While some may be disappointed that a new Legend of Zelda wasn’t announced for the Wii during Nintendo’s keynote, there’s still some assurance that a fully playable demo of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was featured at Nintendo’s booth on the show floor.  While most of the gameplay mechanics remained the same from Phantom Hourglass, that’s not exactly a bad thing–especially when this is what is essentially the sequel to our highest rated DS game.

Not much is known about the game’s story as of press time, but we all know this: Link has a train.  We’re guessing that instead the train has replaced the boat as Link’s main method of travel, and so far, it’s safe to say that conducting the train is a lot more fun than sailing the boat.  Aside from the fact that train tracks are linear, there is a lot of action to be had on this train.  You’ll be attacked time and time again by enemies chasing the train, but luckily for Link, he has an endless supply of bombs that he can launch at the bad guys simply by touching them on the touch screen.  Players can also hold the stylus on parts of the screen to move the camera around for better shooter angles.

The right-hand side of the touch screen has a lever that controls the train’s speed.  It can be moved up to make the train go at its fastest, stay in the middle for the train to go at its normal speed, or you can simply stop the train by flipping the lever down to the lowest position.  In addition to the train’s controls, there’s a rope on the top of touch screen that you can pull down to make Link honk its horn.  It’s unknown whether honking does anything, but it’s definitely a nice touch.  The top screen, once again, acts as a map so if you ever take the wrong route with the train, you can always consult the map.

The other part of the demo had Link go through a few rooms of a dungeon with lots of fire.  For those of you who haven’t exactly been following up on the game, Link now has a phantom companion that’s actually made of stone, which makes him invulnerable to fire and lava.  Players can take control of the phantom by touching a panel on the bottom left hand of the touch screen, and drawing a line from the phantom to the area in which you want it to go.  We had to use this strategy many times to allow for Link to pass through a hallway of fire-spitting statues, with the phantom blocking the hazards.  With this, you can also expect to use the phantom as a means of crossing lava, or in typical Zelda fashion, as an extra paperweight to stand on panels at the same time to open doors.

It’s pretty obvious that Spirit Tracks is using the exactly same visual and gameplay engine as its predecessor in Phantom Hourglass.  As usual, Zelda looks as colorful as ever, and toon-shaded Wind Waker-style visuals give Link some detailed expressions.  While the style is starting to grow tiresome, it still gets the job done, and we expect Spirit Tracks to be just as pretty as Phantom Hourglass when the game is released.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is slated for release at holiday season of this year, and you can expect a review at around that time.  Until then, we’ll have more information and another preview on the game as soon as details on the story become available.  Stay tuned to Gamer 2.0′s SmashPad for more up-to-the-second E3 coverage.

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Related posts:

1. Review: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
2. E3 2010 Preview – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
3. Review: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)
4. E3 2009: Forza Motorsport 3 Preview (Xbox 360)
5. E3 2009: Dissidia: Final Fantasy Preview (PSP)

About This Author: Danreb Victorio

Danreb Victorio is SmashPad's longest tenured staff member and has been writing for the publication since its existence as Gaming-Nation, Inside Gamer Online, Amped IGO, Amped News, and Gamer 2.0. Though SmashPad has gone through many branding changes, Danreb has remained the same--he pushes out content while also improving his craft with every piece that gets published. As a Co-Managing Editor, Danreb, along with Chris Selogy, is in charge of assigning, maintaining, and providing SmashPad's editorial content. Danreb is currently an undergraduate at San Jose State University studying to earn a bachelor of science in magazine journalism. In addition to SmashPad, you can read his work on Yelp.com and San Jose State University's student newspaper, The Spartan Daily.

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