It was always only a matter of time before a Zelda title would appear on the DS, and that time is drawing ever closer with news of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

The game is presented in the same cel shaded style as The Wind Waker, rather than in the more realistic style of the impending Twilight Princess on GameCube/Revolution. Fans of the series will doubtless be pleased to hear that all the things they know and love about the Zelda series seem set to appear, such as the boomerang and chain, and as is also tradition it would appear Link has a new object to help him in his quest in the form of the titular hourglass. How this will actually affect gameplay is open to question, although it would seem a fairly safe bet that some control over time will be possible, perhaps time travel, or bringing the game world to a halt around you?

This being a DS title there is of course ample use of the stylus for input. Trails can be drawn on screen for your boomerang to follow to allow switches to be activated, and it would also appear that you can navigate a boat in a similar manner. Other puzzles require you to draw shapes in order to open doors for example, which would seem to be the way in which you may interact with the Hourglass.

The game is presented in a mixture of true 3D and a kind of forced perspective 2.5D effect, with the action jumping between the twin screens of the DS when necessary in order to allow the stylus to be used for input purposes. Running around the world is presumably done by using the D-Pad, with the buttons used to activate objects from your inventory.

No release date has yet been set, but expect more details to be revealed at E3 in May.

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