So here it is, the latest installment of the Zelda series, this time for the nintendo DS. This game is in the "Windwaker" family of cell-shaded Zelda games, and takes place in the same kind of mostly watery "world." As in windwaker sailing around is a big part of the game, but luckily, this time you dont need to worry about wind direction or anything, since you're boat is steam powered.

Overall the game is a lot like other zelda games. theres a damsel in distress, which means you need to go into a bunch of dungeons, get treasures in them, and use said treasure to kill the dungeon boss. Then you sail to another island, and repeat the process. There's a new part to the formula, however, and it's one i can't say I'm very happy about, the "Ocean Temple" (i think thats what its called anyway). Basically its a dungeon like any other, except there's all kinds of elements in it to make it no fun at all. First of all, you can't get all the way through it the first time, which mans you need to go back, not once, not twice, but literally every time you beat another dungeon, you're back to the f'n ocean place. Not only do you have to go back a million times, the place is reset every time too, so you have to take the same route down, pick up keys from the same places, and go down the same steps just to get back to where you were before. There's eventually a save point that lets you teleport back about halfway through the temple, which is nice...but why cant you just teleport back to the last place you were every time? Why have to run through the same exact puzzles over and over again? The next most annoying part of the dungeon is there are unkillable baddies. Thats right, armored guys you can't possibly kill, so while solving puzzels and collecting keys, you need to sneak around some moving sentries too. wheeee. what happens if they see you? they chase you down and can kill you in one hit, so you need to run to the nearest "safe zone" that magically makes it so they cant see you anymore. on top of all of that, you're timed too. It turns out thats what the "phantom hourglass" is for. It protects you from having your "life sucked out of you" by the evil in the temple, but it only lasts so long. Killing bosses in other temples gives you more sand for the hourglass so you have time to get further in the ocean temple. Anyway, if it weren't for this part of the game i would probably enjoy this game a whole lot more.

Other than "the temple of the ocean king" the dungeons are fun and dont take too long. There's a few nifty elements in the game too, like collecting "spirits" (fairies) from the first couple temples. There are 3 fairies in all, and once you have them you can hunt down some special gems to power them up. one fairy gives you more damage when you use it, one "powers up your defence" (never used it, dont care), and the third lets your sword shoot beams out, which is pretty handy at times. Generally i prefer the extra damage since i have a boomerang, bow, grappling hook, bombs, and hammer if i want to do ranged attacks. The extra amount of customization the fairys add is a nice little bit of the game.

Speaking of customization you can also change what your boat looks like, and since you spend a lot of time on the boat its good you can choose what it looks like. The way it works is when you find treasure, or win a minigame it has a chance to be a boat part. You can also buy some from stores. Anyway, each part is part of a set, and the more pieces you use from the same set boosts your boats max health, which is handy.

The controls for this game are pretty good. All movement of the character is done with the stylus. Running involves dragging the stylus across the screen and link follows, chopping and jabbing are quick swipes across the screen, and the spin attack is a quick circle drawn around your character. You can also draw a path for your boomerang and bombchus to follow, which helps out a lot in some situations. The downside is sometimes it's very hard to get link to attack what you want. I'll be swiping away at a baddie, and he'll start stabbing the air. I'll draw the circle around him and he'll run in some kind of half-assed circle and stop. Most of the time it works out nicely though.

And finally, the biggest improvement of any zelda game ever, you can draw on 99% of the maps. Is there an important switch in the dungeon? a spot you'll need to bomb when you get bombs? a chest you dont want to forget to open? make a note on the map! it's brilliant. If only Ocarina of Time had that, maybe it would be possible to finish the f'n water temple inside of 12 hours.

All in all Phantom Hourglass is an entertaining game, and i've had a lot of fun playing it. I find myself putting it down for a few weeks at a time when the next place i have to go is that damn ocean temple, though. i would give it a 3.5 out of 5, and it would have been a lot better if 1) i could actually kill the sentries in the ocean temple so it didnt have to be a sneaking mission everytime or 2) i only had to deal with the ocean temple once.