Phantom Hourglass lives up to the Zelda Standard.
First and foremost, immediately upon playing I learned the game's controls are on a touch only basis, with no other alternative d-pad method available. Initially I was a little speculative as to how well it would work in a zelda game, and I did hit a learning curve, but within half an hour I got the hang of it. You touch on the screen where you want Link to go and he'll go in a straight path to where you pointed. You can tap enemies to sword them, slash randomly with stylus for a less precise approach, or draw a circle around Link for a spin attack. Drawing little circles around the end of the screen in the direction you want to go produces a roll, and tapping friends or signs will let you speak or interact with them. For the most part this system works just fine. Occasionally the ds will have trouble interpreting your movements, but after about a half hour or so once you understand what the ds wants for a certain action, it works very well. Where the touch control shines is the innovative use of items. For the boomerang, you simply draw the path you want it to take and it follows, same goes for the bombchu. The game also lets you write notes on the map, draw symbols on doors and tablets, draw your path for the boat to follow, shoot cannon balls, and more. Each is done in a very intuitive way which is fun and works absolutely great. The touch only controls make for a gameplay experience as fun and immersive as any game I have played. The game pokes humor about the touch-only controls by having the ghost of a fallen soldier remark his biggest regret in his life was wishing for a d-pad control, but believe me, you will not spend much time at all wishing for an alternative control method.
From a technical and artistic aspect, the graphics in Phantom hourglass look better than any other ds game I have played. The developers did an excellent job bringing the world of Zelda to life with vibrant colors and clarity. The cell-shading is back and looks just as good as it did for Windwaker. While I still prefer the more realistic look from twilight princess, the cell-shaded world is still a pleasure to look at and explore, and it keeps the mood of the game light-hearted.
The Soundtrack for the game, while not as good as say Ocarina of Time, is still excellent. The theme played while sailing sounds satisfyingly epic, and the variation of new themes and nostalgic classics make for a great listening experience. In terms of effects, everybody and everything sounds exactly as they should, which is awesome. My only complaint is the theme when in dungeons and temples is pretty much the same no matter which temple your in, so I got a little tired of hearing it.
In terms of total value, Phantom Hourglass is a high value game. The story will take the average gamer 10-15 hours, but wandering around the world beating side-quests could stretch the game to 50 hours easily. Overall the game was fairly easy, but there were three distinct moments of frustration where I could not figure out what to do for the life of me. Of course when I figured it out I felt really stupid because it was much simpler than anything I had been trying. I'll save you a lot of time now, when you have to draw a triforce don't overlap any lines or it won't register, I spent a good 30 minutes trying to draw that stupid triforce before it finally registered. With those 3 moments, the difficulty averages out to be just right for most gamers, combined with the lengthy sidequests and freedom to explore, Hourglass is worth anyone's money.
Unfortunately, the game is not perfect. There is one temple which you have to visit multiple times, and it has like 12 floors or so. Every time you go there, you are timed, and you have to redo the same things you did the last time. There is a checkpoint about midway through, but if you get there with a bad time you'll have to redo it because time is essential in that temple. If you're familiar with the darkworld from Metroid Prime 2, this temple is the equivolent, because at least for me, I dreaded every time I had to go and deal with the Temple. Also some minor touch related issues contribute to dragging down the game's rating. Since the movements are kind of up to the interpretation of the ds, you might occasionally whiff at an enemy, and accidently jump off a cliff, or roll uncontrollably when you're not trying to, and sometimes your hand will cover the screen. For the most part these were non-issues but I have to account for them.
Ultimately, Phantom Hourglass stands up the best of the Zelda's (I'd say a little better than majora's mask, a little worse than windwaker), the innovative gameplay makes for an outstanding game overall.