Gaming Spirit Tracks = Worst Zelda Game EVER!

[Azlan Uchiha]

Well....I respect your review but i like it

...it rockz...making you brain working to get the puuzle soved

 

[Zerousen]

speakingg about zelda and the many ways of transportation, i suddenly remembered when i was playing oracle of seasons for the gameboy,and you could ride in a kangaroo's pouch....xD

 

[Dark Blade]

Spirit Tracks was annoying. Especially ALL THOSE DAMN SONGS!!!

 

[Dr.Killa]

speakingg about zelda and the many ways of transportation, i suddenly remembered when i was playing oracle of seasons for the gameboy,and you could ride in a kangaroo's pouch....xD

yea, and the flying panda or the dinosaur thing (it depended on what you did)

 

[zeromac]

The controls are bad in ST? =.='' THERE THE SAME FUCKING CONTROLS FROM PH with the exception of the flute bit

 

[Azlan Uchiha]

The Damn Songs Are Nice...Controls well you wanna go around by walking??riding a train is cool...

 

[8BitWalugi]

And that it took three pages for someone to finally speak up in favor of this game

Well other people were praising it too, I was just the first to speak in favour of the game, in relation to the points he made in his review. The other responses were all basically "I think Spirit tracks is pretty good, but I respect your opinion" etc.

 

[alucard77]

My brother preferred this game way more compared to Phantom Hourglass. I liked PH, but he hated it, mainly because he didn't like the boat travel and the Ocean King temple was easily one of the worst gameplay mechanics ever. (It is, you have to repeat TIMED puzzles, go through every single floor when you returned, enemies were unkillable, and they insta-killed you.)

He didn't really mind the train travelling if only because it was hard to get lost, but he did say it was a weird design choice that's going to get lots of hate. Plus he hardly had ANY problems that you listed, enemies are varied when your off the train, and he never had any problems with the stylus controls.
The DS's mic has always been shit, so that's more of a problem of the actual system. Still he was able to breeze through every duet no problem.
Your problem with the darkness in the Spirit temple comes down to personal opinion. I thought that the puzzles idea of getting you to manage torch Zelda and Link was quite challenging.
Upgrading your Transport in Zelda has ALWAYS been optional, and is generally just for looks anyway. Besides those evil trains could be avoided and slowed down easily, maybe you needed to plan ahead more instead of charging in stupidly?
I have no idea what your talking about with the timed events, but the fact that I don't remember them in Spirit Tracks, and DO remember them in say OOT, MM and PH says a lot.

Also your conclusion is utterly flawed because you seem to have almost no memory of what the Ocean Kings temple was like. It was WAY more annoying, it got you to re-do EVERY puzzle, and it was easily 100 times worse than the Spirit Tower.
Also seriously who the hell bothers with 100% in games? Of course it's going to be annoying as hell trying to do that. But it's been like that for every Zelda game.

This review to me just smells like someone who got way too annoyed at trying to 100% this game.
Train sequences were a stupid idea true, but they have enough variety for the basic game quest, the rest of the problems you listed all seem to be way blown out of proportion.

Whatever it's your opinion. It just seems way to anger induced. This is why I don't bother with 100%ing games like this. This game is easily one of the better Zelda games to be made.

Thanks for the difference in opinion. I just want to address a couple of quick items on this:
1- The Ocean King temple I recall did not bother me. Granted this was a couple years back, but I don't remember being annoyed by it. I remember thinking, do people realize that if you bomb this area right here you skip to the next area. Whenever you got an upgrade, you could just use it to destroy something in the Ocean King realm and create various shortcuts. That's what I recall.

2- The game developers made a choice to include the Mic. They could have used it in other ways which wouldn't halt the game play all together if a false tone is strung. They could have worked on it to make it better. It's like comparing a good game that uses motion plus, to a bad game that uses motion plus. The good game took longer to find a way to make it work.

3- My problem with the darkness in the Spirit Temple is because it has the dumbest clues ever. In every part of this game, when Phantom Zelda talk to the other Phantoms, they never say a word. Not even once. On the dark floor, only in one specific area, the Phantoms tell Phantom Zelda there is a weak part in the wall. It literally took me 1 hours of going back and forth and trying everything before Phantom Zelda accidentally bumped into a Phantom and to hear that clue. If no where else in the game the Phantoms say anything at all interesting, and in one part where everything is pitch black, they do, then that is dumb design. Why would you talk to a Phantom, besides to stop them, which you didn't need to do in that quadrant in the dark world. Once I figured out that I could bomb the wall, I had zero problem with the rest of the board. So it wasn't even that the "puzzle" was hard, it was dumb and nonsensical in the whole scope of the game.

Hey lets make this dark, and instead of using anything in the room to open stuff, lets make a bombable wall in the dark! Great Idea! It's retarded. Sorry. Funny thing was, I was thinking to myself, this game is so annoying I bet they would put a place to bomb in the dark. Like 10 minutes later, I found it. By the way, having to look around for 1 hour to figure that out, is a waste of time and gameplay, hence filler. USELESS FILLER. BAD GAME DESIGN, USELESS FILLER.

4- I never ran blindly into the trains. They killed me once, and it was because I wanted to see what would happen if they killed me. The point is that it takes long enough to get to a town, without having to go off course for a train that as you mentioned is so easy to avoid. But having to go round and round to avoid them to make it to the town adds filler. USELESS FILLER. That was the point. If it wasn't for filler these trains would have not existed.

5- You wouldn't know what I am talking about in terms of timed events if you didn't try to get all of the spirit tracks. By timed events, I mean that you had to have visited something before something else would happen. In this game Ferrus sends you letters to take him from place to place. This opens up the last set of tracks where you get the final bunny. From there you get the Sword Scroll. But Ferres won't send you the letter even though you got the first 18 Spirit tracks, he only sends it to you if you enter the spirit temple and then exit. That's dumb. Now if Ferrus was lost in the woods, and I needed to get something to find him in the woods, and the only place to find that item was in the Spirit temple, then that would be fine in my book.

6- I do agree with you on your point about 100%. It is frustrating to get 100% in this game. Other Zelda games were not as frustrating by a long shot. In OoT getting the 100 Spiders was actually fun. You would enter a area and hear the scratching noise and be like, ok, where is that bastard. Here you drive around on tracks you would never normally drive on if you didn't have to, to find a dumb rock with a bunny behind it. All the rocks are the freaking same. There is no sound or anything. It's just filler for you to drive on those tracks. It's bad game design for side quests. All Zelda games usually have good side quests. This game has HORRIBLE side quests. Zelda is 50% side quests, and 50% storys and dungeons.

If you only played the dungeons, then yes, this is a pretty good game. Still worse Zelda game minus the CD-i series, strictly for the later stages and the Spirit Temple.

 

[alucard77]

I just added this section as well, as I literally just beat the game. Wow, I never want to play this game again. EVER.


"THE LAST LEVELS AND ENDING:
Am I the only one who was asking himself what the hell was going on once I got to the Dark Realm? I was like, wait is this a Zelda game? What the hell am I playing here. Also, as I was beating the game, I kept saying, this is in no way a Zelda game. Name it something else. For some reason, I felt very Japanese Anime to me. If this wasn't for kids, I could see a rape monster coming out and Link having to protect Zelda from him. The whole Dark Realm, Train Boss, Last Boss thing didn't seem right to me at all. It's like they took everything I liked about Zelda games and killed them.

I also highly appreciated the fact the developers were giving me a good old middle finger by having an area where my train went super fast in the dark realm. Awesome! You make the train go at a snails pace in the whole game and make me beg for it to go faster, and at the end, you say, ohh yeah, here is your train at light speed. WTF?????!??????"

 

[8BitWalugi]

<!--quoteo(post=2580885:date=Feb 6 2010, 04:51 PM:name=alucard77)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(alucard77 @ Feb 6 2010, 04:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2580885"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Thanks for the difference in opinion. I just want to address a couple of quick items on this:<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No prob. Topics get boring if everyone agree's with you after all. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />

<!--quoteo(post=2580885:date=Feb 6 2010, 04:51 PM:name=alucard77)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(alucard77 @ Feb 6 2010, 04:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2580885"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->1- The Ocean King temple I recall did not bother me. Granted this was a couple years back, but I don't remember being annoyed by it. I remember thinking, do people realize that if you bomb this area right here you skip to the next area. Whenever you got an upgrade, you could just use it to destroy something in the Ocean King realm and create various shortcuts. That's what I recall.

2- The game developers made a choice to include the Mic. They could have used it in other ways which wouldn't halt the game play all together if a false tone is strung. They could have worked on it to make it better. It's like comparing a good game that uses motion plus, to a bad game that uses motion plus. The good game took longer to find a way to make it work.

3- My problem with the darkness in the Spirit Temple is because it has the dumbest clues ever. In every part of this game, when Phantom Zelda talk to the other Phantoms, they never say a word. Not even once. On the dark floor, only in one specific area, the Phantoms tell Phantom Zelda there is a weak part in the wall. It literally took me 1 hours of going back and forth and trying everything before Phantom Zelda accidentally bumped into a Phantom and to hear that clue. If no where else in the game the Phantoms say anything at all interesting, and in one part where everything is pitch black, they do, then that is dumb design. Why would you talk to a Phantom, besides to stop them, which you didn't need to do in that quadrant in the dark world. Once I figured out that I could bomb the wall, I had zero problem with the rest of the board. So it wasn't even that the "puzzle" was hard, it was dumb and nonsensical in the whole scope of the game.

Hey lets make this dark, and instead of using anything in the room to open stuff, lets make a bombable wall in the dark! Great Idea! It's retarded. Sorry. Funny thing was, I was thinking to myself, this game is so annoying I bet they would put a place to bomb in the dark. Like 10 minutes later, I found it. By the way, having to look around for 1 hour to figure that out, is a waste of time and gameplay, hence filler. USELESS FILLER. BAD GAME DESIGN, USELESS FILLER.

4- I never ran blindly into the trains. They killed me once, and it was because I wanted to see what would happen if they killed me. The point is that it takes long enough to get to a town, without having to go off course for a train that as you mentioned is so easy to avoid. But having to go round and round to avoid them to make it to the town adds filler. USELESS FILLER. That was the point. If it wasn't for filler these trains would have not existed.

5- You wouldn't know what I am talking about in terms of timed events if you didn't try to get all of the spirit tracks. By timed events, I mean that you had to have visited something before something else would happen. In this game Ferrus sends you letters to take him from place to place. This opens up the last set of tracks where you get the final bunny. From there you get the Sword Scroll. But Ferres won't send you the letter even though you got the first 18 Spirit tracks, he only sends it to you if you enter the spirit temple and then exit. That's dumb. Now if Ferrus was lost in the woods, and I needed to get something to find him in the woods, and the only place to find that item was in the Spirit temple, then that would be fine in my book.

6- I do agree with you on your point about 100%. It is frustrating to get 100% in this game. Other Zelda games were not as frustrating by a long shot. In OoT getting the 100 Spiders was actually fun. You would enter a area and hear the scratching noise and be like, ok, where is that bastard. Here you drive around on tracks you would never normally drive on if you didn't have to, to find a dumb rock with a bunny behind it. All the rocks are the freaking same. There is no sound or anything. It's just filler for you to drive on those tracks. It's bad game design for side quests. All Zelda games usually have good side quests. This game has HORRIBLE side quests. Zelda is 50% side quests, and 50% storys and dungeons.

If you only played the dungeons, then yes, this is a pretty good game. Still worse Zelda game minus the CD-i series, strictly for the later stages and the Spirit Temple.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

1. I don't remember being able to make shortcuts to skip all the timed puzzles, and like I said I did actually like PH, it was my brother who hated the shit out of it, and considering he was able to beat OOT Master Quest (without having played the original mind you) I don't think it was a case of "Lol he sucked".

2. Again like I said, my brother only ever had trouble with one of the songs. Maybe you were simply doing something wrong?

3. Are you kidding? The Phantoms ALWAYS talk to Zelda, all you have to do is drag her "command line" over them, she walks over and then they talk. Sometimes they say useless NPC shit like "GEE IT'S HOT IN HERE", but other times, like the time you mentioned, they give you clues. Maybe you needed to check out what exactly could be selected with Zelda from the beginning, you know experiment a bit.

4. Those trains existed to give the whole Route planning some significance, as in PH the route planning was just a tech-demo of what they could do with the DS (which is why my brother hated it, he found it boring to the sailing in WW). Also really your Train does have a reverse function. If your going towards a town and a train is heading towards you, back-up a bit, wait a couple of seconds and then continue. If you never got properly killed by one of those trains in this "filler" area then that's really not a valid point. That's like saying "Skyscrapers suck because it's easy to fall off one and be killed by the fall". Yeah, but only if you intentionally choose to jump off one.

5. I actually have no idea what you're talking about, and neither does my brother. I guess frustration is the price you pay for perfection. Stuff like that isn't actually necessary to obtain "the ending", so while it may annoy you, it's all optional and not a valid strike against the game.

6. For me, aside from the latest Pokemon games and Mario Galaxy, getting 100% on ANY game bores the hell out of me, and my brother...well his remark is a little more inflammatory so I wont post it. But basically the whole thing with the Spirit Tracks being filler that you bring up, is entirely opinion. My brother liked them. It's like Wind Waker, some love the game's graphics (like me), but it still tore the Zelda fanbase it half because of them. Likewise, those reviews that you read where the game got 8-10/10 were from people who either liked or didn't mind the train riding. I actually enjoyed the train riding, mainly because of the whistle (which is why I didn't upgrade the top half to the gold train, which is again, entirely optional). You keep bringing up how this game has bad sidequests and how it's all filler. Let me tell you, if the main game holds up really well (which it easily does) then that makes it a good game. Majora's Mask got worse reviews than OoT because it relied far to much on sidequests.

I hardly ever do sidequests or 100% completions, so I enjoyed this game a lot, and easily consider it one of the much better Zelda games I've played, and certainly don't consider it the WORST Zelda game ever, or anywhere near as bad as the CDi games.

Just my opinion here.

<!--quoteo(post=2580896:date=Feb 6 2010, 04:58 PM:name=alucard77)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(alucard77 @ Feb 6 2010, 04:58 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2580896"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I just added this section as well, as I literally just beat the game. Wow, I never want to play this game again. EVER.


"THE LAST LEVELS AND ENDING:
Am I the only one who was asking himself what the hell was going on once I got to the Dark Realm? I was like, wait is this a Zelda game? What the hell am I playing here. Also, as I was beating the game, I kept saying, this is in no way a Zelda game. Name it something else. For some reason, I felt very Japanese Anime to me. If this wasn't for kids, I could see a rape monster coming out and Link having to protect Zelda from him. The whole Dark Realm, Train Boss, Last Boss thing didn't seem right to me at all. It's like they took everything I liked about Zelda games and killed them.

I also highly appreciated the fact the developers were giving me a good old middle finger by having an area where my train went super fast in the dark realm. Awesome! You make the train go at a snails pace in the whole game and make me beg for it to go faster, and at the end, you say, ohh yeah, here is your train at light speed. WTF?????!??????"<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes the ending of the game had an epic sort of anime campiness to it. What of it? Besides what's wrong with having, you know, something different? If every Zelda takes the same idea's and pace, then it gets boring. In fact many people just call most Zelda games remakes. After all sometimes you have an Ocarina, and sometimes you have a mask or boat, but your still in the same bloody world saving the same Princess. This game decided to be different by changing up the world, and having the Princess help you.

Your "I WANT OLD ZELDA" attitude is kind of annoying, and is the reason Nintendo are so into rehashing their franchises. The whole Dark World, Train Boss and Last Boss were easily anticipated from the beginning of the game and are some new things Nintendo has decided to do, instead of deciding to go the old "Lol Ganondorf was behind it all" root. You may hate it, but myself and many others liked the campyness.

Also, newsflash, Nintendo promises to make the Wii Zelda "new and exciting" and different from previous Zelda's. How about you just go back and play OoT or something.

 

[alucard77]

You seemed pissed about my comments. That was not my intention or goal.

I do fear the "new and exciting element" Nintendo is promising. If riding a 2 mph train is exciting and new, we have a big problem.

As for the other items:

1- I never had a problem with the songs. I commute, and there is a lot of noise on my train to work. So the Mic would recognize a sound and think I was blowing a note. The song is then wrong.

2- What other part did Zelda get a hint. I know they talk to you, but its always like you said, useless information like oh its hot here. In none of the other dungeons did they say, bomb x. If you give me one other place where they gave a hint, then I will say I am wrong about my point.

3- Yet again on the trains, I know how to use the train not to get hit. I know how to reverse, stop, emergency stop and so on. I still don't see how a moving train helps with route planning. The train is moving. You can't plan the route. You have to drive the train to avoid the other trains. Sometimes you need to go in a circle.

4- I have no problem with what they did with the ending if it was any other game. Yeah, I guess I am a Zelda purest. I had no problem with Wind Waker with the graphics. I even liked Zelda 2. But I want to play that game.

It's like having a Mario game where Mario has to go to the Jersey Shore. Sure the show the Jersey Shore is entertaining, but I don't want my Mario mixed in to the Jersey Shore.

BTW, if I was to go back to my favorite Zelda, it would have to be LttP on the SNES.

 

[8BitWalugi]

You know what, in the end it's just your opinion, but I can tell you that myself and many others definitely do not think that ST ranks anywhere near "worst Zelda game except CDi games".

That is all, now I'll be on my way.

 

[Gnargle]

I can understand all the points, but the game isn't bad. It's just not the best Zelda game. For me, it was still more fun to play than many other DS games in the charts now and I'm overall quite glad I experienced it.
Also: Minish Cap is the last Zelda game with a decent overworld? Wind Waker (IMO the best Zelda of all time) much? It had an expansive, interesting world with lots of secrets to get you coming back to it. I'v played that game through about 5 times now.

 

[Hells Malice]

Touch controls screwed up the game.
They aren't even needed and they just ruin the game for me.
The game would work perfectly fine with buttons, and touch crap for people who want it.

The vehicle gimmicks to avoid actually having to do some scenery work is sad too.
At least Wind Waker still had a gigantic amount of stuff to explore despite all the water.

The Zelda handhelds aren't fairing too well these days.

 

[Hyperboy]

It's not the worst zelda game ever.
All the zelda games are brilliant and this is no let down.
Plus it is one of the most awaited games ever, no doubt.

Spoiler

If you want to become a Game Tester go to
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=192631&st=0

 

[gregegg28]

I THINK YOUR A HUGE PIECE OF BULL CRAP! SPIRIT TRACKS IS DEFENATELY ONE OF MY FAVORITE ZELDA GAMES ITS MUCH BETTER THAN HOURGLASS, its nothing but dungeons. (and yes a have played the whole thing) I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU DISPOSE OF ALL YOR ZELDA GAMES AND BUY 3RD PARTY CRAP THAT HAS NO ABSOLUTLY WONDERFULL SIDEQUSTS. in most zelda games i like sidequests, exploring and listening to the music as much as the dungeons. and for the microphone i think its great i get to use something i paid for! + i love having a musical instroment but i do think the songs were to easy to play-only complaint-

 

[gregegg28]

also of all the zelda games spirit tracks has my favorite art-style.
IDIOT RECALOBRATE YOUR TOUCHSCREEN IF YOUR HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THE WHIP RACE!! it works fine with me

 

[gregegg28]

also spirit tracks definatly has one of the best storys
and i like the music very much

k, i admit i have one more complaint about the game, NO WI-FI multiplayer!

 

[Guild McCommunist]

greg:

First off, it's called the Edit button. Use it to add stuff to your post. Having 4 posts in a row is ridiculous.

Second off, what the fuck? You're going to insult him over a fucking video game? Calling him "A HUGE PIECE OF BULL CRAP", an "IDIOT", and the like is completely out of line. It's a video game and he's voicing his opinion. Getting so hostile over it is completely immature and unprofessional. Knock it off.

Third, you obviously love Zelda a little too much. I suggest you "YOU DISPOSE OF ALL YOR ZELDA GAMES AND BUY 3RD PARTY CRAP" because you obviously have done nothing else. Ninty fanboy, much....

My personal opinion is that this isn't the worst Zelda but it's not in anyways a good Zelda game. Yet again, a "bad Zelda game" is about on-par with a "decent game", so it's not a bad game overall, but it was lackluster in the realm of Zelda games. Controls, like Hourglass, were inaccurate and clumsy compared to the D-Pad/face button movement of past handheld Zelda titles, dungeons were average, and the constant use of the microphone (which didn't even work well) is incredibly annoying.

The full review is here, but don't bother posting on it. No one likes necro bumping.

 

[miyagiCE]

Geez, the only reason I sat through this game was to be able to say that I've beat all Zelda games to date. As much as I like the franchise, this game (same with Phantom Hourglass) had nothing in it for me. I regret having spent money on Phantom Hourglass -- and having learned from that mistake -- I'm glad I didn't waste a dime Spirit Tracks. Nintendo need to see that they have to cater to the traditional gamers' needs if they don't want to drift into casual mundaneness.

Also, lulz at greg.