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    Text Box:   The Legend of Zelda:  Phantom Hourglass (DS)   For a long time, Phantom Hourglass (PH) was my most anticipated DS game in the world. It promised to bring a new Zelda adventure to the DS, one which retained the top-down style of 2D Zeldas while using 3D cel-shaded graphics and some fancy new touchscreen controls. This was followed by many years of waiting, anticipating, and even a lot of doubt. “Would the touchscreen controls revitalise or kill the game?”, I wondered. Now the game has finally arrived, and the only remaining question is: was it worth the wait? Well, after playing the game thoroughly, I can safely say that it has not only lived up to all of it’s promises, but also exceeded the wildest expectations of even the most optimistic DS fan. Let’s begin with the story. As a direct sequel to Wind Waker (WW), the game begins with Link sailing the seas with Tetra (otherwise known as Zelda) in search of adventure. After much adventuring, they stumble upon the legendary Ghost Ship. Tetra boards the ship and is captured, while Link, in an effort to save her, falls off the ship and is washed up on an island. He soon meets some important characters- Oshus, a helpful old man well versed in the sea, Ciela, a fairy who is quite similar to Ocarina of Time’s Navi, and Linebeck, an adventurer who owns a nifty steam-powered ship. And so Link begins his quest to save Tetra.  One thing about this game is that the touchscreen controls are spot on. Anyone who has used stylus-based controls before will settle in quite quickly, and they are so precise that Link will end up doing exactly what you tell him to do. But the touchscreen controls are only the tip of the iceberg, because with PH, Nintendo have used every trick in the DS book. You’ll be using the microphone to blow away dust and shout at people, the dual screens for some ingenious boss battles and occasional puzzles, and the touchscreen for every possible touchscreen application that anyone could ever think of (including the ability to draw on maps, which is implemented perfectly and utilised for some creative new puzzles). Some DS games come up with one or two innovative uses for the console, whereas PH innovates in every facet of it’s gameplay.       Screens: Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

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