One of my favorite games of all-time is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and so it's probably needless to say, but I was ecstatic when I heard there was going to be a sequel to one of my faves, but there was some apprehension after being less than thrilled with the sameness of The Twilight Princess. After journeying for so long and setting sail once again, I'm happy to report that Nintendo has created a sequel that does the first one justice.

THE STORY SO FAR
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Phantom Hourglass from here on) takes place literally right after Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which had Link, after rescuing Princess Zelda, set sail with her to adventures and treasures unknown. After a brief intro detailing the story of the first game, we find Link and Tetra (Princess Zelda's alter-ego she goes by) onboard her pirate ship with her lackeys when the mysterious Ghost Ship attacks. Tetra, intent on attacking, jumps onboard, but Link can't make the leap and falls to the icy waters below as Tetra is taken away. Link soon finds himself on an island with only one mission – find the Ghost Ship and get Tetra back.

The game unfolds like most of the other Zelda games, where you have to save the princess, but in order to do so first you have to go on a journey to gather a couple keys or whatever the artifact is, and then after you gather them all only then can you rescue Zelda. Phantom Hourglass doesn't really change that formula at all, but things are more streamlined and natural flowing, though the game gives you the opportunity to explore sections of the ocean whenever you want for the most part. By giving the player clear directions on where they need to head next, the game bypasses a lot of the tedium that comes from looking around, simply trying to figure out where to go next.

There isn't much story as a whole as you advance through from beginning to end, but that's typical of many of the Zelda games, where you'll have moments of story, only to have a bunch of adventuring and puzzles leading up to it. The journey forward is of course the story of Link trying to get to Zelda, so there is story in that regards, but nothing like constant cutscenes or melodramatic diatribes. Instead the story is simply told in a straightforward manner with characters that contain a good bit of humor to make them all relatable and likable.

SINGLE PLAYER: GAMEPLAY
Other than the odd endeavor here or there, the Zelda games have always been a single player adventure, and such is the case with Phantom Hourglass besides one diversion to appease those multiplayer fans.

The first thing to point out is that this game is perhaps the defining achievement in showing just all the gameplay possibilities the DS is capable of thanks to its touchscreen design, as I'm not joking when I say literally everything is controlled by the stylus, and marvelously at that. You'll touch the screen and move your stylus around to make Link run in the direction you're pointing; you'll make Link open doors by tapping on them; you'll perform attacks by slashing at the screen, drawing a circle around Link, or tapping on an enemy; you'll make Link throw boomerangs by drawing their flight trajectory. For the simpler moves, the controls are flawless with Link reacting expertly to your every command, but when it comes to the more complex stuff like his cyclone spinning slash, it can be a bit hard to draw that circle perfectly so that Link will perform the maneuver.

The stylus is also used in other ways that don't have to deal with combat, such as using it to help solve puzzles and salvage buried treasure. On the puzzle side of things, many of the puzzles this time around have to do with Link memorizing paths and patterns, with the only easy way of doing things is by taking notes. By quickly tapping a button, the action will pause and your map of the area will shift down to the bottom screen, where you can then circle important monuments or write notes on it, such as detailing a path on an invisible walkway or number statues in which order they must be hit. You'll also have to do things like draw the outline of a map and inscribe an insignia on a door to make it open. As for trying to salvage treasure from the bottom of the sea, you'll control your boat's crane arm with the stylus, moving a box left and right to make your crane shift left and right to avoid mines, and you can push up or down to slow it up or give it some speed (the directions change depending on if you are going down or coming up).

The game also uses the other functions of the DS to solve its puzzles, such as making you blow into the system to blow dust off a map or make some windmills spin; scream at the top of your lungs into the microphone to get a price check; and the coolest moment had me actually closing my DS system to imprint a stamp from one screen to the next. Whoever came up with all these inventive ways to use the system should be commended, and should give pointers to all the companies who make DS games. Phantom Hourglass is the game to use to show your friends just what this system is capable of.

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