Well I picked up Phantom Hourglass earlier today and I've been going at it.

The first thing I'd like to talk about is of course the controls. Any fears I had about touchscreen controls were gone within the first 15 minutes. They are incredibly easy to use and responsive. It really doesn't take a genius to control this game. In the first hour (and dungeon) I never once had the controls do something that I didn't tell them to do.

The plot is very simple. There isn't going to be a deep life changing storyline in this game, but I didn't expect there to be. It's obviously kept simple enough to not scare away kids or casual gamers. It's not the story driven experience that Twilight Princess was, and it's much closer to the plot of say Minish Cap.

The music is very good if you have headphones. Without headphones it's okay, but they make good use of the DS's soundcard. It's not just a copy/paste of the Wind Waker music either. There are a lot of original scores and it's quite pleasant.

The graphics and artwork are gorgeous. As a big fan of Wind Waker I really love the style. The graphics are clean and crisp and the visuals are all around impressive. The full 3D world is very detailed. Screenshots don't do the game justice.

The first dungeon wasn't too difficult as far as puzzles go. It was fun though and challenging in a not-frustrating way. That's really the best way to summarize my experiences with the game so far. It's fun, accessible, and not particularly difficult. It's too early for me to review it, but I'll probably write one up when I finish the game. I'm having a blast though and I highly recommend all DS owners purchase this game.

Try being me RolStoppable, my sister has hinted heavily that I'll be getting it for christmas.

 Oh indeed, indeed. Woe is me, I don't think I'll make it to christmas without my Zelda fix.

All this free stuff sometimes just makes me want to sit down and cry. 

More interesting? Hrmm. Well I'd say the game was built around the controls, so yes the controls add to the game in the sense that they are part of what defines the game. It's pretty obvious that the game was never meant to use a D-Pad. They are certainly a refreshing change.

Also, I should point out that the "first dungeon" was just a small part of a much larger dungeon meant to help you get accustomed to the game.  Dungeon puzzles will most likely be at least somewhat more difficult as the game progresses.  The game also seems to make occaissional use of the DS speaker.  I recently had to call out to someone using it.  

Cool.  It's one thing to have a new control scheme.  It's another for it to work well in its context.

 That's a crappy question.

You shouldn't ask if the stylus makes it better, because it's just a different way of playing.  It's built for the stylus, and it's meant to be played with the stylus.  You really wouldn't be able to use the D-pad in this game, so it's a moot point.

I'll add to it naxnatips, this game has enough polish to run a skating rink on. 0,0

By the way, I won't spoil much, but you will need to use A LOT of the hardware of the DS itself, including something that wouldn't even make sense being related to the game.

(PM me if you want a suggestion about mapping the 3rd item you're collecting, you'll REALLY have to think "outside the game" to get what to do with this one!)

:)

Oh and here are the controls I have so far:

Tap the touch screen away from link and hold the stylus on the touch screen to make link walk. You can of course turn and move and adjust your movement speed without removing the stylus from the screen.

Make a small circle with the styuls near the end of the screen for a roll.

Tap an enemy to lock on attack. In other words Link will run up to them and attack. If you tap them multiple times you will combo your attacks just like you would in the GC and N64 Zeldas.  You also tap things to interact. 

Move the stylus parallel to Link to do a side slash (basic slash that covers more than one space).

Move the stylus straight across from Link to do a forward slash.

Circle Link with the stylus for a spin attack.

All of them work great.