Puzzles nearly everwhere you can look, Phantom Hourglass may seem better for kids, but players of any age can enjoy it!
The graphics have since been downgraded from Wind Waker (obviously, I mean it is a handheld game), but once again, any continuous play of this cel-shaded blur of a game, and you are bound to make yourself violently ill, if not, just ill. However, regardless the beautiful animation put to every aspect of this game will blow your mind, nostalgia of the Wind Waker era popping up a good deal. Bright outfits, huge eyes and expressions not of this world? That's Phantom Hourglass for you.
The sound is the same as you will remember from Wind Waker, similar tunes popping in here and there, but the biggest similarity to any new-age Zelda game is the amazingly orchestrated soundtrack put to all the different settings. Sure, the consistently happy music can get on your nerves when you are at a difficult or irritating point of the game, but the work put into the audio quality and composition in this game deserves more credit then can be truly given to a handheld game.
Now the game-play is the big difference in this Zelda installment. Most of the action in the game happens on small islands situated at random points of the ocean, which is split up into bearings, being four seperate sea charts (NW, SW, NE, SE). On top of this, a classic item has been added back into the mix, the shovel! What a flashback. You cruise around in a ship owned by a mysterious treasure "hunter" named Linebeck. Through the game you can collect treasures (money makers) and ship parts, which you can deck your ship out in, with their being many sets, such as the Demon Ship, the Tropical Ship, the Mermaid Ship, and a lot more then that. There are even means of repetitive methods of obtaining as many ship parts as you could want, without spending a single Rupee (hint: have you noticed you can change the date on the DS?). You can also unlock fun things to do like fishing and countless mini-games dotted about the sea, making this game the type of game you can play for hours on end (if the animation doesn't make you ill before you get bored).
Overall, damn does this game have flare and a half added to nearly every nook and cranny of the wide-spread ocean or what? If you are a fan of Zelda games, this is a MUST-BUY! Any Zelda nut will be gasping at the astonishing ways Nintendo have harnessed the mighty abilities of the DS. If you don't like Zelda, buy it, because it is a whole heap of fun, which differs from the rest of the series in huge leaps at a time, but somehow manages to keep its beauty that the Zelda installments have always kept since the beginning.
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 9/10
Gameplay - 9/10
Overall - 9/10