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: Twilight Princess
On release, "Twilight Princess" was considered to be the greatest "Zelda" game ever made by many critics including writers for "1UP.com", "Computer and Video Games", "Electronic Gaming Monthly", "Game Informer", "GamesRadar", "IGN" and "The Washington Post". "Game Informer" called it "so creative that it rivals the best that Hollywood has to offer". "GamesRadar" praised "Twilight Princess" as "a game that deserves nothing but the absolute highest recommendation". "Cubed3" hailed "Twilight Princess" as "the single greatest videogame experience". "Twilight Princess" graphics were praised for the art style and animation, although the game was designed for the GameCube, which is technically lacking compared to the next generation consoles. Both "IGN" and "GameSpy" pointed out the existence of blurry textures and low-resolution characters. Despite these complaints, "Computer and Video Games" felt the game's atmosphere was superior to that of any previous "Zelda" game, and regarded "Twilight Princess" Hyrule as the best version ever created. "PALGN" praised the game's cinematics, noting that "the cutscenes are the best ever in "Zelda" games". Regarding the Wii version, "GameSpot"s Jeff Gerstmann said the Wii controls felt "tacked-on", although "1UP.com" said the remote-swinging sword attacks were "the most impressive in the entire series". "Gaming Nexus" considered "Twilight Princess" soundtrack to be the best of this generation, though "IGN" criticized its MIDI-formatted songs for lacking "the punch and crispness" of their orchestrated counterparts. "Hyper"s Javier Glickman commended the game for its "very long quests, superb Wii controls and being able to save anytime". However, he criticized it for "no voice acting, no orchestral score and slightly outdated graphics".