The two things that impressed me about Spirit Tracks were the boss battles and difficulty. For a Zelda title it was considerably more difficult than the recent entries. The last time I struggled this much was with Majora’s Mask – which in my opinion was one of the hardest titles.
The one thing I really didn’t like was being confined to the spirit tacks. Even with the boat you could go wherever you wanted, I just felt like it removed the exploration. No little caves or hidden passages, just going from point A to B. I was hoping they’d bring back heart pieces too… but sadly not =(