The Legend of Zelda (video game)
"The Legend of Zelda" is considered a spiritual forerunner of the modern role-playing video game (RPG) genre. Though it is often not considered part of the genre since it lacked key RPG mechanics such as experience points, it had many features in common with RPGs and served as the template for the action role-playing game genre. The game's fantasy setting, musical style and action-adventure gameplay were adopted by many RPGs. Its commercial success helped lay the groundwork for involved, non-linear games in fantasy settings, such as those found in successful RPGs, including "Crystalis", "Soul Blazer", Square's "Seiken Densetsu" series, "Alundra", and "Brave Fencer Musashi". The popularity of the game also spawned several clones trying to emulate the game.
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Issues that were mentioned in reviews regarding the game included its more casual gameplay compared to previous "The Legend of Zelda" games, which was not well received by some. GameSpy felt that the game was both easy and approachable enough for casual gamers to play, but sufficiently rewarding and challenging to satisfy hardcore fans of "The Legend of Zelda" series. IGN believed the game to be "more casual than we'd like", but still found it captivating, entertaining, and "a true adventure worthy of the "Zelda" name", calling it "different, but it's still the real deal". GameTrailers stated that the short dungeon levels and hand-holding exploration are "outright disappointing", but when comparing "Phantom Hourglass" to other Nintendo DS games, they conceded that it was still an impressive game, but just a good game when compared to "The Legend of Zelda" standards. 1UP.com pointed out that the biggest problem with "Phantom Hourglass" is that it falls back on using innovations from previous "The Legend of Zelda" games, rather than including new and original ideas: "Innovation arrives in tiny steps, touch screen controls be damned."