Nintendo of America announced today that The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass will be hitting North America on October 1st. The Nintendo DS adventure, which serves as a sequel to the 2003 GameCube title, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, was recently released in Japan, where it received a near-perfect score from premier gaming mag, Famitsu. Nintendo will also be making a special bonus available to members of the My Nintendo website, as those who register both their Nintendo DS system and the Phantom Hourglass game will be eligible to receive an exclusive stylus shaped like a quill pen. The stylus, patterned after an in-game item, appears to be available on a limited basis, so early adopters will want to jump on that on the release date. We recently spent some time with the import release of Phantom Hourglass, so be sure to check out our first impressions to get some insight into Nintendo's next dual-screened smash.
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Famitsu score.
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Retailers estimate that 350,000 of the original shipment of 400,000 have sold out in Japan. This is great news given the downward trend for Zelda titles in Japan.
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We've created a new Zelda title that can be played with a single stylus. When we decided to develop a Zelda title for the DS, we wanted it to be a fun game with the essence of the DS. Of course, we were worried whether we could make a good Zelda game that used the stylus control scheme of the DS, but once we did it, the game didn't lose its Zelda essence. I think we've created a new Zelda title that can be played with a single stylus. If you want to try something, you just need to touch the screen with the stylus; it's very intuitive. That's how this new Zelda game is. Take the pots, for example. When you touch a pot, Link (the main character) will get next to it, and if you touch the pot again, Link will lift it. Then you just have to touch twice the screen in any direction to throw it away. If you want to do something, you just touch the screen with the stylus and Link will move. So, rather than controling Link, you can indicate him what you want to do. It's the same when fighting some enemies, if you touch an enemy with the stylus, Link will attack him with his sword. Now on the DS, you don't need to remember which item used which button, or you don't have to push a button to wield your sword.
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