2.5/5 ★ – JaredJDub's review of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

I wanted to like this game. I actually enjoyed it more than Phantom Hourglass, but... well, let's talk. I felt like the dungeons and the puzzles were better than Phantom Hourglass, and I thought traveling around the map was better (though I hear I'm in the minority with that opinion). However, it suffered from the same tediousness that PH did. Especially during your last trip to the dungeon you have to visit multiple times (trying not to spoil), some of the puzzles are so tedious that it creates this sort of artificial difficulty. I will say I personally liked the tower better than the Temple of The Ocean King in PH, but not significantly. Let's talk touch controls like we did in PH...They're garbage. I tried to be optimistic about it...but I just can't be. Item switching and using is a pain in the ass, and there were again multiple times where Link did stuff I didn't want him to do. This made game play insanely difficult, when you could have just used buttons and make things so much easier. I can't stress how many times I'd tap on something (with it calibrated) and Link does the wrong thing. Like I tap on an enemy with his sword already out, and he rolls instead of slashing. I have no problem if I end up dead because I just suck at the game (which is typically the case) but when it's because of the game specifically, it's ruined for me at that point. It made item switching and using a pain too. For example, sections of SP where I had to use the sand rod and the bow at the same time. I'd have to tap to use the sand rod, drag it over the spots I wanted, tap to change items, tap on the bow, tap on the bow again to use it, then tap on the thing I wanna shoot or hold it and line up the shot. God forbid I mess up and I have to do it all over again. Then there was the pan flute... Why did this need to be a thing? This was one of the most frustrating things in the game. It's so awkward to control cause you have to hold the DS (or your Wii U, if you played like I did) up to your face in order to blow into the mic port, then play different notes with your stylus. I admit incorporating the mic into the game like this was intriguing, but I'd be more impressed if I wasn't so frustrated when I missed notes and it was only because the mic didn't pick up my breath. However, I thought the world itself was pretty cool. There were different biomes which really made you feel like you traveled really far when going to a new area. Although a lot of the moving around was tedious, you DO get a sense of accomplishment whenever a task is complete. However, the sense of accomplishment sometimes didn't outweigh the frustration you had to go through for some tasks. If you're trying to play through the whole Zelda series like I am, I suppose this one is worth playing, but that is the only reason I would actually pick it up. I hate saying that games are bad, but this one...yeah.