The Legend of Zelda arrives on the Nintendo DS with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. This game starts off where the Wind Waker for the GameCube ended. Link, his friend Tetra and her gang of pirates are sailing unexplored seas when they come across a ghost ship. When Tetra wants to explore the ship she disappears and Link, who goes after her, falls into the sea and becomes stranded on an unknown island.

While remaining true to the traditional Legend of Zelda formula, this game's controls are drastically different from other Zelda titles. This time you only use the touch screen to make Link move and attack instead of buttons. For example, swinging your sword is done with a short line horizontally or vertically in front of Link, or by tapping on a specific enemy. Link can somersault forward by having the player draw a small circle on the edge of the screen while running. The boomerang can be thrown in a specific path by drawing its exact route on the touch screen.

You can also use the touch screen to make notes of secret treasures and items on the map simply by writing them down. Sailing across the sea is also done by simply drawing the route on the map. While the route is being traveled, the player can pan the screen around to look out for enemies and other obstacles. The ship's route can also be changed while traveling if something else catches the player's attention. Later on, the player can even go fishing in the sea, using the stylus to pull the rod and reel in their catch.

The game is presented in the same cel-shaded style as the Wind Waker but it is displayed from a classic top-down perspective.

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Alternate Titles

"ゼルダの伝説　夢幻の砂時計" -- Japanese spelling
"Zelda no Densetsu: Mugen no Sunadokei" -- Japanese title
"젤다의 전설 몽환의 모래시계" -- Korean spelling

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title	Platform	Price
	The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass	Nintendo DS	$6.86
	The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass	Nintendo DS	$6.86
	The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass	Nintendo DS	$6.86
	The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
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User Reviews

When the legend is bigger than the game	NeoJ (427)
Fun game, but very long.	RussS (783)
Incorporates brilliant touch innovation in classic Zelda gameplay. Get it!	Rensch (193)
Fun little game that makes great use of the DS	Matthew Melbourne (25)

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The Press Says

Game Shark	Oct 19, 2007	A	100
Game Vortex	2007	99 out of 100	99
Deeko	Oct 09, 2007	9.5 out of 10	95
V2.fi	Nov 01, 2007	92 out of 100	92
Nintendo Front	Nov 13, 2007	91 out of 100	91
Thunderbolt Games	Oct 17, 2007	9 out of 10	90
Good Game	Oct 30, 2007	9 out of 10	90
videogamer.com	Nov 01, 2007	9 out of 10	90
EL33TONLINE	Feb 05, 2008		80
GamersMark	Jun 11, 2008	7.5 out of 10	75

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Trivia

Awards

At the event "GameStar/GamePro Leserpreis 2007" (March 28, 2008) The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass received the trophy "Best Handheld Game in 2007" after the reader's voting of German gaming magazine GamePro;
GamePro Magazine (Issue #233, Feb. 2008) named it "Best Handheld Game of the Year" (2007);
It won the "Bliss Handheld Game of the Year" category in the 2008 Golden Joystick Awards.

Information also contributed by Big John WV.

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This entry to the MobyGames database was contributed by Rensch (193) on Oct 05, 2007.