The British Gaming Blog has nabbed a video showcasing the just-announced Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. The video is pretty high quality, and definitely not some amateur bootleg from a keynote attendee. The footage shows off a multitude of ways DS gamers will use both the touch-screen and dual-screen features we've come to know on our handheld. The one that has us most excited is where you actually draw the path of Link's boomerang.Graphically, the game looks impressive--it is amazing how much of the cel-shaded look they managed to fit into a little DS cartridge. We are definitely looking forward to getting some hands-on testing with this title.
[Thanks, JonathanEx]



















(Page 1) Reader Comments
All i could say upon seeing that video was HOLY... CRAP... the graphics are amazing, the ne gameplay style is amazing, this could be the best handheld zelda/nintendo title ever made.
Reply
Reply
LOL!!!! LMAO!!! ROFLMAOXOXOXO!!!!!!
Reply
Will it connect to the "Revolution" version of Twilight Princess?
Reply
Reply
http://www.nintendo.com/newsarticle?articleid=64wsG8LoGw3vuttzAr5zU-s70OLsg6Fm
PS: This looks like a ton of fun.
Reply
Well, disregarding my ignorance on the subject, I can conclude this:
-That "Wind Waker" didn't exploit the gamecube hardware.
-That Cel-shaded "textutes" don't occupy much space, or rather, you don't need many textures, if any (you just tell the program through code which color you want to display for each plane).
Any other suggestions?
Reply
Reply
Reply
However, procedural rendered content is much more processor hungry than the "normal" way of doing it. The processors in the DS isnt the fastest things in the world so i think they have the content on the cartridge. Takes more space and memory, but saves alot of processor time.
Reply
Wonders what blog this coul be referring to. LOL.
Pleasantly surprised at how Nintendo manages to pull off consistently beautiful works with such an economy of resources. It takes a lot of vision to be able to do that. There are many tell-tale signs that these shots are lacking the detail and polygon density seen on the GCN, but the overall effect is strangely comparable.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
So doing what I said (about programming which color goes where) is a procedural algorithm? Sorry, I'm new at this.
If that's true, then I guess Nintendo hit a Home-Run with this one, just as they did with Resident Evil 2 on 64 (2X650 MB discs on a 64 MB cartridge).
Reply
Is it coming out this year? (man 2 zeldas in one year, thats almost too much)
I would definatly buy a ds for this game. I am not a nintendo fanboy, but I am def. a zelda geek.
Reply
conclusion: I believe this game is played exclusivly with the touchscreen, draw a circle around link = spin move, click on the monsters or draw a fast slashe threw them to attack, click and hold and link walks
and the FAIRY is to show where you are clicking, think of it as DiabloZelda
Nintendo sure wants to show off thier stuff when it comes to touch screen
on a side note, what are the odds of this having MP, Adhoc or Online
Reply
Reply
compared to 3d graphics, cel shading requires a lot more textures--there is some lighting technique we did an article back, but I forgot where it was.
And the Nintendo main page? i think ill change the link
Reply
I thought cel shading required *less* textures, since the figures look so... "dull". They don't seem to have as much detail as in Twilight Princess. I thought that the cel shading technique required simply doing all the polygons, and then adding one or two colors for each surface, plus some light/shade effects when you are playing.
Why is it that you need more textures for a game that doesn't seem to have a wide color palette? Do you have links for that? Thanks.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Otherwise, this looks great. I'll have to get it. It's going to be completely over-shadowded by Twilight Princess though.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Today...Iwata unveiled it at his GDC Keynote speech.
Reply
Reply
Metroid Prime Hunters
Nintendogs
Mario Kart DS
Tetris DS
Animal Crossing Wild World
Zelda Phantom Hourglass
Mario 64 DS
PSP:
Can play old SNES games.
Maybe Sony should just quit now, huh? Seems to me like it's basically over.
Reply
Reply
-Mario Kart DS
-Metroid Prime: Hunters
-Xbox 360
-The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (for Xbox 360)
-The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
-Okami
-Guitar Hero
-The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
-Hi-Def TV
wow.. gaming is too damn expensive.
Reply
Paul Gale
1up.com
Reply
Paul Gale
1up.com
Reply
If you look at the settings/areas, you can see that they are very familair to the original zeldas and gameboy advance versions. What im trying to say is that the game seems to be more like a 3d version of the exsisting gameboy versions, like a 3d perspective of the 2d landscapes. Unlike console versions, the hanheld ones have led paths, a lot more dungeons and not the wide free scoping elements found on recent console versions(n64 and gc). This dosent make the game bad, but what im trying to say is that it dosent really represent the console versions of game, it seems to carry on from the exsisting handheld versions.
just look at the video again and pay more attention to the surroundings then link himself, you will notice what i mean.
sorry for bad spelling and grammar, but to be honest, i wasnt arsed.
Reply
Reply
Reply
The sailing in Wind Waker did become quite tedious, but I find that it's my favourite story line of all the Zeldas and I really enjoyed the fact that it referred to the previous games for the first time in the entire series. I'm also a huge fan of cel-shading, so I suppose that doesn't help.
Reply
I can't wait for the game.
Reading annoymous's comment made me imagine something.
Imagine if they remade Link's Awakening in 3d...
I love link's awakening!
Reply