Some may think that a hand-held Zelda meant a smaller, and therefore worse game. Well think again.
This is the sequel to the Wind Waker [GC], which was an incredibly enjoyable adventure with a tonne of replay factor and Phantom Hourglass delivers no less. In fact, it improves on the original in more ways than one. The most significant one, is that the game is played entirely with the stylus, which works incredibly well.
For starters, the amount of sea in Wind Waker was ridiculous, taking an incredibly long time to go from island to island, making it the wrong game for a quick 10-minute blast. Well, Nintendo have listened to the criticism, making the ocean many times smaller, making it much easier to get from place to place.
There's more than 10 islands, and most of them have some kind of dungeon on, but one temple, The Temple of the Ocean King, you will keep coming back to, for reasons I won't display here. Each time you return delving deeper into it's mysteries. You can go back through these dungeons once you've done them too, but treasure chests and bosses won't come back, which is a bit disappointing and also leaves practically no drive to enter dungeons that you've done before unless you've missed treasure.
But there are also tonnes or hidden treasure to find, whether it is Spirit Gems to give your sword special powers, or heart containers to increase your maximum life. Another thing that keeps it alive is the inclusion of Multi-Player. Even though it isn't an extra in the story, allowing two Links to play at once through the story, the game is rather enjoyable. When you're playing against your friends. Even though it has Wi-Fi, and even though that has friend connect, it just doesn't give an incentive to play apart from a few treasures that you can get in game for playing online. When you're playing against a friend in the same room however, the game becomes strangely addictive; with 9 maps to play on, you either have the task of collecting Force Gems as Link, or the Phantoms who are trying to kill Link. After about 2 minutes, you swap over. You do this 3 times and the person with the most points at the end of the 3 rounds wins. Link is controlled with the touch screen like the single-player mode, and the 3 Phantoms are controlled by drawing their path on the map with the stylus.
+LEMON LOVES+
+The smaller ocean
+The Multi-Player (With Friends)
+The low amount of lag on Online
++The great story
++The sheer diversity of the dungeons and the monsters
+++The stylus controls
-LEMON LOATHES-
-The slightly short story
-Multi-Player (With Anyone)
-The lack of incentive to do previous dungeons
--The fact that there is no option to fight previous bosses.
---There's not enough important treasure to hunt down,