[Classic] Old games are great, don't forget

I agree about the sentiments about total freedom vs. charted path i.e. Castlevania III > SotN. I purchased SotN and played it on PSX looking forward to a great new Castlevania experience and instead it was worse. There was no challenge due to the fact that everything was open-ended. I think that works to some extent when a game is built from the ground-up to take advantage of that. For example, Grand Theft Auto III is built completely around that premise. The open-endedness works because the missions are built around this premise, and hence the "challenge" arises because of this. I didn't appreciate SotN because I didn't see the challenge in encountering enemies in hallways/corridors that were all basically the same. I prefer Mega Man or old-school 'vania challenge where you have to jump on a moving platform while reacting to an interactive environment (moving spikes or traps) while also at the same time avoiding enemy fire and possibly flying enemies, where any of these things could put you off that moving platform you just jumped on and down onto pointy spikes of death.

If somehow 3D games could do a better job of providing this kind of charted-path-difficulty, then I would find them a lot more engrossing.

P.S. - I think you have the right idea Jazzflight. After all, how many cheap yet good PS2 games could you get for the price of a PS3 ($500)?? Quite a few... more than you would have time to really play in a decade in fact.

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