I am an absolutely huge Zelda fan. Over the past few days I have been coming to grips with just how big of a fan I am. I've been hooked on the series ever since I played Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. I actually played the sequel to The Legend of Zelda before I played the original. Strange that one of the weirdest entries in the series was the one that got me interested in checking out the first installment. Everything from the exploration to puzzle solving was unlike anything else I had ever played. Now that we've progressed through many more Zelda titles, I have found myself addicted to the formula. I know I can expect well planned logic puzzles from a Zelda. I also know that I am in store for some great battles. It makes me very happy to say that storylines have become a big part of the Zelda series since A Link to the Past. Twilight Princess blew me away with the yarn it had spun. What seems like a simple story at first becomes a multi-faceted plot worthy of fanboy scrutinizing. All of these elements make it harder and harder for me to wait for the next Zelda game. That’s why I was sitting at my desk today listening to the Twilight Princess soundtrack. From the second I finished the game, I couldn't help but imagine the next console installment. The good news is that we will have a brand new portable adventure long before Link graces consoles in his next true adventure. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass shrinks Link down to pocket size for his first major DS outing. The bad news is that there are a few things that make me very uneasy about the game.

Rather than dive right into the negatives, I'd like to hit on some positives. First and foremost, I am overjoyed to see the Wind Waker style Link make a return. After The Wind Waker didn't sell nearly as much as Nintendo had hoped for, we all thought that was the last we would see of cel-shading. Nintendo moved on to give the US what they wanted...a more realistic Zelda game. I had fallen in love with the Wind Waker style, and was disappointed to see it go. To my surprise the same art style would return on the DS. The most amazing part is that it actually looks fairly close to what the Cube could do. Sure, the character models are a little more crude, and the geometry may be a tad blockier, but overall things are looking great. The Saturday morning cartoon-style facial expressions are back, and the deep blue seas have returned. Who knew that my initial shock to the first Wind Waker trailer would turn into such an affinity for toon Link?

It's also great to see Phantom Hourglass offer up a wifi multiplayer mode. While Zelda games aren't traditionally about multiplayer, things have been changing. The Four Swords Adventures on the Cube was an outstanding game that was hampered by the equipment you needed to play it. On top of that, some people scoffed at the SNES + visuals that the game used…but that argument is for another day. Unfortunately this too was a title that didn't meet Nintendo's sales expectations. That didn't stop the development team from trying another multiplayer feature on Nintendo's portable platform. The main difference here is that the multiplayer mode isn't the focus of the game, it is meant to compliment it. Collecting force gems while avoiding a human-controlled set of opponents is actually a ton of fun. I had the pleasure to try out the wifi mode once again at GDC, and it is shaping up very nicely. This is sure to help add in a lot of replay value once Phantom Hourglass' main quest is completed.

There are many more things I look forward to in Phantom Hourglass, but that's not the focus of my article. I want to talk about my biggest gripe with the game, which also happens to be the most prominent feature of the DS. Phantom Hourglass will have you controlling Link completely through the touch screen. If you want Link to move you touch the stylus to the screen in the direction you want him to head. Attacks are done by swiping at your enemies when you are close to them. The items you collect have you performing various stylus movements to utilize them. I think the touch screen is a fantastic element of the DS, but as Nintendo said, not every game has to use it. I was really surprised to see that Nintendo would be taking the next portable Zelda installment and building it around the touch screen.

In my mind I am relating Phantom Hourglass to Animal Crossing: Wild World. In AC:WW you are given two control methods. You can use the d-pad to control your character, or you can use the stylus to touch and point them in whatever direction you please. There's nothing wrong with this mode of control, I just so happen to enjoy the d-pad more. I don't know if it's because of my gaming roots or what, but I just don't feel comfortable using the touch screen to make the character walk. AC:WW has this touch screen control method to open up the series to new gamers. It's much easier for someone new to games to touch where they want to go instead of moving their thumb around a d-pad. I think this was a great move in the case of AC:WW. Phantom Hourglass on the other hand is meant for more of the hardcore gaming crowd. Is Nintendo trying to open up the Zelda series to newcomers? I know that Zelda hasn't been selling to well in Japan in recent years. Perhaps Nintendo is trying to use the success of the DS paired with a simple control scheme to entice new gamers. Then again, maybe Nintendo really just felt that touch screen control was the way to go with Phantom Hourglass.

The stylus will also be used to make your attacks. This is another part that worries me. I really liked the feeling of connecting with an enemy via a button press. I guess it really doesn't make much sense when you think about it. At least a stylus swipe feels a little more like the real world action. There's just something about me that doesn't like the idea of scribbling all over an enemy to kill it. Now I know that you will have to do stylus swipes and not just draw, but it still irks me. I am hoping for the inclusion of timed swipes to perform combos. This would help alleviate some of my worries. The fighting system in all Zelda games has never been deep, but it has been fun. Can this new control method keep the enjoyment of past games while bringing something fresh to the table?

With all this stylus work going on, I get afraid that inputs will get mixed up. I don't want Link to run into an enemy when I am trying to attack it. I also don't want to use an item when I am just trying to walk. It's still a little early to discuss all of the touch screen control methods, but from what we do know there are a lot. Wario: Master of Disguise showed that great new gameplay ideas can be birthed via the touch screen, but there is a lot of room for error. While the idea of drawing shapes to transform Wario seemed like a good idea in theory, it was no fun when the game couldn't recognize what you were doing. Phantom Hourglass should be a lot more action intense than Wario was. This means there will be many more instances of quick decisions, and a lot more opportunities for your input to be read wrong. There's no doubt in my mind that Nintendo will be testing this game to no end, but how much can you really predict?

Don't get me wrong, I don't view all stylus control with such trepidation. I absolutely love the idea of using the touch screen with the boomerang. Being able to draw the flight path for the boomerang looks like a lot of fun. No need to lock on when you can tell the boomerang exactly where to go. Even better is the ability to write yourself notes on maps. It seems like a really simple idea, but it's a great one to have in a puzzle-oriented game. Now you don't have to keep a pen and paper handy for keeping track of things. If you need to go back for a treasure chest you can mark it on the map. You can even leave yourself little notes so you remember a certain booby trap, or a group of enemies that will attack when you return. Finally, having the stylus to directly interact with puzzles is fantastic. In one of the trailers we see the player draw an hourglass on a door to open it up. No doubt there will be many more instances where the player will have to draw out the answers to puzzles and brain teasers. This direct input could allow for all new types of puzzles in the Zelda series.

Perhaps I am worrying about the game too much because of my love for the series. I would hate to see a Zelda game that just wasn't very good. We want that "honor" to stay with the CD-I games. There's one thing that keeps me from buying into all my fears. I really do trust Nintendo with this license. We all know that the Big N will take as much time necessary to make a game the best it can be, and Zelda is no exception. These guys aren't going to throw out ideas just for the sake of adding something new to the game. These are things that they feel will further the gameplay experience. They want Phantom Hourglass to be played with the touch screen for some very good reasons. We are yet to experience these reasons, but I am sure we will learn more in the near future. Nintendo's Zelda track record lets me breathe a sigh of relief when I get worried about Phantom Hourglass. I was nervous over the Wii control scheme for Twilight Princess, but that all faded away after I spent a half an hour in the game. Now I can't even imagine playing it on the Cube. That's exactly what I am hoping for with Phantom Hourglass. Nintendo needs to make me understand why the touch screen was the way to go. I'm ready to be wowed.