And I do understand what you mean about music; often the only thing that separates an Atari ST version of a game from an Acorn version of a game from an Amiga version of a game is the sound. They could render identical graphics, but the sound chips were so different that no two versions sounded the same. The main reason I tend to prefer Amiga versions over their console equivalents is the sound, since while it’s not necessarily superior it does sound more familiar to me.

There is a debate, as there always is with great games, about which version is the best one. For me, the definitive version will always be the SNES port. For no other reason than the music. A lot of people don’t like the intense, and often high tempo, SNES music, but that’s what really sold it to me. It fit in very much the same way Half Life music fits it’s games. Perfectly.

I am curious which version you played. These screen shots definitly look like the SNES or at least one of the older versions.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this game feature a lot of platforming? That is, if you know what to do, you can usually move past obstacles rather quickly and safely.

The reason I bring this up is that I think that may be the key to why the trial-and-error works here. A lot of people praise Dark Souls for similar reasons, but to me Dark Souls is mostly about wasting the player’s time. Even when you know what to do, a single mistake or even the slightest hiccup in an enemy’s routine and–BAM–back to the last checkpoint, asshole! HA HA! The number of possible ways anything can go means you almost can’t avoid dying many, many, many times, even when you’ve figured out what to do.

Here–again, correct me if I’m wrong–you either do the one correct thing for a given situation or die. Period. It might take you some time to figure out what the correct thing is, but once you’ve got it you’re done.