The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass [DS]

Just a few short weeks ago, Nintendo launched the Japanese version of Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, the very first touch-screen controlled game in the Legend of Zelda series. We imported the game and love it to death - it's hard to imagine the idea of maneuvering Link using a stylus on the touch screen, but now that we're doing it it's hard to realize we were ever doubting the idea.

The big problem with the import is, of course, the language barrier - I mean, the first puzzle in the game requires reading skills to figure out how many palm trees are on the beach, and you write that answer on the sign to unlock a door that blocks your path to earning your sword. So, even though the game's been on the market for weeks in Japan, it's a big tease for the non-Japanese readers out there.

At the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Nintendo had the English language version of Phantom Hourglass available for play. In this demo you could go through the beginning of the game and get your sword and stomp through the first dungeon. The game's text's been fully translated so it was easy to follow along the story (incidentally, it revolves around finding a ghost ship) as well as learn all the touch screen moves - if you haven't been following the game's development, you need to understand that Phantom Hourglass doesn't use any action buttons. It's a stylus-driven action engine where sword slashes and jabs are done via tapping the on-screen enemies. You can roll and bump into trees by drawing small circles on the edges of the screen. And you can even doodle up notes on the game map.

So, all of the Electronic Entertainment Expo demo was stuff we've already seen in the Japanese version…just in English. The E3 demo also ended abruptly - most Nintendo E3 demos tend to be self-contained with a specific beginning, middle and end that lasts about five to ten minutes. The demo for Phantom Hourglass simply ended after a set number of minutes. In my case it ended in the middle of the hourglass-shaped cave where you need to rescue one of the lead characters in order to move on. No moving on here.

The US version's slated for an October 1st 2007 release. Watch for more information - this game's awesome.

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