For the first Zelda on the DS, the bar has been set high.
If you played Animal Crossing for the DS, you’re going to know what you’re in for control wise here. Everything you do is controlled by the stylus, moving, attacking, and any other thing you can think of. But it is executed gracefully so all the actions don’t get cluttered up. To attack you can tap an enemy and you’ll lock on to it or you can just swipe the stylus on the screen to attack multiple enemies. To do a spin attack all you have to do is draw a circle around Link and there you go. Other items such as the boomerang have you draw out a path with your stylus for it to follow, this makes the boomerang the most useful it’s ever been in any Zelda game. The game is a direct sequel to Wind Waker so once again you will be sailing the seas. This time it’s a lot easier, like the boomerang all you have to do is set a path and the boat will sail automatically. You will have to avoid the traps fire your cannon every once and a while, but sailing isn’t as much of a chore as it was in Wind Waker. As for story, it’s your classic and true Zelda format. Tetra (Zelda) hops on a ghost pirate ship and gets kidnapped and you, Link, need to rescue her again. Not Shakespeare, but its Zelda, whatever. Over all, Phantom Hourglass is a near perfect adaptation of Zelda for the Nintendo DS. It controls well with only a few minor annoyances, it looks great, and has great music/audio.