Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Before I delve into it, let me step back a bit and talk about Phantom Hourglass, which I consider the worst game of the series. The craziest thing is I kinda liked it. I felt it adapted the Zelda tools well to the stylus: You could use the grappling hook as a tightrope and a slingshot, I liked how you could trace the path for the bombchus, etc. When I played the dungeons, I felt like I was really enjoying myself.
It was just that fucking Ocean Temple which drove me insane.
I don't know how Nintendo fucked that one up. I hate stealth to begin with, and I don't think it belongs in a Zelda game. I hated it in the Forbidden Fortress and I hated it in Ocarina of Time. But those I was willing to let slide in those instances since it didn't last very long. The Ocean Temple, however, was an abomination. Not only do I have to sneak around, I'm timed, and I have to do it all over again whenever I'm done with an area. When the third repetition came around, I just put down the game and never played again. I couldn't handle it.
Now, Spirit Tracks has that same Ocean Temple concept to it -- go to the same main dungeon over and over to get another portion of the map -- but it's more bearable. For one, you barely have to sneak around at all and those sections are pretty easy. Two, you don't have to go to any of the previous levels. So in that sense, I'm enjoying it more than Phantom Hourglass and it has the same type of fun in the dungeons.
It doesn't feel like a Zelda game, however. Supposedly you're Niko's grandson or... whatever (that guy who called you Swabbie in Wind Waker), but in terms of continuity it doesn't make any real sense and I'm not going to try to defend it. It's just... trains? Are you fucking kidding me? I guess it's not really different than that damned boat (especially when you compare it to Phantom Hourglass), but... trains? The point of the game is to restore the tracks as well as saving Zelda, but whenever people moan how the tracks are gone, I just think, "Well, you can always make new ones... It's not as if all this dungeon shit is necessary. Just get off your ass and put some damned rails down." Honestly, it just feels like Nintendo made a game and slammed the word Zelda to it so it would sell more.