kisrael said:
I guess I had forgotten how 'mean' those games could be...I mean, you can fairly easily get taken out by a monster at the begining of the board
That's something missing in today's 3D platformers. Heck, it's not even really there in Metroid Fusion...
Personally, I thought that was (by far) the most frustrating thing about NES games. Invariably, no matter where you died, you'd have to start over from the beginning. To this day, my brother still curses Nintendo whenever this happens in a game (even if the game is on a non-Nintendo system, made by a non-Nintendo company, and even though Nintendo wasn't the worst offender for this).
I can't count how many times I'd be right near the end of a level, with tons of health, then I'd accidentally brush against an enemy, and fall back into a pit and have to start over again. Castlevania and Megaman were really bad for this. At least Mario didn't get knocked back when he was hit, so you were still able to land your jumps.
I'm glad todays games are more forgiving... there are better ways of making a game difficult that don't involve so much frustration.
--Zero