Musical Instrument!

[0o0oAdamo0o0]

Well, ONM has confirmed that in Spirit Tracks, Link does indeed have a musical instrument. It's called the Spirit Pipes, and apparently before each temple, you need to learn a song from a Lokomo. That song will restore the Spirit Tracks to that temple.

Hooray for Link having an instrument again! I loved the Ocarina in OoT and MM, and the Wind Waker in WW. TP disappointed me somewhat, but it still had howling. Then PH completely got rid of it and replaced it with a stone slab. I'm happy that they're finally bring back the musical instrument after it being gone for basically 6 or 7 years.

Link for the people who want the article: Here. (http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=13099)

[Cucco Lady Anju]

Yay instruments :D And this one is more involved too. It'll be interesting.

[NorthApple]

Booyah! Awesome.

I really missed the instruments, I'm glad they're bringing one back c:
Seems like nintendo really are trying to make Spirit Tracks as appealing as possible to everyone xDD
But sweet! You have to search for the people- it would be awesome if they made it more like TLoZ and barely gave you any clues on their whereabouts, so you had to expore a lot more of the overworld in detail to find them xD
*keeps dreaming* It still sounds cool though.

Hah, Spirit Pipes. I love wind instruments, and blowing into the ds mic will be awesomez.
This made my day. Again. xD

[0o0oAdamo0o0]

If you guys are wondering it what it looks like, here's some pictures of the instrument. ST's UK site has a picture up of it.

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/images/game_content/playingpanflutewithwiseman.jpg

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/images/game_content/CI_LegendofZeldaSpiritTracks_BKI_C_Link_02_adPanFl ute.jpg

[Josh]

I'll give you what I put on another forum:

Nintendo,

I know that you like the microphone. You think it's the greatest invention ever, and that it can do everything that you want it to do. But please, please, stop making everything in every game require using it. I don't like blowing out lungs in front of family and friends, it just looks odd.

So please, with that in mind, don't use it so much in future games, because it'll just annoy the hell out of me like it already does.

Thank you,

Josh

[lonely_moon]

That's great news! Zelda games really don't feel complete without some kind of musical instrument. I read that it'll be used to create the titular spirit tracks. I wonder what else it'll do?

But I do agree with Josh, it's kinda awkward to just be randomly blowing and shouting into the microphone out in public.

[NorthApple]

OMGOSH that official artwork is ADORABLE~
Personally it dones't bother me too much blowing into the mic, but I can see how it could bother some people. Perhaps it's because I'm used to blowing into real instruments xD Gimmicky things normally annoy me, but at least you can generally be subtle about doing this one, so I don't mind it. Otherwise you could always go for shouting the "I'm playing a Nintendo DS Game" when in public, then people don't stare oddly at you (or would they stare more after that xD). But blowing works fine anyway~

But omg, this is making me really excited now. Dammit nintendo :3

[Shnappy]

I'm skeptical about this.

I mean, yeah, it's all cool that you get to do more than press buttons to play this instrument, but the microphone is going to be kind of annoying to blow in to while moving the stylus around. Like Josh said, it seems odd to do that in front of anyone.

It's not like this is too big of a problem, but I'm kind of disappointed myself. I'd enjoy tapping things on the screen just fine, so I don't need this elaborate microphone stuff.

[Megamannt125]

Heard about this earlier, just makes me more excited about the game, I loved the Ocarina and Wind Waker.
The offcial artwork is so cute too, when I saw Link blowing into that thing I went "D'awwww"

[bbudy]

interesting, The offcial artwork is so cute too, when I saw Link blowing into that thing I went "D'awwww", wonderful

[0o0oAdamo0o0]

There's some more in game pictures of the Spirit Pipes being used now!

http://www.nintendo.gr/Upload/Link%20discovers%20Zelda%20site.jpg http://www.nintendo.gr/Upload/Link%20and%20the%20pan%20flutesite.jpg http://www.nintendo.gr/Upload/Link%20play%20pan-flutesite.jpg

Looks like they were Zelda's instrument at first. And it looks like there's one more note on the Spirit Pipes than there was on the Ocarina! Also looks like you get them fairly early into the game.

[Axle the Beast]

I'm also pretty happy about having an instrument again. I was always a fan of this mechanic and I don't mind it sticking around! :D

I also like how it appears to be more interesting to play. Sure, it'll look odd, but I'm not all that bothered by it. This should be fun.

My only concern is that learning and using songs sounds really structured and repetitive, at least from what they've told us already. Sounds like you go find a Lokomo, learn a song, play it, and ride your train to a dungeon. Hopefully it's not quite that simple, and also hopefully they'll add in other songs other than the ones you use to enter the dungeon, much like the games have done in the past, with songs used for other purposes and ones that are optional, but useful, like the Sun's Song or Song of Soaring. :)