While the story isn't as dramatic as previous Zelda's, this one is still THE flagship DS game.
The Bad: The story isn't as in-depth or dramatic as other Zeldas. Having to go through the Temple of the Ocean King 5 times.
Review: This game plays like a mix between Link to the Past and Wind Waker. It's art style and gameplay elements have alot to do with Wind Waker obviously with the whole sailing thing. Thankfully, sailing is made easy, short, and fun this time around. You draw your own route on the touch screen and you're good to go. The islands are MUCH closer here than compared to Wind Waker, and the shortcuts are easier to access. There are periodic enemies in the sea you must shoot down with your cannon also. This actually makes me interested in the sailing parts. Same with when you pull up treasure. Pulling up treasure now has it's own minigame where you guide the grapple thingy (that goes down to get the treasure) in between water mines and the like.
The action here is similar to Link to the Past in that the view you have on land is almost a top down view like LttP, but it's obvsiouly a little more 3D here and a little closer to the action.
You will not use a single button in this game. EVERYTHING is controlled by the stylus, and it's actually REALLY fun that way. I won't waste time with details, just trust me on it, lol. Or try for yourself at one of the many displays of this game at Walmart or Gamestop.
There are only 6 dungeons technically, but there are a few other places that sure feel like dungeons that have bosses at the end (like the Ghost Ship sequence).
I'd guess the game took me about 15 hours or so to complete, maybe a little more. Which to me is pretty perfect for a DS game.
The biggest flaw that people complain about is having to revisit the "Temple of the Ocean King" multiple times. Yes, it's true, you have to go through this temple like 5 times, BUT... there is a save point halfway through, and as you gain new inventory items (like bombs, arrows, hammer, hookshot, etc), the temple is designed so that you can take shortcuts with your next inventory upgrade. Because of that and because you do go deeper in each time, it didn't feel that repetitive to me. I didn't necessarily LOVE doing it over each time, but I personally didn't find it as annoying as others say. It CERTAINLY is nothing compared to the sailing marathon at the end of Wind Waker where you have to find all the triforce shards.
As for the story, it's VERY lighthearded and kiddy. A little too much for a Zelda game if you ask me. Now Wind Waker was pretty much like that, but I still thought Wind Waker had a great story. This one is much more shallow, which was the biggest flaw to me.
All in all though, this is definitely the flagship game for the DS, I'd guess the best seller, and deservedly so. The puzzles you know and love from the Zelda games are all here, and while some are kind of simple, most of it is medium difficulty IMHO, very similar to previous Zelda games. Anyhoo, that's all for the review, cya.
PS. Oh yeah, and this game has online multiplayer on it too, where you can basically play one of the minigames presented in the main game. And to play it against others is actually pretty fun, though I've only done it twice so far.