Topic: New Musical Instrument in LoZ: Spirit Tracks Confirmed!

That's right, Link will be sporting a brand new musical instrument in Spirit Tracks, appropriately named the "Spirit Pipes". Apparently you use the Stylus and the DS Microphone to play the instrument, which is very similar to the Pan Pipes. You blow into the mic while using the stylus to cycle through different pipes. Sounds pretty cool to me! I love Zelda games with musical instruments, and this one sounds esspecially awesome.

Here's the source, with more info: http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=13099

Ugh. Please stop with the microphone-based crap, Nintendo. It's thus far proved to have little to no positive impact on games, with the possible exception of Nintendogs. But even there it's pretty flaky on voice recognition. Again, I reiterate that I enjoy portable consoles because they're portable and because (by extension) I can play them in public places, or in the same room as my family is currently occupying. Being asked, required, to blow into it is frankly embarrasing in both situations. Being asked to yell is somewhat worse. I can't even do that in the comfort of my own room, because everyone will still hear my valiant efforts to buy a cheap Salvage Arm from Eddo. I'm aware that you can just tap the microphone or clap nearby for it, but I never seem to get a good price by doing that. Most of the time he doesn't discount me at all. And it doesn't work for blowing commands.

Besides which, I tend to find I have to hold the DS pretty close in order for my frantic huffing to register. How am I supposed to see what I'm aiming at on the touchscreen when the screen is somewhere below my chin?

I have read your complaints, and I dissagree with them. I love the mic and I wish it was used in more games.

The mic is unresponsive for many users. You can't disagree with that. It's not an opinion. If it works well for you, splendid, but it barely ever responds properly for me (at least on my old DS, haven't tried it on my DSi yet). Most of the time in Mario Kart's battle mode my friends and I would just not even bother trying to inflate the balloons because you're going to lose the rest of your balloons trying to get the damn thing to work. And it's not like you can blame user error like with weird motion control problems on Wii -- we know how to blow air.

As for the musical instrument, I'm not sure why Nintendo wants to turn Link into a one-man band. Is he prepping for some solo recording work that we don't know about? The music thing is a tired gimmick. I'd like to see the Hero of Time try his hand at something else, maybe giving poetry recitals.

I hear the skull groan and entreat
At every bubble:
"When is this fierce, ludicrous game
To come to an end?

Because what your pitiless mouth
Scatters in the air,
Monstrous murderer — is my brain,
My flesh and my blood!"

Do do do do do! [Zelda secret tune]

You are mrmicawber, and I claim my five pounds.

If I were mrmicawber, I would have cited P Diddy, not Baudelaire.

Hmm. It must be the old DS Phats then. The DS Lite and DSi Mics are very responsive. And I'm pretty sure you can adjust Mic sensitivity in the Options menu.

I had a Lite. I don't have any mic-using games to test the DSi though.

Yeah, i don't really like the microphone stuff either, especially blowing into it -- though it is kinda neat in certain games (like Huge Bowser's fire attack in M&L:BIS), it just annoys me overall. I just hope it's implemented well in Spirit Tracks.

Spirit Tracks looks to be a very sweet game, but there are two things that will drive me crazy.

Using the stylus to control Link: I loved using items with the stylus in PH, but I never mastered the movement in PH. It just ended up frustrating me.

Mic: There have been some good uses, like in Phoenix Wright, but I generally hate using it. An instrument is an alright idea, but I agree with Adam. Link doesn't need an instrument in every game.