Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass - Gap Fillers?

[Zeldafan777]

I love the two DS Zelda titles. After all, it was Spirit Tracks that introduced me to the Legend of Zelda series. Two years on from completing Spirit Tracks and falling in love with Zelda, I now have realised that PH and SP weren't huge games in the series. I now have played several games from the series including SS and OoT. Is it true that ST and PH were gap fillers to buy Nintendo more time to finish Skyward Sword? They two DS titles are great, but they obviously aren't as good as Skyward Sword or Ocarina of Time...

 

[MW7]

I think they were just smaller adventures because they were on less powerful hardware. Those two games contributed some truly innovative ideas that I hope get carried on in the Wii U Zelda since that will have a touch screen controller as well. The ability to draw on the map along with how some of the items were used (boomerang, bombchu, etc.) were amazing ideas that led to awesome puzzles in those games. Some of the puzzles requiring you to use Zelda as a second character to control in Spirit Tracks were really cool as well.

So to answer your question I'd say no.

 

[Frosticles]

I actually found that the boss battles in spirit tracks and phantom hourglass were some of the best out of the series. Something about the way the camera piveted along the 3d axis just made them seem so much more interesting. Not only that, but the boss battles had some clever mechanics to them. My personal favorite is the one where on the bottom screen you cannot see the boss, but on the top screen you can see a view from his eyes, thus giving you clues to his current position. (sorry I dont remember what temple/game this is ).

 

[Dio]

They are handheld titles, so of course they will not be as major as home console titles.

 

[Phantom Roxas]

Frosticles, you're thinking about Crayk from the Temple of Courage in Phantom Hourglass. That was a pretty smart mechanic.

What I like about the games is that they know how to take advantage of the system. As for whether or not they were filler games, well, a friend of mine does considering Phantom Hourglass as such because of the ending. I checked on Wikipedia to see what the development for that game was like, and it just spun out of an attempt to bring Four Swords to the DS, so I guess it's kind of like Oracle of Seasons in that regard. Spirit Tracks really doesn't feel like filler (Although Cole and Malladus certainly strike me as anime movie filler villains, as well as blatant precursors to Ghirahim and Demise), but instead the game shows the future of the land that the ending of The Wind Waker had set up to be explored. There needs to be a game between Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks about TWW/PH so fill in that gap. The AT makes another appearance on a console game, so maybe that interquel could be that game.

 

[Sheik1]

it was probably just smaller stories... and your right they are great games .. every zelda game is great in its own way.

 

[Fullmetal]

I think they were meant to be sequels that would satisfy Wind Waker fans and occupy other Zelda fans for a while. Despite that, though, I found them fun and entertaining, even though Phantom Hourglass didn't have a full blown story.