Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks drops Dec. 7

Six months after unveiling the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo has finally dated it. The second DS installment in the fantasy franchise will ship on Monday, December 7, three days after Wii Fit Plus launches.

As its title indicates, Spirit Tracks will feature a magical locomotive, which hero Link uses to travel around an equally magical island. Railway-based gameplay will consist of blowing up powder kegs on the tracks and shooing wild animals away with a horn blast. The game will also have numerous puzzles and dungeons, as outlined in GameSpot's hands-on preview.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks boasts the same visual style as the GameCube's Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, GameSpot's 2003 Game of the Year. The same visual style was also used in The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, the critically acclaimed first DS entry in the series. So far, there has only been one Wii Zelda game, Twilight Princess, although a second is planned for release next year.