The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was released December 7, 2009 for the Nintendo DS. The game was both developed and published by Nintendo and done in the same cel-shaded art style as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

The plot is, in a word, Zelda. Spirits capture an evil foe, villains want to resurrect, and release said foe. Surprisingly, Zelda isn't kidnapped in this game, only her body, and her spirit travels with you. You have an unusual form of transportation, a train, and have to traverse Hyrule to find and explore temples to gather emblems, items, weapons, and powers to stop the evil plot from happening.

I'm going to jump right in and say the game is incredibly fun and funny. The dialogue leans toward the funnier side at times. The characters, like in any Zelda game, are colorful and interesting, with distinct personalities. Every town is unique. Every region is different. The train segments are great fun, and don't seem tedious like most forms of traveling in Zelda games. It's a combination of rail shooter, path-chooser, and with battles added in.

Everything including movement, sword attacks, item use is done by the stylus. Although, you can hold down a shoulder button to select an item as opposed to tapping it with the stylus. In addition, this game's instrument, a pan flute, uses the microphone in conjunction with the stylus to play notes. Sometimes the stylus controls don't work out terribly well: running off a cliff when you meant to swipe your sword, having trouble switching items in the midst of battle, your hand blocking the microphone during pan flute segments. Nevertheless, for the most part, everything works smoothly.

Another nice feature is that you can draw on the map at any time. Mark off hidden chest locations, draw solutions to puzzles, and trace safe passages so you don't keep making mistakes. You can even help yourself remember where shortcuts, warps, and hidden locations are on the rails. And speaking of puzzles, this game has plenty of them. They are challenging. Expect to be sneaking around guards and sentries, moving blocks around, activating switches across multiple floors, the works. It's never impossible though, and never hard just to be hard.

The items are nice and varied too. You have the pan flute to play songs on. You have a bow and arrow you aim and shoot. The boomerang you actually draw the path for its attack. You have a pinwheel-type object that acts as a fan to blow away enemies. And bombs you can throw and place. Also, remember Princess Zelda's spirit from earlier? In some parts, she actually possesses an enemy that you can use to carry Link around, traverse spikes, and attack larger enemies. It's an interesting mechanic.

In terms of accessibility, this is where things get interesting. In my experience, this game shouldn't hurt if you're colorblind, though at the same time, I haven't played every bit of game either to see if this is truly the case. If you are deaf, you should be able to get by. Everything is subtitled, there are audio and music cues in game, but they are accompanied by notices on the map or main screen.

You can play this game one-handed. All you need for it is the stylus. You don't need any major movements to play, obviously, since it is a DS game, but you must be able to have good, almost impeccable control.

All in all, I couldn't recommend this game any more highly than I already do. It is superb, and besides some inconsequential flaws, plays like a dream. Funny, interesting both visually and gameplay-wise, challenging, and expansive, there's nothing in this game to dislike.