Here we are, just three days before Spirit Tracks ships in the United States and the official launch trailer for Spirit Tracks is now available. You can view the trailer below. It’s great at putting together a lot of what we already know about the game based on what we’ve seen in other trailers. Spirit Tracks ships on Monday the 7th here in the United States! Remember, here at Zelda Dungeon, we are already hard at work and will have portions of a Spirit Tracks Walkthrough available upon release!.
The last 24 hours here at Zelda Dungeon have been spent almost exclusively on our upcoming Spirit Tracks Walkthrough. Many of the big boys who usually write guides have setup their placeholder pages and our friends at Zelda Informer already have the first couple chapters of their Spirit Tracks Spoiler Free Walkthrough online! Here at Zelda Dungeon we are determined to try and get our walkthrough online as quick as possible, while keeping the Zelda Dungeon quality you’ve come to expect. So stay tuned!
With all that being said, there has been quite a bit of Zelda news the last two days. In the latest version of Iwata Asks, there is a six part interview with all sorts of Spirit Tracks talk and its a great read for those eagerly anticipating the next Zelda title.
Click read more to check out a small portion of the interview.
The guys over at GameTrailers.com have released their video review for the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Unlike most recent gameplay videos and short trailers, this video has a TON of new clips of the game and shows off several new enemies and bosses, as well as a brand new item. There really is a chunk load of spoilers in this video, more so than any trailer or gameplay video that we’ve seen up until now. I advise you not to watch or to click the comments if you do not want to be spoiled. If you don’t mind the spoilers however, enjoy this great review as its sure to make you anxious to get your hands on the game!
With Spirit Tracks already shipped out to many reviewers, it’s no surprise that reviews are starting to flow in. The folks over at CVG gave their review and scored the game at a 91%. This is probably one of the more spoiler-free reviews that you will read, so if you want to know a bit about the game, but don’t want to be overly spoiled, this is the review for you. Quoted below is a small excerpt from the conclusion of their review.
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks isn’t the refresh so many fans are calling for, but that task can be left for the next big boy Wii entry. Despite this – and the fact that it’s a little on the easy side, like Hourglass – this is still a stunning example of brilliant game design and you won’t find much better on any handheld.
Spirit Tracks is set to ship in just FIVE days. Be sure to check back at Zelda Dungeon, your Spirit Tracks Headquarters, as we will be providing a Spirit Tracks Walkthrough as quick as we can.
The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks is starting to get shipped out to many game magazines and reviewers across the globe and thus, many gameplay videos and spoilers should be becoming available over the next several days. The guys at GoNintendo recently updated a ten minute clip of Spirit Tracks on their Youtube account and its embedded below. The portion of the game on display is near the beginning of the game within the Forest Sanctuary. It shows off some basic puzzle solving, a couple of enemies, and Link learning a song for his Spirit Flute. There isn’t anything overly new or much spoilers in this video, but it is nice to see more gameplay. Enemy crows can be seen in the video, so that makes yet another returning enemy in the game.
The folks over at GameTrailers.com have uploaded several new videos showing off some of the cutscenes in the game, as well as some new gameplay. Shown below is the full gameplay scene of Link collecting the third Tear of Light and then Princess Zelda taking control over the body of a phantom.
Today we have for you all the opening video for The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. I do like the theme for the intro as I think it fits the overall Spirit Tracks feel. The video doesn’t show anything new, but its fun to see.
In another recent interview with Eiji Aonuma, the topic of modernization in the Legend of Zelda series had come up. With the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks utilizing a train as its main form of transportation, one must ask themselves, where does it end? Guns? Planes? Space Travel?
Technology actually was not a major concern for us when we decided to use the train. In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, the boat was the key mode of transportation. Now that Spirit Tracks takes place on land, we needed a new way for players to get around, and felt that the train offered the best sense of exploration and discovery. We don’t think it feels out of place in the game world. Trains are also a popular mode of transportation in Japan. My children and I still feel a great sense of adventure when we ride trains in Japan.
Regarding use of other forms in technology in the future, as long it adds to the overall game experience and is something we feel the player would enjoy, we wouldn’t be afraid to implement it. As a matter of fact, we have used the Hook Shot in several previous games, which would be considered a very modern type of technology, even by today’s standards.
I’m with Eiji on this one. I don’t think that added technology or modernization distracts gamers from the actual game… as long as it is implemented properly. I had no issue with the steam boat from Phantom Hourglass, as it just seemed to fit. I cannot seem to visualize the Legend of Zelda series using cars or guns, or anything overly modernized… but who knows. If you asked me five years ago I might have thought a steam boat and a train were crazy ideas.
For the full interview, check out the article at Kotaku
The lovely artwork you see to the left is actually fan artwork created by River Zora, a registered member at the Zelda Informer message boards.
Back in early days of the Legend of Zelda series, official enemy artwork was widely available for the original Legend of Zelda and for the Adventure of Link. In fact, the artwork was right there inside of the very game manuals that the games shipped with. Additionally, several independent strategy guides, often times created their very own artwork for use in their publications. However, as the series progressed, official artwork and 3rd party artwork have become a much rarer occurrence.
With Phantom Hourglass, there were a few pieces of artwork for the bosses within the game, but barely any artwork for the actual enemies, and it seems this will continue with the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. This is where you can help!
If you are interested in creating fan artwork that will be featured right here at Zelda Dungeon, be used on pages at the website, and within the online Zelda community, then we can really use your help! All you have to do is check out our Spirit Tracks Enemies page, pick an enemy that you’d like to create artwork for… and go right ahead! You can post them at the Artwork Forum Thread, or e-mail me at mases26@gmail.com. ALL enemy fan artwork images will be posted here at Zelda Dungeon and proper credit will be given to all users who submit any material.
We already have a few images in the Artwork Forum Thread, but we have a long ways to go. You can still create artwork for an enemy, even if another user has already made one. I will still feature all artwork here at the site.
I look forward to all the unique and interesting artwork submissions that I will be seeing in the next few days!
Eiji Aonuma talked with Kotaku about the difficulty of the upcoming Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. The past few weeks we’ve had some conflicting reports. It seems in interviews that the masterminds behind the game are insisting that it is a bit more difficult, but several previews and reviews of the game have stated that it still says on the easier side of things. Here are a few tidbits from the interview.
Development team members, including [senior Nintendo developer] Mr. [Takashi] Tezuka and myself, actually got stuck in several places. So the dungeons and puzzles pose a different type of challenge than what we have utilized in previous games, and will certainly require longtime Zelda fans to approach each challenge differently.
The one consistent piece of feedback we received about the controls in Phantom Hourglass was that it was too challenging to execute the roll move. You had to draw little circles at the edge of the screen to make Link roll. This is actually something we felt similarly about during development, but ended up not having enough time left in the schedule to implement another solution. In Spirit Tracks, this move is done by tapping anywhere on the screen, so hopefully players get more use out of it.
Click here to view the full interview. Spirit Tracks is set to ship in just 12 days!
Another UK Spirit Tracks Commercial is now available. This one has similar portions from the previous UK Commercial that we showed off yesterday, but also has other material. None of which is brand new, but its nice to see diverse commercials hitting the airways in the UK. Spirit Tracks is set to ship in just 12 days.
Today we have the release of an official trailer for the multiplayer of the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. If you’ve watched the gameplay that we’ve seen recently, as well as taken a look at many of the screenshots, than there isn’t anything overly new. It looks like a ton of fun, but the lack of wifi worries me, as many Zelda fans don’t have 2-3 friends that have a Nintendo DS that they can play with.
A brand new UK Spirit Tracks commercial is now out. It has some cool images in there, including showing off a new boss, who we previously only had a piece of artwork for. Spirit Tracks is set to release in 13 short days here in the United States.
Today Nintendo released six brand new screenshots for the multiplayer of the upcoming Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. The screenshots don’t show anything technically new, but they are of high quality and are nice to look at. Spirit Tracks is set to ship in just 13 days on December 7th, 2009.
Thanks to the guys over at Zelda Informer we now have scans of the latest issue of the Official Nintendo Magazine. They have their review of the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks, and they gave the game a score of 91%. As it is a pre-release review, it doesn’t give away too many spoilers of the game so you can safely go ahead and read it.
Thanks to DSCUBED of The Hylia we now have scans of the latest issue of Nintendo Power, which have several pages dedicated to the upcoming Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. You can click each of the images below to view a larger image. While there are some things that can be considered spoilers, there isn’t too much information that we don’t already know.
Over the last few days Eiji Aonuma has been talking a lot of Spirit Tracks, as well as the upcoming Zelda Wii. GameSpot has posted a video interview at their website and it can be viewed below.
Shorter videos have been circulating the internet the last 24 hours, but a video is now available the compiles all the recent gameplay videos of the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. The video below shows gameplay of Link using the Boomerang, the Spirit Flute, and the Whirlwind.
I have updated the Spirit Tracks Items page of the website to include the information from the last few days.
Spirit Tracks is set to ship on December 7th here in the US. Remember to check back here at Zelda Dungeon, your Spirit Tracks Headquarters as we will be providing an in-depth Spirit Tracks Walkthrough once the game is released.
Thanks to Mike over at GameTrailers.com we have a very in-depth preview of a large portion of the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks, including LOTS of details and spoilers of everything up through the second dungeon of the game as well as some of the multiplayer.
I strongly advise those who want to keep the game fresh when playing, to stay away from this preview. However, if you just cannot resist hearing more about the game, head on over to the GameTrailers.com Blog to see the spoiler filled preview.
This new preview, along with the recently revealed artwork and the updating of the official Spirit Tracks website have left us here at Zelda Dungeon backlogged, and we are working to bring our Spirit Tracks sections as up to date as possible. Stay tuned.
We have TEN brand new pieces of artwork for the upcoming Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. These ten pieces of artwork show off a couple new characters, a new boss, as well as several images of Link using some of his trusty weapons and equipment. You can view all ten images at our image gallery.
Most of this information is available on the US Spirit Tracks Website. It has a lot of information about the various weapons and characters that have been revealed as well as images of the artwork that we just recently posted. It also has a ton of small videos showcasing the different items and characters. Some of these videos are brand new and haven’t been seen before.
As usual, the sections here at Zelda Dungeon will be updated soon. Spirit Tracks is set to ship in just 17 days on December 7th, 2009. Here at Zelda Dungeon we will be providing a complete Spirit Tracks Walkthrough upon release.
There has been a lot of small tidbits of information released concerning the next Zelda title for the Nintendo Wii. It has been stated on numerous occasions that Zelda Wii will be featured at E3 2010. Additionally, some analysts are predicting that Zelda Wii will be available by the end of 2010.
During a recent interview with Eiji Aonuma, he briefly discussed some of the speculation that has been going on, concerning the only piece of Zelda artwork that we currently have of the upcoming Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Wii. Here is what Aonuma had to say.
You will have to wait until next year when we can elaborate on this and many other things. But what I can tell you is that yes I have read some of the speculation, and some of it is right! That is all I can say at the moment.
So many teasers as of late and I really think Nintendo should be hush about Zelda Wii. While Spirit Tracks has been getting hyped up a lot, I think a lot of these small mentions of Zelda Wii are deterring fans from Spirit Tracks a bit. Especially the Zelda gamers out there who are fans of console Zelda games much more than handheld titles.
A new two minute video has surfaced of gameplay from the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks. It shows more dungeon gameplay and how Link can control the Phantom. Additionally there is a portion of Link riding along on the Spirit Train. What’s cool is that it shows new environments that we haven’t seen. Link rides on a bridge with train tracks over an area of water and also rides in an area where it is snowing. Check out the video below and head on over to our Zelda Forums to discuss Spirit Tracks.
The first US Spirit Tracks commercial is now hitting television stations and you can view the commercial below.
I personally think it’s a rather sweet commercial and I like the feeling it gives off that the kid in the video is getting sucked in to the land of Hyrule. Spirit Tracks is set to ship on December 7th in the United States, and here at Zelda Dungeon we will be providing an in-depth Spirit Tracks Walkthrough upon release.
Fred Dutton of Official Nintendo Magazine got his hands on the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks, and with the newest release of the magazine hitting shelves this Friday, Fred has answered many questions concerning Spirit Tracks. The answers don’t give away too many spoilers, so unless you are trying to stay away from everything related to the game, it should be safe to read.
There were naturally several comparisons to Phantom Hourglass. Lets first start off with some of the bad news. Fred’s answers conflicted with some previous thoughts that have been said about the game. One in particular is that Fred says the game is rather similar in difficulty to that of Phantom Hourglass, which will undoubtedly be disappointing to many Zelda fans who felt Phantom Hourglass was just way too easy. Additionally, it has been confirmed that the game has just five major dungeons, although he did state there were several minor dungeons. The train seems to be a complete replacement of the steamboat from Phantom Hourglass. Just as Linked docked at fixed locations in Phantom Hourglass, he gets off his train at fixed train stations, meaning there is no open overworld navigation. Lastly, Fred mentioned that there isn’t as much customization of the train as there was with the boat in Phantom Hourglass.
There was plenty of things mentioned that I felt could be considered good news. Fred states that Rupees play a more prominent role in the game as things are more expensive and treasures return and play a role. He mentions that there are several returning characters in the game from the Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass that we don’t know of yet, but he did not spoil who these characters actually are. Fred also says that there are returning races in the game, as well as a few new ones. Perhaps one of the more exciting things that he said concerned the storyline of the game. His response to what the storyline is like is posted below.
This is one of the strong points in my opinion. Out of all the ‘toon Link’ titles, it’s easily the darkest and the Phantom Zelda conceit is a great little twist. Cole is a memorable adversary, there’s plenty of fan service in the narrative and, all in all, it’s a really tight package.
It’s looking more and more like the storyline will attract Zelda fans that were turned off by the storyline of Phantom Hourglass, while the gameplay, difficulty, and openness (or lack thereof), will resemble Phantom Hourglass. The game is set to ship in North America in just three weeks on December 7th.
The back story cut-scene of Spirit Tracks has been revealed and it is in the form of a slide show, very similar to that of the introduction from Phantom Hourglass. It gives away a lot of the back story of the game, but I wouldn’t classify this as being a heavy spoiler video, since it is one of the first things you see when playing the game. Take a look for yourself and head on over to our Zelda Forums to discuss.
The Japanese Spirit Tracks Website has been updated today and it includes a ton of brand new information. There are a bunch of small video clips showing off a lot of the gameplay, some of the characters, and several of the different songs that will be in the game! I have to say, the music sounds absolutely amazing! There is a three minute embedded video posted below which shows off all the clips that were recently added.
We have updated several of our Spirit Tracks pages today with all the latest information concerning the game.
Spirit Tracks Items – This page has been updated to include the new look of the Snake Whip, as well as adding the newly announced Spirit Pipes and Tears of Light. We are still sorting through ideas on how we want to display images but we have placeholder images for all the items that we currently know of.
Spirit Tracks Enemies – I have added an image and description for the newly revealed White Wolfos. Additionally, with the recent Bomb Train Artwork revealed, I have added the bomb train to our guide. I have also added the Spiked Slug to the page, an enemy I missed at an earlier time when creating the guide. With these additions, that brings the number of known enemies to 21!
Spirit Tracks Characters – Thanks to our staff member, Steve, I have added several transparent images for several more of the characters that we now have artwork for. I also added the recently revealed Niko, along with a scanned picture of him.
Spirit Tracks is set to release on December 7th here in North America and December 11th for those of you in Europe. As we draw closer we will be keeping our Spirit Tracks pages as up to date as we can, and once Spirit Tracks releases, we will be providing a complete Spirit Tracks Walkthrough.
A recent Japanese magazine had five pages of information dedicated to the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Within these pages, we get a look at another character confirmed to be in the next Zelda game, and it looks very much like an old friend from the Wind Waker. The character shown in the image to your right, very much resembles Niko from the Wind Waker, and screenshots within the magazine seem to infer that it may just be Niko, or if not, somebody that is related to Niko. This opens the question of the age of characters in the Zelda series and in Spirit Tracks in particular, since Spirit Tracks apparently takes place 100 years after the events of Phantom Hourglass.
It’s also worth noting that within the five scanned pages, we can see that enemy wolfos are making their Nintendo DS debut, as you can see them at the bottom left corner of this screenshot.
Some more Spirit Tracks information is now available courtesy of a forum user at NewGAF. According to the user zigg, the following information was revealed in the upcoming Nintendo Power magazine, which featured Spirit Tracks.
—You’ll first control Zelda while sneaking her out of the castle. She follows you normally, but you can tell her to stay put by tapping an icon, then tapping another to tell her to catch up when the coast is clear. You can also draw a path for her to follow, then distract the guards as she passes by by talking to them or throwing rocks at them.
The “big, bad, super-duper evil” that needs Zelda’s body is “apparently not Ganon.”
—Anjean “claims to have known Zelda’s ancestors.” (Wink, wink.)
—The tower doesn’t require you to revisit floors, but you can to get access to secrets you may have missed. I’m hoping they use this to lock away unobtainable treasure until you’ve acquired more items, much like various floors in the Temple of the Ocean King did.)
—The Phantoms, “who are supposed to protect the tower from evil, have gone haywire”.
—Zelda can’t inhabit a Phantom until you (a) get the three Tears of Light in an area, and (b) strike it from behind with your sword.
—As the game advances, Zelda will gain the ability to transfer her spirit from one Phantom to another.
—You aren’t completely free to choose your route with the train; but you will have to watch the upper screen map to see where enemy trains are headed, and switch off to other tracks to avoid collisions.
—There are four dungeons that connect to the Tower of Spirits. The first one, “Forest Temple,” has no Phantoms, but Zelda is still with you in a Navi-like fashion.
—Getting to the Forest Temple et al. involves visiting various villages and other locations which in turn gains you access to new areas.
—There are six slots for items in Link’s inventory.
—”Odds and ends” treasures like wooden hearts and dragon scales tie into sidequests.
—The Forest Temple’s Master Key that leads to the boss must be carried along a safe route lest you get grabbed by Wallmasters. Apparently you will have to note this route on your map at some point?
That is quite a lot of information to take in. Most notable to me, is the Tears of Light reference. Is this just a coincidence or is there actually a relationship between Spirit Tracks and the tears of light from Twilight Princess? Considering the two games are commonly viewed to be in two separate timelines, after the split in Ocarina of Time, this is a bit strange to me. Perhaps it is just purely a coincidence… If so, Nintendo, couldn’t you have chosen a different name?
Anjean knowing Zelda’s ancestors and the fact that Anjean is incredibly old, could in fact mean that Anjean was actually in the Wind Waker or Phantom Hourglass.
Hopefully we will be able to get our hands on some scans in the next few days to confirm all this information as well as to get new information about the game. Spirit Tracks is set to release on December 7th, less than 4 weeks from today.
We have four new pieces of artwork available for you from the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. One of the pieces of artwork is shown to the right and it is of the Demon King.
The artwork to the right does bear a resemblance to Ganondorf… (if Ganondorf was a train), so it could very well mean that Ganondorf is the major villain yet again for the upcoming Zelda title.
Just yesterday Nintendo revealed the newest musical instruments to hit the Legend of Zelda series, and today several new Spirit Tracks screenshots have been made available. The site that revealed the screenshots is not in English, but you can still check out the Greek Spirit Tracks Website for the screenshots and a few paragraphs about them. A paraphrased translation is shown below.
Before heading to each region or each temple, Link will find a member of the Locomos tribe and will learn a song to play on his Spirit Pipes. Playing these various songs will help open new areas of the overworld by restoring portions of the Spirit Tracks.
You will need to blow into the microphone of the Nintendo DS in order to produce the right note, while using the stylus and touch screen to tap the right tone and play the right songs on the Spirit Pipes. A screenshot to your left perhaps gives you a better idea on how this will work. It really does seem like it is going to be very involving, using the combination of the microphone and the touch screen. In addition to the screenshot to your left, three others have been revealed and you can view them by clicking here. Spirit Tracks is set to release on December 7th here on the United States.
Whether it be the the Flute, the Wind Waker, the Ocarina of Time, the Harp of Ages, or even the Whistle from the original Legend of Zelda, musical instruments have always been a part of the Legend of Zelda series and it appears that Spirit Tracks will be no exception. According to the Official Nintendo Magazine, Link will be able to play the Spirit Pipes, which will be used to summon special powers.
To play them you blow into the DS microphone while cycling through different colored pipes with the stylus.
Before you’re able to visit a temple, you have to search for one of the land’s guardians, called the Lokomos, who will teach you a song which restores the tracks to the temple. You’ll then be required to listen to the metronome to keep to the rhythm.
Nintendo is surely interested in the idea of implementing the Nintendo DS microphone as much as possible with the upcoming Zelda title. An entire item, the Whirlwind, is already completely based around the Microphone, and now it seems like a second item will heavily involve the use of the Microphone. I personally have no issue with blowing into the microphone, but I’d like to get my hands on the game and try it out for myself before giving my final judgment. Spirit Tracks is set to release on December 7th here in North America and on December 11th for our friends in Europe.
With all the recent Spirit Tracks news and the brand new trailer that was revealed a few days back, numerous returning enemies from Phantom Hourglass have been shown to make reappearances in Spirit Tracks. I have gone ahead and updated our Spirit Tracks Enemies page, including three enemies that have were shown.
This brings the total number of enemies shown in the three trailers and the gameplay demo up to 18. Our Phantom Hourglass Enemies page had a total of 51 enemies, so assuming there isn’t a drastic difference in the number of enemies between the two games, this could potentially mean that we already know about 1/3 of all the enemies found within the game. There are sure to be a whole bunch of returning enemies, as well as more brand new enemies, and we will know for sure in just FOUR weeks, as Spirit Tracks is set to hit stores in North America on December 7th, 2009.
I’ve gone ahead and updated our Spirit Tracks Characters section of the website. It includes the several characters that were featured at the UK official website, numerous characters that were mentioned in the revealed storyline over at IGN, as well as a couple other characters found within the various Spirit Tracks trailers.
Some of the descriptions, as well as the images, are very speculative and have not been confirmed quite yet. If you see something that interests you, or perhaps think we have missed something. Head on over to our Zelda Forums and let us know.
The guys at IGN have created another one of their Rewind trailers, where they take a look at a released trailer and provide audio commentary while playing the trailer and rewinding over certain portions of the video.
They recently did this for Spirit Tracks and the video is embedded below. There are a few things they point out that one might not see when watching the trailer for themselves. Beware, there are some spoilers for the early portion of the game found within the trailer.
December 4th, 2009 by Mases
The lovely artwork you see to the left is actually fan artwork created by River Zora, a registered member at the Zelda Informer message boards.
