The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Riding the Rails Trains, swords and yellow boomerangs…
by Walt Pretorius
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he Legend of Zelda apparently is becoming something of a never-ending story, with protagonist Link back for yet another adventure in the form of the DS-based Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. And, true to form, the developers have tried to add something new to the title, to make it more than just a dungeon-roaming romp. It seems that the kingdom of Hyrule are crisscrossed by railways that have something to do with the security of the kingdom. Constructed ages ago, these tracks help keeps things calm and peaceful. Ah, the joys of video games, which allow massive plot holes simply for the inclusion of a new idea. How come no-one ever saw these tracks in any of the other Zelda games? Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. The kingdom is threatened (again) by a rather nasty character (again) and it is up to the player (again) to save the day in the guise of
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Link. This time, though, to add some spice, he is not just a young warrior able to best the kingdom’s enemies – he is also a locomotive engineer. A lot of people maligned Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker when it was released, because of the seemingly endless travelling that the player had to do. But at least Wind Waker gave you freedom to explore. The thing with trains, see, is that they only go where the tracks allow them to. That means that the large amounts of travel the player gets to do between bashing stuff in this title is even less stimulating than that in Wind Waker. Sure, you get to fire a cannon every now and then, and the controls allow the player to do necessary planning, to avoid other trains and animals on the tracks, but the whole thing is rather pedantic at best, and painful at worst. Between riding the rails, Link will embark on numerous more traditional adventures. He has a musical instrument
gamecca review • issue 15 • September 2010