles are a lot of fun to solve, and getting through dungeons is always a rewarding experience. The new weapons that you find in this game (whip, whirlwind) are used to open up all kinds of new ideas, and I applaud Nintendo's ability to stay fresh in this aspect of the game. The whip makes you feel like an Indiana Jones version of Link in some parts, and that's great. Ascending up to the boss of the Water Temple was particularly fun. Boss fights in general are a blast, and they seem to have more phases than the bosses in the last few Zelda games. They don't go down as quickly in general, and it's nice, because it provides a bit more challenge. I already talked about Zelda's purpose in the Tower of Spirits, so I won't repeat myself – it's just nice that Nintendo has continued to give us a fresh look with each new Legend of Zelda adventure.

Discovery and reward are essential and thrilling parts of the Zelda formula, and Spirit Tracks keeps them intact. With that in mind, you really can't complain too much about the trains. If you don't like them very much, try to consider that Spirit Tracks does almost everything else very well. There are plenty of things to find and collect over the course of the adventure, and the replay value is extended because of it. There is a little lottery mini-game that randomly gives you rare treasure items if you invest rupees into lottery tickets. Those treasures can be sold for rupees or stockpiled to purchase new train parts from a descendant of Phantom Hourglass's Linebeck character. There are 13 heart containers, 50 hidden rabbits, 25 force gems, and 20 stamp stations to locate in this game – that's quite a lot. The best part is that it's not just addicting, but rewarding, to find goodies and collect everything that you can. You unlock more areas of Hyrule to explore and new things to use along the way. It's always enjoyable to keep playing the game, and you can't chalk it up to anything but fantastic game design.

There seem to be several tricky enemies in this game, some of which require clever use of tools or Zelda's Phantom form.

Spirit Tracks pushes the capabilities of the DS more than most of the other DS games in 2009. It looks much better than Phantom Hourglass, whether you're talking about the textures, animation, or effects. There are some occasional slowdown issues, but they only occur when there is a lot going on at the same time on the tracks. The style still resembles Wind Waker, but it's got a cute little train theme to it and I think that it's very appropriate for a handheld game. It looks exactly like what you'd expect Mini-Engineer-Link and Mini-Spirit-Zelda to look like on a Mini-Nintendo-Console. I'm fine with that. The music is also absolutely wonderful, but that's something that Zelda fans have learned to expect from each new game. There are some familiar tunes and some new ones, and there are also blended versions of new and old. It's great. On top of that, the music often lets you know when something is going on around you, like when you're not paying attention on the rail road and enemies approach the train. It's hard to not appreciate the music and sound when they become such a factor in the overall experience.

I'd like to set aside my objectivity for a minute and tell you how I really feel about Zelda and Spirit Tracks. I think Spirit Tracks is a “black sheep” Zelda game, just like Zelda II was. It's different, and some Zelda fans really aren't going to like that very much. Some traditionalist Zelda fans would need medical attention if Nintendo introduced voice acting to the next Wii installment in the franchise, and that's too bad – those people will likely get hung up on the train factor and they'll turn their noses up at the restricted feeling of freedom. Again, that's too bad. I am a hardcore Zelda fan, but I am delighted – yeah, delighted; with a cherry on top and everything – because Nintendo decided to do something different. Spirit Tracks is the second Zelda game on the DS, so it didn't have a LOT to prove – not as much as Phantom Hourglass, anyway. That game really had to show Zelda fans that Zelda could be done properly on the DS. Phantom Hourglass delivered with intuitive touch screen controls and refined gameplay that was perfect for the hardware. As well as Phantom Hourglass pulled it off, though, I think that Spirit Tracks does more with the mechanics. I really can't choose between the two in the process of deciding which is actually better, but that is the biggest compliment I can give Spirit Tracks. Phantom Hourglass was my second-favorite Nintendo DS game of all time, and Spirit Tracks just matched it. What more can I say?

It should be duly noted that the boss fights in Spirit Tracks are great.

There are some parts that you might not like about Spirit Tracks, like avoiding the one-hit-kill enemy trains that patrol the tracks in some regions of Hyrule. Those were always annoying for me to deal with, anyway. Getting stuck near the third temple because of a Spirit Flute song was so annoying that I almost gave up playing the game. Failing to catch rabbits when I discovered them was annoying because I had to remember to mark their locations on the map. There is no automatic tracker for any of the collectibles; Spirit Tracks forces you to draw on the map with the stylus. This is usually pretty helpful, but when you are trying to keep track of rabbits, towns, shortcuts, warp gates, and countless other points of interest on a tiny screen...it gets pretty confusing. I didn't have any major problems with Spirit Tracks, but there were some parts that I was forced to deal with that were unique to this version of the series. I guess that I would prefer that to being bored to death with more of the same, even if “more of the same” didn't have some of the same annoying issues. At least this is something different.

That's the end of my heart-to-heart about Zelda; let's wrap this up.

I would definitely recommend picking up Spirit Tracks. It's got a strong case for the best game of the year on the Nintendo DS, not because it's a Zelda game – because it's a Zelda game that really pushes the series into something different. If the only reason you enjoy it is because it's as good as Phantom Hourglass, but different, how bad can it really be? Hop on this train. Dock the boat. Enjoy something a little different from the Zelda series – not too much different, but just enough. You might miss some of the traditional aspects of the series or the freedom of riding on Epona's back across the fields of Hyrule, but you will find a lot to like in Spirit Tracks anyway.

Final Score: A-

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