Action role-playing game
An important influence on the action RPG genre was the 1986 action-adventure, "The Legend of Zelda", which served as the template for many future action RPGs. In contrast to previous action RPGs, such as "Dragon Slayer" and "Hydlide," which required the player to bump into enemies in order to attack them, "The Legend of Zelda" featured an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. It was also an early example of open-world, nonlinear gameplay, and introduced new features such as battery backup saving. These elements have been used in many action RPGs since.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords
Nintendo World Report's Max Lake called the announcement of a multi-player mode "exciting." In IGN's Best of E3 awards for the Game Boy Advance, they named it the runner-up to Best of Show below "Metroid Fusion", calling it a "close one." They ultimately gave it to "Fusion" due to it not being a remake. They described the multi-player component as resembling "Diablo" or "Gauntlet". They also gave it the award for Biggest Surprise, citing its multi-player mode, calling it a "brilliant addition" and "well worth the price of four "Legend of Zelda" cartridges." IGN's Craig Harris, in his preview of the game, called the port of "A Link to the Past" "faithful," though he noted that the ability to control the game will be reduced, due to the lack of two buttons that were both used in the Super NES version. He found the fix to make this work to be adequate, however. He praised the visuals for holding up as well. IGN reported that based on their then new wishlist tool, "A Link to the Past & Four Swords" was consistently the second most anticipated Game Boy Advance game for the five weeks before its release.