Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are now in the outbox, and I get a nice, little Zelda break until my copy of Skyward Sword HD arrives later in the month. I know that I suggested in one past blog post that I wasn’t too interested in buying SS again, but… I’m a consumer whore!
Not that I haven’t been taking breaks between Zeldas anyway. I mean, I spent a little more than an entire week playing nothing except Subnautica. Actually, outside of work and sleep, I barely did anything other than play Subnautica that week. For a game so broken, it really got its claws into me, and I still can’t stop thinking about it.
So, the DS Zeldas… Man, it’s complicated. I’m happy that The Wind Waker got two sequels, and I like how creative the games are, but I don’t like that they are controlled entirely by the touch screen. 90% of the time it works fairly well, but I really just don’t like it. And the games could never be remade without a major overhaul, since so much depends on those touch controls. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are destined to be lost to time, forever trapped in the DS era because of their silly control gimmick.
In some ways it’s for the best, though. For all the things I like about Spirit Tracks, the stupid microphone pan flute gimmick is the literal worst thing that has ever happened in human history. Also the final boss gauntlet is unbelievably frustrating thanks to the touchscreen controls.
These two games are pretty easy to place on my list. My distaste for the touch controls is strong enough to drop them straight down to the bottom, despite any and all of their merits.
- Link’s Awakening
- Majora’s Mask
- The Wind Waker
- A Link to the Past
- Twilight Princess
- Ocarina of Time
- The Minish Cap
- Four Swords Adventures
- The Legend of Zelda
- Oracle of Seasons
- Oracle of Ages
- Phantom Hourglass
- Spirit Tracks
- The Adventure of Link