Were the stylus-only controls going to work out? Was the DS going to be able to fit a full-length Zelda adventure of the kind we’ve come to expect into its tiny wee cartridge?

And the overriding issue - was worrying, paunchy man-child Tingle going to make a reappearance?

Happily, a product was delivered that addressed most concerns, and moved touchscreen gaming forward in leaps and bounds at the same time.

Tingle, meanwhile, was happily moved sideways into his own, slightly rubbish, Rupee Quest.

Link – the “Hero of Time”, has just saved the rather soggy world of Hyrule in his Wind Waker quest, and sets off on the high seas for more adventures with his friend pirate captain Tetra. Unfortunately, she soon gets kidnapped by a mysterious ghost ship and, knocked overboard and washed up in a strange new land, Link has little to do but set out to rescue her.

The plot’s not incredibly inspired stuff, but it quickly becomes apparent that story isn’t really an issue with this game as, in terms of the traditional Zelda formula, Phantom Hourglass doesn’t really try to overstretch itself.

Actually, when it comes to messing about with “hardcore” Zelda, this game is even more leftfield than Wind Waker was. Sure, you’ve still got your dungeons, and these are as gloriously detailed, crafty and often downright devious as ever. But the system that links them together is really something new, different and actually rather exciting.

I’m talking about maps. They’re your main preoccupation - a tool for advancement, source of buried treasure and even, oddly, mode of transport. X really does mark the spot here, but only once you’ve read some clues, measured it all up, and drawn your own wobbly, freehand marker in place to remind you it’s there.

You can write anything on these maps, and you’re going to have to. Locations, number sequences, mystical emblems to use later, even the shape of a whole island…it’s all going to have to be lovingly doodled on your cartographic collection.

The map work is really at the heart of the game, so it seems to stand to reason that the islands you’ll visit are often rather barren game spaces, with the odd villager and house thrown in for good measure and to provide clues. Don’t expect bustling townships like Kakariko Village or Castle Town here – society is really just a means to an end in Phantom Hourglass.

Movement from island to island is supplied in the form of Linebeck, a sort of Han Solo/Jack Sparrow-type dodgy privateer with an almost Dickensian approach to child welfare. He’ll drive the steamboat, but he’ll make you decide where to go, and most certainly won’t set foot on any of the islands, preferring to send Link head first into danger instead (often with threats of a beating should he refuse).

With Linebeck at the helm, though, all it takes to travel from A to B is to draw a quick line on your sea chart, and you’ll putter off automatically, leaving your hands free for cannon combat, blasting golden frogs, or simply enjoying the view with a fully-functional panning camera.

The sea’s not super pretty, but then the steam-powered journeys somewhat remove the elegance of the Wind Waker ocean voyages anyway, with Phantom Hourglass turning them more into strong-arm ship-to-ship battles and ambushes (your boat even has hit points!). This works well, with fraught and stressful journeys taking your mind off the bland, jaggy seascapes.

In general terms, though, the attempt at recreation of the Wind Waker graphical aesthetic lends itself fairly well to the DS’s somewhat basic 3D abilities. Some characters may look a bit like smoothly planed wooden mannequins with colourful painted faces, but everything is more than recognisable, with Moblins, Chus and everything else you’d expect painstakingly generated in tiny polygonal glory.

The dungeons – of which there are a fair few - really are very clever on the whole, integrating the time-honoured tradition of adding more and more items to the mix to solve increasingly complex puzzles.

Though the repeated struggle through the Temple of the Ocean King (progressing further as you collect more sand for the titular hourglass) seems to reek of a programmer’s attempts to add length to the game, it can be forgiven by the presence of the Phantoms – burly, invincible armoured guardians who must be avoided Solid Snake-style, adding an interesting new stealth dynamic to proceedings.

Sidequests do seem conspicuous by their absence, though the main distraction, upgrading various parts of the steamboat, is a compulsive experience full of nerdy “collect ‘em all” goodness, and finding the whole lot is no mean feat.

Overall, The Phanton Hourglass is Zelda deftly reimagined and repackaged for portable, touchscreen gaming. Nobody should ever have expected a full-blown Zelda epic on the DS, and the resulting 12 or so hours of clever, tactile treasure hunting is a joy from start to finish.

The touchscreen mapping and associated scholarly note-taking are worth the asking price alone, but in addition this game is easily the most complete, considered and feature-packed DS adventure in existence, and an essential purchase for any and all owners of the machine.

The most surprising Zelda to date, but also one of the very best.

8/10