REVIEW: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Every DS owner probably knows this title. But is it really a good game? To start off this review, I’m going to have to say yes.

The story of Zelda (saying the full title over and over again nags me) is very interesting. For all of you Zelda fans, you probably need to buy this game to understand the rest of the series. The game gives a nice story and the 3D graphics are phenomenal. One of the things I personally liked about the story was that it was not a movie. So say there was a barrel next to you and you smashed it and a jewel came out. Now, if you talk to someone that is standing right next to the jewel that starts a little sequence, you can stare at the jewel the whole entire time.

The game play is very smooth and nice in this game. You can choose two different modes at the beginning screen, either Adventure or Battle. Adventure gives you the real full Zelda game, while the battle mode lets you battle others in a minigame.

Adventure mode is what is commercialized. In this mode, you have a range of different abilities and weapons. Of course, you start off with a sword. There are many different types of attacks depending on how you move your stylus. The tutorials will get you to memorize these motions. The boomerang is also a weapon you can use in this game. You simply click the little icon in the corner and then draw the path of were you would like your boomerang to go. As I said above, there are lots of other weapons to unlock such as a bow, a hammer, or bombs. All of the weapon controls use the touch screen nicely.

There are many puzzles is adventure mode. The game allows you to drop down a map and write on it. Here you can mark the location of treasures, islands, and enemies. The puzzles in the adventure mode vary in difficulty. Some of them are super easy while others can leave you stumped. I remember this one puzzle with a backwards map on the top screen and a normal map on the bottom. I was very confused. It took me a long time to figure out the puzzle and I got frustrated. The puzzles were done nicely but you may get frustrated at times.

Although it seems adventure mode is great, there is one thing I am really mad about. In this game, there is an Ocean King Temple. Now, when you first arrive there, it may seem fun. But, throughout the game, you must keep returning over and over again, and play through the stuff you already know. It drives you crazy, especially because you have a certain time limit. The good thing is it's the only big problem in the adventure mode.

There is a large amount of game play in this game. It took me a while to play through it, but all was not done. Once you are done with this game you can go on and collect more items. There are these power gems that you can collect that give you certain ability when you have a certain number of them. They are a reason you may want to go back to an old temple. Also, I know that I left out one weapon. I’m going to have to go back into the game and hunt it down. There is also a ship you can customize. This ship is used a lot throughout the game and when you have some parts of the same set your ship’s stamina will go up. This also gives you reason to go back into the game. There are also many different abilities, fish, treasure and other details you may want to unlock. In total, the playback is really nice.

The battle mode is solid multiplayer. Here you can battle in a minigame against people even if they don’t have the game. The other person just has to go under the DS download station setting on the front screen. You can also play against someone with the game or with people from around the country or the world with Wi-Fi. With Wi-Fi there are a lot of different things you can do. You can play someone with the same skill level as you from around of the world or in your country. You can also play random people no matter what there skill level is from either the world or your country. The last setting is playing with a friend. All you must do is register the other person and make them register you (when you go over DS to DS you automatically switch codes with the person). If you are unhappy with your friends you can easily delete them.

The minigame you play in battle mode is not very addicting but is fun to play once in a while when you’re bored of adventure. In the beginning you are asked to pick a stage which either you or the other person will do. Then you go straight to the game as either player one or player two and get a color (red or blue). Player one starts first at his or her base. Player ones task is to collect gems and return them to there base. There are certain areas where player two (who is against you) cannot see you. When you grab a gem, you move a lot slower but you can then see your enemy’s knights. Bigger and heavier gems are worth more points then smaller and lighter ones. After the two minutes you have runs out, you are now the one the one opposing player two. You must stop him from getting gems back to his or her base using you knights. You can send three nights on any path you draw with your stylus and they will follow it. However, you cannot enter the safe zones that the player can enter. The person is always tracked and you can always see them except if they are in the safe zones. There are also lots of powerups you can get to help you. Some make you faster and some make a clone that distracts the enemy. You can also smash another person’s powerup. In total, the game is fun at first and then gets more boring.

There are certain tasks under Wi-Fi you can do in order do get an award. If you get a certain number of rewards, you get a surprise in adventure mode. That is all I can say until you get the game.

There is a feature in the game called tag mode. In this mode, you can trade items with people around the world using Wi-Fi. Items in tag mode will automatically be traded with somebody you play in battle mode. If you use tag mode, you are free to close your DS. I think tag mode is a bit slow so I don’t use it often.

The music in Zelda is very fun. Sometimes I just want to lie down and listen to the music. The sound effects are good. They could be better but they are great. The sound is probably a big attraction to the game.

The graphics in this game are pretty nice. The game is in full 3D and looks stunning. It is different then other games because it really does feel real.

My final thought at the game is that it fits in you DS library. It really is a good starter game and it gets you used to the touch screen if you are new at it. If you see it around, I recommend going for it. Even if you have no clue who Zelda is, the game really does do a good job explaining it. This game really makes me want to get Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii. Though sometimes boring, you’ll get through it saying wow.

PROS
-Great Graphics
-Easy to play
-Very nice replay value
-Nice multiplayer
-Takes advantage of the touch screen
-Very nice music

CONS
-Gets boring at times
-Battle mode gets old
-Lousy ending

____________________________
Final Results
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Graphics: 9/10 87.5%
Music: 8.5/10
Story: 8/10

CREDITS:
Review by lostman1027
Spelling checked by HeroOfHyrule128