Spirit Tracks gets way harsher critique than it deserves to, and I think it's almost entirely because of the train thing, which just kinda feels weird to me. "oh but it's on rails so you don't have as much freedom to explore", what, like wind waker didn't just have you sailing through nothing between islands? that sure was gripping gameplay, glad they let me have that amazing adventurous choice.

the ost has a delicious windy style, all panpipes and yumminess. cole is kinda goofy, and I do have to admit the trains thing seems very out of left field, but why not make goofy games? who cares! link gets a little train driver outfit! also zelda's an actual character with thoughts and feelings for, like, the first time ever in the series? this game is better than people say it is, and better than it has any right being.

I unironically like Phantom Hourglass a lot. the music is pretty good, the plot is good, it features Linebeck who might be one of the top ten characters in the entire series. I do find it lacks a certain amount of charm and generally feels like it's treading water (har har) in comparison to the other DS/3DS games. Link Between Worlds fits the zelda style to a T and uses the ready-made template of a "Zelda Game" to practically perfection. Spirit Tracks divulges from the usual Zelda standard but does so with a huge amount of charm & unique presence. Phantom Hourglass... doesn't really do either of those. it's just kind of... there.
Three stars & Linebeck adds an extra half.

i don't even have wooooooooords for twilight princess, man. yeah it's kinda edgy, yeah it's kinda cringe. but deep down, aren't we all kinda edgy? aren't we all kinda cringe? no, but we can be when we run around pretending to be a shadow-cursed wolf in a Dark Evil Scary Land and then a glowing lizard tells us about our evil girlfriend who floats through space and stabs us.

perfect game. no zelda will ever do dungeons like TP, no zelda will ever do a soundtrack like TP, no zelda will ever do the hero's journey like TP. if TP was a married man i'd ignore his ring and take such good care of him that I wouldn't walk straight for a month.