The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) Review

My review for Spirit Tracks has gone live over at GamerGrenade News.

What initially struck me as an unimaginative clone with, what I expected to be, a short amount of gameplay and an annoying travel mechanic turned out to be a breath of fresh air.  The puzzles and dungeons hearken back to days gone by.  To a time when you had to use your brain and past experiences to complete an area.

Here’s the introduction:

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was written off by many early on.  Visually, it’s a clone of the DS’s earlier Zelda title, Phantom Hourglass, which took its art style for Gamecube’s Wind Waker.  Mechanically, all three titles contain a hefty amount of world traveling, the previous two by boat, whereas Spirit Tracks uses a train.  Cue the common audio remixes to the standard Zelda soundtrack, and implement the same slick stylus-driven control scheme and you have a recipe for a “me too” game.  I’ll admit, I was a neigh-sayer when I first heard about Spirit Tracks.  But it’s a fully-realized Zelda title, not some spin-off, so I had to give it a try.  Boy, I am eternally glad I did.

Now off to review Army of Two: 40th Day.  Or Army of Tutu, as I like to call it.