Thanks to some other game coming out last week and being marginally successful, another big videogame release got kind of overlooked, at least by the mainstream. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass came out for Nintendo’s DS on Wednesday, and while it might not have made $170 million in a single day, it’s nevertheless one of the more notable games to come out this year.

I’ve only spent a few hours with the game so far, and we’ll have a full review in the Mercury in a few weeks, but hey, you want some first impressions? Sure? Okay. I’m considerate like that.

Hit the jump for those impressions. And some screenshots that I stole from other websites.

So Phantom Hourglass is the first Zelda game that's designed from the ground up for the touch-sensitive DS, and it takes full advantage of the handheld's touch screen. As in, I don't think you have to hit any buttons while playing the game. All of the controls--from moving Link, to attacking, to rolling, to talking with people--are handled by dragging the DS' stylus along the screen, tapping on enemies, drawing circles or shapes. It takes a little while to get used to--maybe 20 or 30 mintues--but once it does, the controls just click, and playing the game feels incredibly organic and intuitive. (The game also utilizes the DS' microphone--you have to shout into it to solve some puzzles--and also has the flat-out brilliant feature of letting you write on the game's map to remind yourself where key places are that you'll need to go or revisit. The latter sounds like such a simple idea, which is why it might be my favorite feature. Game maps--esp. for big games like the Zelda series--can be overwhelming, and the notation feature is something that effortlessly fixes that.)

The other big thing I like about the game is that it's a follow up to the GameCube's The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, a game that I loved the cartoony visual style of but got too bored of sailing around the ocean to ever finish. Phantom Hourglass continues that cel-shaded look, and while it hardly looks amazing (it's the DS, after all), the tone and feel of the game benefits enormously.

My only complaint, so far, is how linear it all feels--very "go from Point A to Point B, fight with some stuff on the way, and have some funny/cute conversations with NPCs while you're at it." Granted, this might change later in the game, but right now, Nintendo's game design in Phantom Hourglass doesn't feel nearly as innovative as the control scheme, which is something that's also plagued Nintendo's largely lackluster titles for the Wii--the control is awesome, but the games themselves aren't blowing anybody's minds.

That said, shit. I'll probably finish Halo 3's campaign on Saturday, and while I'll no doubt be replaying that game soon on a higher difficulty level, in the immediate future I'm mostly just looking forward to playing around with Phantom Hourglass some more. The Zelda games might be some of the most welcoming, charmingly written, and just plain fun games out there--and this one, at least so far, is no exception.