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
Three "Zelda"-themed LCD games were created between 1989 and 1992. The "Zelda" version of Nintendo's Game & Watch series was released first in August 1989 as a dual-screen handheld electronic game similar in appearance to today's Nintendo DS. It was re-released in 1998 as a Toymax, Inc. Mini Classic and was later included as an unlockable extra in "Game & Watch Gallery 4", a 2002 compilation for the Game Boy Advance. While the Game & Watch "Zelda" was developed in-house by Nintendo, the subsequent two LCD games were developed by third parties under license by Nintendo. In October 1989, "The Legend of Zelda" was developed by Nelsonic as part of its Game Watch line. This game was an actual digital watch with primitive gameplay based on the original "Legend of Zelda". In 1992, Epoch Co. developed "" for its Barcode Battler II console. The game employed card-scanning technology similar to the later-released Nintendo e-Reader.