E3: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks Comments by Christian Donlan

I am quite looking forward to this - the asthetic appeals to me, as a fan of Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, and the train seems like fun to ride.

I used to really like Zelda, but I'm really tired of doing 6 hours of lame stuff before the good stuff actually starts. I know what freaking rupees are, I know I can lift pots, I know, I know. Stop treating me like an idiot and get me out of that boring 3 hour tutorial village. where I'm asked to kick a chicken for the 100th time in Zelda history.

Also, the Ocean King temple sucked so much ass I ditched that game altogether.

Nintendo, meet Mr New Ideas, I'm sure you'll be the best of friends.

@menage: When are you ever asked to kick a chicken? It's not like Zelda is only meant to be played by people who have had experience of the previous games. If you are experienced then those sections should be incredibly quick and not 6 hours long.

There is something about zeda games that is somewhat addictive but....

I never actually complete them. 20 hours in wind waker roughly the same in twilight princess and a fair amount hourglass (somewhere near the end) but I just cant bring myself to finish them. Strange.

I really enjoyed Hourglass but I agree menage the sea king temple just became annoying towards the latter stages.

@varsas

The chicken thing was just to illustrate the pointless stuff you have to do before getting into the actual story. I can recall chasing a stupid kitty and feeding it fish in TP. How intersting. And I don't really give a freaking thing about the 2 people who never played Zelda or games in general before. Don't we get a manual in with the game? Look it up there instead of telling me to press x to jump. Games that go overboard in forced explaining the simplest mechanic imaginable annoy the fuck out of me. And Zelda is one of the worst offenders. At least give us an option like "would you like to cut the bullshit and get on with it"

@Lennon

i agree, I haven't finished a Zelda after ALLTP (which was bloody brilliant). I just got tired of the same temples in every game. With Hourglass I finally got the vibe again due to the new controls, but the Ocean temple really killed any joy I had in the game. And i'm def. not alone.

End rant:p

Very much looking forward to this. Was impressed with the control system in Phantom Hourglass.

I look forward to this :) hoping it won't be as short as Phantom Hourglass

@TheStatics

I really don't get why people complain that Zelda games have no new ideas in them. I think they are all quite innovative:
Majora's Mask was different of Ocarina most notably for the mask idea and all the side quests they generated
Windwaker implemented the sea idea
Twilight Princess incorporated the ability to turn into a wolf, speak to dead people and have a wealth of new weapons
Phantom Hourglass gave us the briliant note taking feature and again some new weapons.

So like I said - I don't get your comment. I think Nintendo innovate a lot more than some companies do! The only thing that annoys me is generally only having Ganondorf as the main enemy.

As long as they learnt some lessons from Phantom Hourglass and don't put in a tedious stealth dungeon that you have to repeatedly return to this should be the usual high quality I expect from Zelda games.

I think time's been kind to the wind waker aesthetic. In my opinion, the original GC title still looks great.

@menage: It's odd that you're so against the tutorial parts of the game that an expert player can finish very quickly and easily. Did you find learning to use Epona pointless in TW? It's easy enough to work out by trial and error but much better with a tutorial. The fact is that the DS has a far greater audience than previous consoles and it makes perfect sense to include a tutorial for players. I am sure that there were a good number that have not played previous games and it was especially useful in PH due to the newer mechanics.

I don't know many that actually go and read through their game manuals. I find many, including myself, prefer diving right in and then going to the manual if there are problems so a tutorial is fine.

However I agree that for those that have previous experience there to skip these introductions.

Minish cap was the dogs bollox. Best handheld zelda yet.

I know I enjoyed Minish Cap, but I can't remember a damn thing about it, whereas Phantom Hourglass was proper Zelda magic. I think part of the fun of that repeated stealth dungeon was finding the shortcuts.

Disclaimer: is total Zelda fanboy.

"The only thing that annoys me is generally only having Ganondorf as the main enemy."

Ganon is the Bowser of the Zelda series. He's needed. I just hope they do something more with his character in the future. Wind Waker was Ganondorf's best appearance, because it showed a side of him that wasn't just "I want the triforce so that I can be evil."

He probably won't be in Spirit Tracks anyway. He's only ever featured in one handheld game, and never in his human form.

I've never felt so uninspired about a new Zelda game...and I love Zelda games.

Oh - and The Phamtom Hourglass was overrated. A good game for sure, but by no means a classic.

@chubster2010

I agree with you on this one. In contrast to the previewer, I feel that nintendo are now scraping the bottom of the barrel. Everything they offered this E3 seemed like I'd seen it before. Wii Fit 2, Motion plus, Galaxy 2, mario brothers that looked like the ds version but, with 4 players etc. etc. Resident Evil that looked identical to the gamecube version?!?!

I keep getting chills when I think about it. Dispite the great success of the Wii hardware. It is starting to feel more and more like the end of the gamecube years. I didn't want to buy any of the games they announced. Even a new Wii Zelda just made me think "Yea we'll be lucky to see that this side of 2012!"

The games, whilst different in aspects are generally all the same. Exploration, find something that lets you in the next dungeon, travel to dungeon, solve puzzle, kill boss, get new heart container, get item to open up new area to explore... repeat.

Individually the games are all great but it's the same thing over and over and over.

@TheStatics

The same can be said for most series.

@TheStatics: There are almost definately more new ideas in one zelda game than in the entire of every fps shown by microsoft at e3.

>where I'm asked to kick a chicken for the 100th time in Zelda history.

Strange that.. cant remember ever being asked to kick a chicken in zelda...

Fable on the other hand....

@TheStatics : Lets apply the same logic.. to .. oh i dunno.. Halo 3? : The games, whilst different in aspects are generally all the same. Exploration, find something that lets you in the next door, move cursor over bad guy, press trigger button, repeat

Individually the games are all great but it's the same thing over and over and over.

@ Smelly. Yes I agree. So both Zelda and Halo having become boring then...??

Have you an inclination that I like Halo and MS FPSs' for some reason?

It's business as usual in the game itself. The new The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks game that Iwata announced will utilize the intuitive touch control in an all new adventure that will please longtime Zelda fans?