Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - multiplayer hands-on

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It's Red Link vs. Blue Link in capture the triforce

Graphically you'll know just how gorgeous this mode is if you've seen any of the movies or screenshots of the solo adventure thus far. Adopting the same "art-shaded" graphical style from Wind Waker, a lot of the bells and whistles from the GameCube cousin are at work on the DS, including facial expressions and gorgeous character animation. All combined Phantom Hourglass looks fantastic, and is definitely a graphical high point forthe DS.

Affairs are bumped up a notch with the addition of special "safe zones" around the map where Link can go invisible to the other player, as well as use various warps to other areas of the map. There are also items like the power gloves which let you pick up larger triangles without slowing down.

A quick warp to the other end of the map, and the cloudy bad guys are left struggling to stop you from snatching that last triforce piece.

It was certainly an enjoyable build on the GDC show floor, but we don't know how long it'll last once the dual-screen Zelda is in gamers' hands.