The game was offered in the US as a special promotion with Nintendo Power. It was unknown whether or not the game would be well received, but as legions of Dragon Warrior fans can attest, it was an instant classic and can be attributed with many of the RPG conventions we now associate with the genre.

The game's story is very simple -- players take on the role of the descendant of the hero Erdrick. The land of Alefgard is currently in chaos due to the Dragonlord's abduction of the Ball of Light. The player must retrieve the Ball of Light while discovering armor and weapons that once belonged to the hero Erdrick.

Okay, so the story isn't much and the names of objects aren't exactly inspired, but the game's mechanics are still used today in many console RPGs. Players control the character from a top-down view, wandering through castles and the wilderness talking to NPCs and engaging in random combat in the wilds. One minute a player is running through a forest, and the next the screen changes to the image of some creature, triggering combat. Fighting takes place in turn-based rounds -- players decide to Fight, Run, use an Item or cast a Spell. After the player's move, the monster attacks. When the player wins, the character gets experience and gold for the kill; with enough experience, the character rises in levels, becoming more powerful.

While the Dragon Warrior series quickly became beloved all over the world (it's called Dragon Quest in Japan), it also inspired legions of RPGs that made the genre what it is today. Final Fantasy borrowed the same concepts, and Square continued to make games with turn-based, random combat through the years, including ChronoTrigger. Even its newest Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy IX, uses many of the same elements, albeit with a much deeper storyline and better graphics.

The latest Dragon Warrior game, Dragon Warrior VII, has just been released in Japan for the PSOne. While Enix hasn't announced a US release of the game yet, it recently re-released Dragon Warrior I and II for the Game Boy Color, with new translations and revamped graphics. It's very likely that the game will come over to the US -- it will be a surprise if it doesn't.

Dragon Warrior set a precedent for console games, and RPGs in particular. While its inspiration may have come from PC games such as Ultima or Bard's Tale, it single-handedly started a completely new genre of game on console systems, and its legacy has lived on through the years and through all new systems.

- Michael Wolf