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PreviousGames of 2009: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks Article
DS Article by Keza MacDonald
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The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks isn't my game of the year. Demon's Souls is. In fact Demon's Souls is my game of the decade. If I could, I would be Mrs Demon's Souls. But I've written and blithered and shared and pored over so many words about bloody Demon's Souls over the past eight months that I'm completely spent and literally everyone in my acquaintance is bored to death of hearing me talk about it, so instead I'm going to write about my second-favourite game of the year.
And it couldn't be more different. Demon's Souls is stoic, cruel, uncompromising, psychotic, black and grey and deep, blood red. Zelda Trains - I've been ordered by The Hierarchy to call it Zelda Trains, by the way, but I'm only doing it this once - is primary colours and wide-eyed children and cowprint piggies and choo-choos. Demon's Souls plops you unceremoniously into a horrible world full of things that are trying to murder you and take your things and gives you absolutely no guidance whatsoever. Spirit Tracks takes you by the hand, smiles widely and leads you through comfortable and familiar territory, pushing well-worn, well-loved toys into your hands at intervals with a kindly wink.
It's continually astounding to me that no matter how many Zelda games I play, I never get bored of the hookshot, the bomb and the boomerang. I typically get bored of games after about 20 minutes if I don't see something particularly interesting about them; I'm inordinately demanding that way, often to my own detriment. And yet here I am, tapping walls with a sword to see if they're hollow, just as I have since I was barely old enough to tie my own shoes.
It's because the Zelda series doesn't rehash, it reinvents - it's a perfect mix of creativity and comfortable nostalgia, with just enough new items and mechanics woven into a familiar template to make it worth enjoying all over again, and enough knowing nods to its legacy to make you feel special for being so intimately familiar with it. The classic Zelda items and snatches of familiar music are childhood motifs, emblems that have become timeless.
All of that applies to any Zelda game. I play and enjoy all of them, and I will until they stop being made, because they're such an absolute foundation of my gaming context. But Spirit Tracks is particularly special because it wholeheartedly embraces the childish joy at the heart of the series in both its style and its construction; these are games about childhood, about exploration, the excitement of the unknown and joy of discovery that comes with each new item or de-fogged section of the map. Even by the super-kawaii standards of Wind Waker-style Zeldas, Spirit Tracks is lovely. It's bright and beautiful and expressive, and the tone is irrepressibly light-hearted and mischievous.
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Latest Videos
Exclusive: EGTV meets 'Mr Zelda' Eiji Aonuma [15] 27 November, 2009
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9 November, 2009 [0]
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Comments: 1-32 of 32
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I'm glad Wind Waker seems to be (mostly) viewed more positively now than it was at the time, and Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are both worthy successors. I've enjoyed the "cartoon" Zeldas far more than I enjoyed Twilight Princess, which seemed more like fan service for the ex-N64 crowd than a game in its own right.
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+1
We could already see that in Phantom Hourglass, but Spirit Tracks is the better game - it's just better designed, and doesn't force you to repeat its central dungeon every time you make progress, which forced me to give up on Phantom Hourglass in the end.
This. Both games have their faults, but ST has much better dungeon design. I do kinda wish the Zelda games would go back to the single, cohesive world of Link to the Past, though. All this train/boat/field hub-world crap is getting tedious. |
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frankfurter209
29/12/09 @ 02:20
+2
Demon's Souls is an outstanding game, but the sudden outpouring of ridiculous praise, including many such Game of the Decade declarations, is getting pretty tiresome
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MrDurandPierre
29/12/09 @ 03:47
0
I agree with Keza wholeheartedly about Spirit Tracks. I'd thought I'd outgrown Zelda by now, but this ended up being the most fun I've had with a game all year.
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Gregolution
29/12/09 @ 08:53
+1
@frankfurter
It's only a reflection on how bloody amazing demons souls is. Luckily all this praise should spawn a sequel and a lot of game developers might wake up and realise there's a big Market for challenging games. |
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azazel_fallenangel
29/12/09 @ 09:04
-1
Been playing ST loads since I got it on Christmas day, and am so far loving it. Gimicks like writing notes on the map seemed a bit trite at first, but now it seems totally natural and intuitive, and absolutly nesescary. The interaction with Zelda herself is great I think. However, restricting travel to linear tracks seems like a step back, simply set your route and off you go, all you have to do is watch out for enemies and occasionally change route. Even PH allowed free travel, a staple if Zelda games.
Overall though, this is the most fun I've had Playing on a new game all year. |
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fluff_the_tiger
29/12/09 @ 09:48
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I know I will probably like this but the painful memories of grinding through the minish cap just because everyone else said it was good still linger.
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peak_performance
29/12/09 @ 10:09
+1
I like the game alot, but mostly because it's really challenging again. I haven't been stuck at so many puzzles in a Zelda game for a long time and Phantom Hourglass was a huge failure at that point. I couldn't enjoy that at all after the first hour, this however is great.
Oh and it's so charmy! |
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Ace_McCloud
29/12/09 @ 11:47
0
The opening paragraph of the Zelda PH review summed it up for me: After playing Twilight Princess I thought I was tired of Zelda. Bored to tears by the stagnating gameplay. I picked up a DS and PH on the cheap over xmas with bunch of games. I left Zelda to last to have a go on.
As soon as I started playing I though: "This is awesome!" And haven't stopped playing. I love it! I just hope that the rumours of that central dungeon becoming a huge ball ache don't hold true enough to ruin my ultimate enjoyment of the game... Look forward to Spirit Tracks next. Love the DS! |
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+1
At the risk of getting negged to hell, I'm going to say that even with hindsight, I still think people are a bit too harsh on Twilight Princess- it's not the art style that's the problem, but the power they were able to put behind it- Ocarina was probably about as realistic as the N64 was going to get (given that it's a game about elves) and the lack of graphical grunt compared to today put it enough steps away from 'real' realism- sort of like the more realistic cartoons based on DC and Marvel properties. Or King Of The Hill.
The same philosophy of getting as much realism out of what power you have applied to the more powerful GameCube, however, gets you much too close to 'real' realism- and into a sort of uncanny valley for things that don't exist. I think I'd rather see the new Wii game head for some more suiting mid-point between those two than just be a waggle version of the cartoon Zeldas, which have definately found their more natural home on the DS- I want a different kind of story from my PC/Console games than I do from my handheld titles (just as I have different expectations of a film than I do a TV series), and I think it'd be interesting to see a series genuinely pull in two different directions. |
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0
I'm torn. As despite having bought and played every Zelda game since ALttP, this is the first one I'm contemplating not getting. Simply because, much to my own disappointment, I did not enjoy Phantom Hourglass in the slightest. I really couldn't get into it. I didn't like the 3D, the structure, and most of all the controls.
But I'm totally open to persuasion, so is there anyone else who didn't like Phantom yet would still recommend this new one? |
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scouserfuller9
29/12/09 @ 13:39
+3
Nintendo said they were gonna make games more of a challenge and this must be the toughest challenge I've had with a Zelda title since Majora's Mask.
One thing I think people who are saying games are too easy need to except is despite how much tougher Nintendo make the games you'll still gonna find it easier than the people new to the titles due to your experience. For example how many people know you have to push blocks on to switches? Bomb walls and hit switches by throwing a jar at it? I remember when I was 15 playing Ocarina Of Time. It was the first Zelda title I had played since A Link To the past. As soon as I see a switch that needed something stood on it to open a door the first thing that came to my head was the block just a short distance away from when I had done it in A Link to The Past! Yes that bit is not that hard to work out regardless of whether you've played a previous title or not it just sets a example. |
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+1
Got this for Christmas and it's been a pleasant surprise. The review already mentioned it, but the Temple sections in Phantom Hourglass were just insufferable to the point where I too gave up on the game.
I'll have to trust reviews when they say the Temple sections in this are much better, and having no time limit immediately helps. It's a very charming game too, humourous and already plays well. |
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+3
@frankfurter209, You're doing it wrong: It's not the games that get ridiculous praise heaped upon them months after a quiet release (like Demon's Souls) that should be bothering you, it's the games that get similar hyperbole gushed all over them before they even hit the shelves (like Pretty Much Everything Else) in the form of hype and marketing that you should be raging against.
In this respect Demon's Souls is in fact a breath of fresh air: a game that no-one outside the hardest of the hardcore had even heard about prior to its English-language release, that has come out of nowhere to become many peoples' Game of the Year (or even, whisper it, the Decade). I genuinely cannot remember the last time that happened (except perhaps GTA 3?). Anyway, I'm sorry, back to Zelda...
Edited 6 times,
most recently on 29/12/09 @ 17:10
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peak_performance
29/12/09 @ 17:10
0
erp: Spirit Tracks is a much better game than Phantom Hourglass. The pacing is better, as is the "story" (rather the presentation, dialog and stuff than actual story but whatevs), music and most of all puzzles. These dungeons (at least not counting the first temple which is a bit boring) are challenging and offers some really imaginative puzzles that I never caught a glimpse of in PH. I didn't like PH at all past the first hour like I said but this one is really funny.
I don't really like the train though, wish they'd go back to a real overworld again, but it does have a few great moments, like a pacman-esque "minigame" near the end. |
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0
Smelly, I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic but it's the exact reason I haven't invested in an fps for ages! I still haven't played killzone 2 or resistance 2. Ok, I picked up mw2 but that was only cos of the insane release deals. And I've been a massive shooter fan since doom.
Ph is literally the only zelda game I've ever played (sacrilege I know) but I really enjoyed it. Might look into this...
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 29/12/09 @ 19:35
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JohnnyWashnGo
29/12/09 @ 19:44
+1
Got it for Xmas but haven't opened it yet. Can't wait to play it judging by what people are saying.
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+2
That may be true and I agree that long running franchises should have some innovation (although I am also the kind of person that hates radical change from the familiar). I just think that fps games often get criticised for being generic/samey because there is literally a million of them, with few being truly notable.
I believe the Zelda series gets criticised as an isolated example. I really can't comment on the Zelda series because I've played so little of the many games (1!). I do think that the Killzone series (just for example) would be treated in the exact, if not harsher way, if the franchise consisted of 10-15 games with little to distinguish the core mechanics. I'm not having a go at the genres/franchises/you etc, but I honestly don't think anyone was under the impression that the FPS genre is the most innovative out there and I don't think many get a free ride because of this. |
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+2
But still, none of the Zelda games have exactly been slaughtered by the press.
I'm not gonna get into a specific Halo argument, but you have to admit, even if you don't personally see it, a select few franchises have the privilege of having a very strong (and often annoyingly vocal) fan base. And, as in the case of MW2, it can't always be put down to console fanboyism. And I do believe that the hours/days of playtime that many people clearly put into these games shows that there is something that genuinely attracts them to these particular games. |
Comments: 1-32 of 32
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