While I will always stand firmly besides my gamer upbringing as a Genesis child, there were certainly moments of console weakness when it came to the Nintendo and the exclusive titles it kept close to its bosom. Upon occasion my siblings and I would trade our Genesis with our friend's respective Nintendo system for a week long liaison. Naturally our inbred gamer instincts drew us to Mario, but what really set my geek-genes ablaze was when I played Zelda: A Link to the Past.
It wasn't until middle school that I finally completed Link to the Past and abruptly became hooked to the entire Zelda franchise. Despite the fact that the main gameplay, story elements, and characters only change slightly from sequel to sequel, Zelda is dependably comfortable while simultaneously manages to enliven its classic content with new environments and features in every additional release.
With all that being said The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a fantastic addition to the Zelda lineage, one which I've only recently been able to fully appreciate while commuting from my house-sitting home to work. Nintendo knows the meat, bones, and heart of its platforms, and in the case of the DS they would not disappoint by making Phantom Hourglass almost entirely stylus oriented with a few bonus DS-savvy actions to boot.
I love managing my stylus like I would a sword, prodding and swirling it around the screen to skewer baddies, but the adventure for me really started when I had to tackle the more unique challenges such as yelling through a door or blowing out a candle. As you might imagine, this involved the microphone proponent of the DS and my voice and/or breath ... applied amidst a large conglomerate of Muni commuters. I had a choice in both cases: close the DS and keep my interjections to myself or solve the puzzle as necessary despite the fact that there were a good 5 faces aimed at my direction who would witness what could seem like a brief instance of insanity.
Of course, I chose the latter. What else could I do to get the fortune teller's attention from the other side of the door? I elegantly brought the DS up to my lips and spoke as quickly and as loudly as I could to solve the puzzle.
HEY!
A few awkward glances, (a puzzle unlocked!), a following round of awkward re-glances, and then it was back to the crabby commute home. I laughed to myself and thought If only they knew how much farther I got in the game after that, only then would they understand.
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