I’ve finally powered my way through Spirit Tracks and managed to get a review uploaded to the ThumbSticks website. The game exceeded my expectations and features some fantastic dungeon puzzling, so I highly recommend it to anyone who owns a Nintendo DS. There doesn’t appear to be that many high profile DS games to get excited about this year, so Spirit Tracks is well worth looking into. The preview for my review is below, but you can read the full article by just clicking on the ‘more’ button.
Nintendo has kept the future of Link surprisingly quiet over the past six months. With the next dedicated Wii Zelda still a long way off, fans of Hyrule have been treated to two hand-held offerings to fill the void.
Phantom Hourglass was released on the Nintendo DS in 2007 and now gamers have been treated to Spirit Tracks. With little marketing and an identical engine, players have been understandably sceptical that this sequel is just an unoriginal stepping stone to tide us over. So does Spirit Tracks fly like the bullet train or splutter like the London Underground? (More)
Having never finished the Gamecube title The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, I just picked it up at my local CEX for the bargain price of £4. I’ll be doing a retro review of it next, so look out for my initial impressions here on my blog. Until next time!
JetSetNick
There’s something ever so friendly and familiar about starting a new game on The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Whether it’s inputting your custom name for Link or visiting the Castle of Hyrule, everything feels as it should be. It’s as if your returning home after having spent a long vacation overseas. Normally I would criticise a game for resting on its laurels and refusing to improve its design structure, but somehow Nintendo makes it appealing. Many of the ‘Big N’s’ other portable franchises do the same; for example, in Pokemon you always will begin by receiving your first creature from Professor (insert random tree name here) in his laboratory. Logic yearns for me to hate the lack of creativity in these game designers but I wouldn’t want it be any other way – because it’s still incredibly fun.
The sense of nostalgia and familiarity taps perfectly into the mindset of Zelda fanboys like myself. Link is an elderly hero in the video game universe, dating back farther than most modern protagonists dare. Nods of approval in updated sequels such as Spirit Tracks act as a homage to the classics preceding it; a gaming insider’s reward for our loyalty to the house of Mario. Yet whilst the core remains the same, Eiji Aonuma walks the tightrope of originality by offering fresh gameplay mechanics, gadgets and puzzles. The first dungeon in Spirit tracks is memorable and spooky, but evolves with the whirlwind device that requires you to blow into the microphone. Traversing the world of Hyrule summons the same iconic imagery of adventure, only this time it’s aboard a train rather than Link’s trusty steed. It’s still the classic Triforce that we love and expect… just updated.
I’m a little way through The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (I’ve just entered the snow kingdom), but I’m already enjoying it as a portable outing. My brief session on Phantom Hourglass left me admittedly uneducated on the raw power that a Zelda title can churn out of the Nintendo DS. The size of the over world matches the scope of most rival RPG’s on the system, but trumps them by opting for a full 3D environment. By utilising the cel-shaded design that originated on the Gamecube’s Windwaker, Aonuma has cleverly managed to strip away all the detail and still retain delicate visuals. The art direction is perfectly suited to the title’s family audience, the wide array of colours and pastels conjuring a binary scene to the grim atmosphere in Twilight Princess.
Some of the cut scenes are a little ropey due to the minimal voice acting and heavy use of text boxes. This has become a running convention in the Legend of Zelda series though and will probably be maintained for many sequels to come. Suddenly giving Link some unexpected vocal chords would understandably shock and alter the voice that gamers have been forced to imagine over the years. The soundtrack is beautifully composed, with cheerful country pan pipes running as a theme throughout. Balanced between chiptune and a full blown orchestra, it does an effective job of updating Zelda’s classic audio themes.
Until I’ve finished the title I won’t offer a full written review, but I can vouch that it’s certainly one of the best Nintendo DS games that came out last year. Whether you’re a veteran of Hyrule or a complete newcomer, the scale and care that has been put into this game is well worth your attention.
JetSetNick
The iconic green suit of Master Chief looks incredibly boring to me. Take on the role of a space marine, murder lots of aliens, watch a cutscene and repeat. Sorry Bungie, but I’ve been there and done it before in dozens of other first person shooters. This is perhaps why I’ve never been drawn to the Halo series, Microsoft’s behemoth whose fame has only recently been eclipsed by Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty. Nothing about it seems particularly fresh or original; the weapons feel too familiar and the sci-fi setting is generic and cliched. Yet despite these observations, I wasn’t going to whine until I’d actually gone hands-on with one of Halo’s instalments. So I picked up Halo 3: ODST, presuming that the latest iteration would also be the most polished. All of my previous fears proved correct.
The budget behind Bungie instantly shows. The narrative starts with a well established cutscene, the immaculate voice acting and animation models giving substantial life to the squad of ‘Orbital Drop Shock Troopers’. The characterisation of Buck and Dare must also be commended, their angry banter imitating a very realistic love/ hate relationship within the battlefield. Even the structure of the game is thought provoking, flipping backwards and forwards in time as you discover and immerse yourself in the memories of your team mates. Yet despite all of these graces, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a lack of heart in ODST. New Mombasa is a desolate cliche, lifeless and desperately trying to imitate Fallout 3’s Washington D.C. Sorry Bungie, but Bethesda Game Studios have not only beaten you to the punch, but done it drastically better.
Certain crucial gameplay mechanics also appear to be missing. Without any form of sprint ability, you’re often left plodding through the city at a crawl, toggling the VISR HUD on and off out of sheer boredom. The exemption of natural cover leaves you constantly in the danger of enemy fire, forcing you to strafe from left to right and shoot in a pop-up arcade fashion. Carrying only two weapons is another frustration, the non-existance of ammuntion causing the player to ditch and switch weapons at every oppurtunity. At one point I grew rather fond of my silenced sub-machine gun, dispatching multiple covenant with ease as I hoped to defend my outpost. Once I has dispensed my miniscule magazine I was forced to run around the entire level uprotected, checking all of my enemies until I could finally find someone with a firearm slightly more powerful than a pistol.
The variety in mission types kept my interest piqued, but it all came to a close far too quickly. The campaign is over in literally six hours. I don’t care if this was originally meant to be an expansion pack or a piece of DLC, that’s simply far too short to warrant a full price tag. The inclusion of Halo 3 multiplayer maps (which i’m sure most people had before ODST was released anyway) doesn’t sweeten the deal for me in the slightest. Collectible audio files help to lengthen the experience, but they’re not dependent enough to the progression of the plot and feel like an afterthought by someone who had recently played Bioshock.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh on the Halo franchise. Not every game can match the pedigree of Fallout 3 and Gears of War, but I’ve always felt that the adventures of Master Chief would be one such a series. Halo Reach is quite possibly the last instalment for Bungie and will be a testament as to how the franchise will be remembered. As it stands, there’s a lot more work to be done.
JetSetNick
