I pre-ordered The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks from Amazon, and it arrived the day of release (or maybe the next day). I played the game quite a bit after that until I completed it, including all sorts of extra time running around doing errands and trying to earn things.
The game was very well done. If you’ve played the previous DS game, Phantom Hourglass, you know basically what you’re getting. The game is pretty, and controls very well. The previous game’s biggest annoyance (replaying the same temple over and over again) is fixed. While there is a central dungeon in this game, you skip each section you’ve completed (unless you choose to revisit it) so it’s always fresh. You don’t end up having to play the same small section 6 or 7 times by the end of the game. The various areas are all quite different, and some of the boss fights (like the one in a cavern, and the demon train) are very impressive.
The story is nice, and riding around on the train is a ton of fun. By the end of the game, I wished I could get a faster train though. You can upgrade your train (note: don’t sell your treasures, they are traded in for train parts, the parts aren’t bought), but it’s purely cosmetic. Like in Wind Waker having a matching set of parts grants you extra hearts for your train so you can take more damage, but it’s not really necessary.
The side missions in the game took up a lot of my time. Unlike some games where they feel like boring filler to earn extra money, they are rewarding in Spirit Tracks. Finding and catching all the rabbits (I got almost all) was a challenge. Finding the various extra stations and stops and playing through their dungeons was great. Some of the optional challenge missions (like delivering blocks of ice to the Gorons) proved to be very tough.
If you like Zelda games, you’ll love Spirit Tracks.
