I have to admit, I'm not much of a DS gamer. My wife actually talked me into to buying the system at first so that she could play Brain Age, and the backward compatibily with the GBA was the only thing I was interested in at first. Ever since, I haven't bought many games. New Super Mario Bros and two DS Castlevanias are all I've owned, and the only reason I was interested in them was because they played like GBA games. My wife has bought a few software applications that she thought were interesting, but overall the DS doesn't get a quarter as much playtime as my Gamecubes and GBAs.

Not that I don't like the DS. I'm cheering it on, and it's nice to see something different come to the market. It's just not for me. Touch screens, microphones and second screens might be changing the way gamers play, but I was never interested in changing the way I play. Or so I thought.

My brother recently came to visit me and brought me an english copy of Phantom Hourglass. I was shocked when I found there was no way to switch the control scheme to the standard D-pad and button configuration. I pretty much wrote off the game for a little while...

Yet it looks like Wind Waker and that really shocked me. Of course, the DS is probably a little less powerful than a Playstation 1, but what they've done graphically to the Phantom Hourglass really surprised me. I always thought that the DS hardware was fairly terrible when it came to 3D, but this game looks really good. As shallow as a reason as it was, that was the incentive I had to attempt to make my way through a game I controled with a pen.

Well, the rest is history. I've now put a few hours into the game and I'm quite addicted to it, and having just as much fun with it as I did with Twilight Princess at the beginning of this year. The touch screen controls are quite good, and I've gotten used to them. I still prefer the old control scheme, but drawing the path of the boomerang makes for some really interesting puzzles.The use of the microphone and second screen has sure made this game interesting at times, and embarrassing to play on a train.Plotting the ships course with the touch screen and then just worrying about jumping and where to shoot makes sailing much more fun than it was in Wind Waker.

I've just finished the second temple...the Wind Temple, and I have to say, from the moment I entered to the boss battle, it was a really differeny, yet familiar Zelda experience. While I've found nothing in the game particularly challenging yet, I've noticed the dungeon designs are simpler than in previous Zelda games. I'm hoping that they get a little more challenging. I'm absolutely in love with sailing, yet the world seems much smaller than Wind Wakers. Perhaps it's just the way the map is divided, but a little more ocean to explore would've been extremely welcome. The story is cool...I'm pretty happy that it's a continuation of Wind Waker. I really liked Wind Waker, and glad to see the new type of Zelda it had established is alive and well. Maybe people won't be so negative about this type of Zelda if Nintendo keeps it on the portables.

Once again, I have to mention it, I'm really surprised at how good this game looks. There is no pop-in of islands on the open sea, there isn't any visible polygon tearing in the waves and the music brings me straight back to fond memories of Wind Waker. Why aren't more DS games this good? Especially ones that use the touch screen?

I have to wonder why Nintendo chose to include this type of game in the Legend of Zelda series at all. Don't get me wrong, I love Zelda and am always happy to play a new one. With Nintendo trying to appeal to more "casual" audiences, I imagine that an established franchise like Zelda can be a bit intimidating to someone who just started playing games a year or two ago. Why have this game with the Zelda asthetic at all? Perhaps it was not meant to draw in new casual gamers for a change, perhaps it was to draw in old men who are set in their ways and avoid trying new things. Perhaps that's why it's in a familiar franchise with a radically different control scheme. Well, looks like it worked.

I was at the local gameshop tonight, and I noticed a bunch of what looks to be a plethora of good DS games coming out over here. Tales of Innocence, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, a new Advance Wars and even more games that seem to be really pushing the system to it's limits. The DS really has come into it's own. While I'm not going to go DS crazy, I'll no longer turn my nose up at games that seem really outlandish and strange, without trying them first. Perhaps I'll enjoy my DS a little more.