New Super Mario Bros. Wii Hands-On

Mario bounces back for a second shot at 2.5D platforming - can Nintendo get it perfect once again?

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The highlight of the demo build train sequence is a timing-based junction puzzle, in which Link must plot a path around possessed steam engines, each shrouded in those delicious Wind Waker puffs of purple Oriental smoke. Then we're ushered into the warm cartoon gloom of a dungeon to sample the meat of the game.

Here you control Link with the stylus much as before, stroking across the screen to move him around and flicking or jabbing to deliver blows with the sword. The big new feature (and he's certainly a chunky fellah) is the Phantom, villain cum heavily armed plaything. This walking suit of armour can be directed much like the previous game's boomerang, by drawing a route from an icon at his feet. Any enemies encountered on the way will be summarily trashed. The Phantom's usefulness doesn't begin and end with his martial skills, though: being impervious to fire, lava and other heart-container-emptying environmental features, he can help Link negotiate otherwise impassable areas. We use the titan as a moving barricade to slip through a wall of flame jets, leap on his head to traverse a lake of magma, and call on his sword arm to complete a fiddly multiple-switch puzzle.

The dungeon also harbours a new weapon, similar to the wind boomerang of yore. A leaf propeller, it sends a blast of air towards whatever Link points it at, extinguishing torches, launching items across the room and dispelling noxious gases. You generate this blast by blowing into the DS microphone, which is great news for those of us who enjoy wiping spit off their touch screens. Optional button controls please, Nintendo.

There's a giant beetle boss battle to finish up, very much according to the Zelda rulebook. The beetle has a big glowing arse, protected by wreathes of gas: the idea, as you've probably deduced, is to blow these away with the new wind weapon and get busy with your blade. After a dose of this the beetle takes wing, and proceeds to poop giant sea urchins onto the arena. These bristle when smacked, and can then be launched back into their creator's face.

On-rails overworld aside, Spirit Tracks feels like a natural though not unquestionable evolution of Phantom Hourglass: it continues the latter game's successful distillation of Zelda trademarks into an on-the-go format, reprises the flawless touch control scheme, gives you a few new tools to play with and tosses in a fresh mode of transport. Some would argue the series could stand a little drastic innovation; for our part, we're just glad Link has yet to see the point of AK47s and prostitution rackets. It's only a matter of time...

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is out in Europe and North America later this year.

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