Nintendo has kept the future of Link surprisingly quiet over the past six months. With the next dedicated Wii Zelda still a long way off, fans of Hyrule have been treated to two handheld offerings to fill the void.

Phantom Hourglass was released on the Nintendo DS in 2007 and now gamers have been treated to Spirit Tracks. With little marketing and an identical engine, players have been understandably sceptical that this sequel is just an unoriginal stepping stone to tide us over. So does Spirit Tracks fly like the bullet train or splutter like the London Underground?

Nintendo EAD keeps just enough of the traditional Zelda structure so that it feels both familiar and fresh. Sneaking past the guards in Hyrule castle will bring a smile to the fans, but the new train system and storyline is quite a departure from gamers’ expectations. Thankfully, this time the Triforce are nowhere to be seen and Ganon has finally been dropped as a villain. These departures bring the game out of the series idling rut and offer a completely fresh experience. The characters and cel-shaded art style that has been carried on since Windwaker might be cutesy and naïve, but it’s a binary to the sombre mood of Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time that works effectively on the Nintendo DS.

Set 100 years after the events of Phantom Hourglass and Windwaker, we’re introduced to a whole new Link on a whole new continent. Currently an apprentice railroad worker, our hero needs to travel to the castle of Princess Zelda to be crowned as a Royal Engineer; thereby presumably giving him full responsibility as a train driver. Exciting stuff. Unfortunately the ‘spirit tracks’ which the trains of Hyrule run on are beginning to vanish and Princess Zelda quickly enlists the help of young Link to fix them. Enter a generic villain, a hijacking of Zelda’s body and the vanishing of the spirit tracks altogether, and we have an adventure to restore the kingdom. It’s a little predictable, but there’s a lot of heart and some excellent dialogue.

The over world isn’t as large as a portable RPG like Final Fantasy III or Pokemon Platinum, but the 3D engine and attention to detail helps to add some fantastic personality. Outside of the four main temples, Link and Zelda will encounter over half a dozen towns and outposts throughout their travels. Some are a little more barren than others, but each location has meaning and purpose – making sure that you’ll never be walking around aimlessly talking to the locals. Travelling by train offers great visuals and cowboy tunes, but masks an underlying flaw of Spirit Tracks. You’re always looking to warp to the next town and any form of travelling in-between feels monotonous. Until the Ocean Realm becomes unlocked players can happily select their destination and leave the Nintendo DS alone, the enemies so weak and few that they rarely become threatening to your train’s health.

The quality of levels design in the Legend of Zelda series never disappoints. After all these years I would expect the developers to run dry of exciting puzzles and gadgets, but Spirit Tracks is still one of the hardest iterations to date. Each of the four realm temples offer a new gadget, the boomerang and snake whip being my personal favourites. They’re used very intelligently so that by the time you reach the temple boss you know the precise pros and cons of each device. The puzzles will test your brain to the point where they are highly rewarding but not impossible, always leaving a grin plastered across your face as you climb the next staircase. It’s a welcome departure from other franchises that almost always require you to have a walkthrough to proceed.

Once a portion of the spirit tracks has been restored, Link and Zelda will need to go back to the Spirit Tower to unlock a new realm. Here another form of dungeon puzzling is unlocked. Princess Zelda is a spirit that can animate phantom guardians, but you’ll need to power up your sword in order to gain access to them. Running around the dungeon undetected, directing the guardian Zelda with your stylus and figuring out the hell-bending puzzles elevates Spirit Tracks onto the next rung of quality. These puzzles are on a par with Layton, only much more integrated and immersive.

The touch screen works well for the most part, offering a fluid system that brings out the most of the Nintendo DS system. The controls will never be as tight as a traditional button setup, but the lack of an alternate option makes this feel like a genuine touch control effort. Drawing the route of the guardian Zelda or swift boomerang feels intuitive, but blowing into the pan pipes and whirlwind gadget can often be a little unresponsive. Regardless, these are commendable efforts that boast the technical feats that can be achieved on the system.

The mixture of great presentation and dungeons elevates Spirit Tracks far above the lacklustre effort of Phantom Hourglass. It’s by no means perfect, but it corrects so many problems that you can’t help but enjoy it. Twilight Princess may have arguably lost a little of Zelda’s ‘triple A’ quality, but if Spirit Tracks is anything to go by, there is still plenty of hope for the Wii sequel. One last note; the soundtrack is lovely.