After unveiling the new game at GDC 09′, console giant Nintendo has recently revealed that their second Zelda installment for the DS would be shipping Monday 7th of December. And unlike Phantom Hourglass where the travel was based on a barg…I mean speedy ship; this installment will make use of your conducting skills as you take charge of a steam engine train.
Now, I’m a huge fan of the Zelda series and still to this day re-play both N64 games regularly to get my boomerang and bomchu on and was rendered completely dumbstruck by the awesomeness that was Twilight Princess when I tackled that on the Gamecube. However, Phantom Hourglass provided me with quite a bit frustration for the little amount of time I played it. Not in terms of general gameplay as it was quite intuitive on the DS but specifically the boating sequences.
Because while this was a great way to make use of the DS screen i.e. you would draw the path you wanted the boat to sail; the incredibly slow speed of the journey detracted somewhat from the excitement and the random encounters with opponents slowed it up even more and made me feel like I was snooping through grass looking for Pokemon. I can however forgive Nintendo that bit of design because as said I am a fan of the series and understand the issues with new game mechanics. Mostly though because Nintendo seem to have realized their mistake and the new game will feature a speed mechanic whereby you can adjust the speed of your mighty steam engine and make the journey time less apparently.
And granted I don’t think anything will come as close to as hardcore as pounding along Hyrule Field on the back of Epona brandishing the Master Sword, I really like the fact that Nintendo is attempting some new things with a series some people criticize for being static and repetitive.
Source – Gamespot
Last Updated: September 17, 2009
