Currently Playing: Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Me and Zelda have a history of never really seeing eye too eye. I really couldn't get on with the SNES port on the GBA.. It's just too old school. I famously managed to get stuck on the tutorial of Wind Waker and whilst I made more progress on Orcarina of Time I don't think it aged well.

However I'm currently flush with enthusiasm for all things DS and having spotted a copy of the Phantom Hourglass for a tenner it didn't seem like a huge risk.

When I heard that Links control mechanism was to be with the stylus I imagined some kind of rubbish point and click style effect that would be vague and annoying. In fact it's a stroke of genius. The game pretty much does away with the face buttons almost entirely (there's one button that switches the screens but more on this later) and is all the better for it. Link is a joy to control and deft movement is soon second nature.

For me though the main improvement is in the structure. Underneath the pretty Wind Waker-ish cell shaded graphics (there's one windy Isle where Link has to run against the wind and the animation is almost too cute.) it's pretty much still the top down levels of Zelda of old. But here the story and your progress are much more focused.. There's a steady progression of islands, dungeons and items that your receive that make progress possible and it's nearly always clear where you should be going next.

That's not too say exploration is out. There's plenty of islands not on the map to find and explore and sunken treasures to find.. But it's rare also when you're not entirely sure where to go next.

Even returning to the same central dungeon repeatedly isn't too much of a chore. You can switch the top map screen down to the lower screen and write notes to yourself on where switches and items (and anything else that takes your fancy) are straight onto the screen. This combined with the new items and abilities mean that levels of the dungeon that took all your time and powers of lateral thinking become easier.

Hopefully I'll be able too see the adventure all the way to the end. I'm even thining of giving The Wind Waker another whirl.