The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) review "Things starts how they always start in the Zelda multiverse, with the kidnapping of that dappy bint of a princess whose only point of existence is to be spirited away by dark forces at the start of every new adventure. In a new development twist for the series, Phantom Hourglass is a direct sequel from Wind Waker on the Gamecube, meaning that it inherits the THE BIG TWO flaws that chapter suffered from"

It’s hard to keep a straight face when the latest Nintendo die-hard is playing Mario Party 106 while lecturing you on how their preferred brand is the biggest innovators in the business. It’s especially hard not to sneak out a stray snigger when the list of titles they look forward to – the brave new titles that will change the world – are Mario this, Metriod that. It’s all well and good having systems that allow you to do brand new things, but what’s the point when, at the core, you’re still doing the exact same thing you were effectively doing three decades ago?

Phantom Hourglass suffers from this problem more than most. There are no complaints to be had to how it’s been converted to Nintendo’s brave new handheld. Guiding Link with the stylus is as easy as prodding the screen in the direction you want to travel and some of the sword strokes work pretty well, like drawing a circle around your stumpy hero to execute the obligatory 360* spin attack. Using tools takes on a new dimension, too, when you have to draw their paths of directory or tap the screen the ready your bowstring. And while it does start to feel gimmicky when you start solving puzzles by blowing on the mic to snuff out candles or closing the DS’s screens together to make an impromptu press, being able to write notes and draw routes on the map is such a simplistic but great idea you can expect it to be copied for the rest of the system’s lifespan.

It also has you yelling at a dwarven ship-maker to half his prices; the best way to look like a lunatic is to yell "Drop the damn price, you diseased little gimp!" into a little black box on a train or bus, the very thing the DS was designed for. But the biggest problem faced is that it’s the same game you’ve played a dozen times before but with a new control method. That’s it.

Things starts how they always start in the Zelda multiverse, with the kidnapping of that dappy bint of a princess whose only point of existence is to be spirited away by dark forces at the start of every new adventure. In a new development twist for the series, Phantom Hourglass is a direct sequel from Wind Waker on the Gamecube, meaning that it inherits the THE BIG TWO flaws that chapter suffered from. A lazy reviewer would use this as a chance to build a small checklist, so that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Staff review by Gary Hartley (December 01, 2007) Gary Hartley arbitrarily arrives, leaves a review for a game no one has heard of, then retreats to his 17th century castle in rural England to feed whatever lives in the moat and complain about you.