I've been playing the last game The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for 2 years since it came it out back in October 2007. It wasn't too challenging because it was short and a bit too easy to complete. What really annoyed me in the last game is that everytime you had to go back to the Temple of the Ocean King to collect the next section of the map of the Great Sea to complete your quest.
But now 2 years later, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is now released so here is the review.
This time you are on dry land and you are in the new land of Hyrule because the old Hyrule was washed away so now you have a brand new transport this time instead of sailing a boat and that's of course, a train. In the story Link becomes a qualified Engineer to drive a Steam Train with his supervisor Alfonso, a former pirate. Link attends his graduation ceromany at Hyrule Castle and recieves his certificate from Princess Zelda but then a rather impatient Chancellor Cole vanishes the Spirit Tracks leaving Link, Zelda and Alfonso in the fields of Hyrule but then confronted by Chancellor Cole and his Henchman Staven. Staven injurs Alfonso and Chancellor Cole Stuns Zelda and takes her body with him leaving Link and Alfonso Passed Out.
In the game you play alongside Zelda as a ghost so she can stay with you at all costs so you can work together as a team.
In each part of the game, you have to restore and recover parts of the Railway map (Railroad Map for you Yanks) and the railway itself to travel to different parts of Hyrule and driving the train in Hyrule is such fun but you got to pay attention to the warning signs ahead on the line just to keep your passengers comfortable through out their journey because you have to transport people across Hyrule on your train especially transporting cargo as well. Once you successfully complete a small task, your customers will reward you with a Force Gem so newer sections of track will be built so you can explore those new area's everytime you get them.
There is a warning on the line is that on different sections of the railway map, you'll see evil trains running on the railway line so watch out for them because if you see one of those trains on your section of track, be ready to reverse your train to a section of track quickly so the incoming evil train can pass through a junction to where it's going because if you don't, the train will come crashing into yours and you will be killed so be very careful when planning you route.
In sections of the Spirit Tower you have to collect 3 Tears of light in order to control a Phantom so when you collect all 3 of them, get ready to strike your sword on the Phantom's back and then Princess Zelda will take control of the Phantom itself. The Spirit Tower can be challening at times but you'll get used to and it is tough.
The new instrument the Spirit Pipes is very useful in the game because when you need a bit of help sometimes in your quest, there are some clues in the that may help you but you need to play one song that you will lead you into each Dungeon and it can only be done when you meet a Lokomo. Lokomos teach you each song to play with your Spirit Pipes to restore a section of line to get to the Dungeon by playing The Song of Restoration.
You can write notes again from the top screen just like Phantom Hourglass and that's great so you can solve your challenging puzzles just like in the last game.
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is one of the toughest Zelda games yet and it takes a lot longer to complete through and if you are a big fan of Zelda series, this should keep you going for such a long time all the way though to next year.
The game itself may also appeal to railway enthusiasts like me.