starting the legend of zelda with no enemies on the first screen, with 3 ways to go, on the bottom centre of the world map.

good video by the way, makes me want to play megaman x

I loved his Castlevania video too. The video focuses on how Castlevania I designed around it's clunky controls, while Castlevania II didn't and was worse for that. I'd noticed a lot of that in current gen 3D platformers that used various mechanics to get around lousy 3D cameras (to this day Mario 64 is still the only 3d platformer that I think got the camera 'right'). I hadn't noticed it in classic gaming though. I guess what I like best is that these games aren't accidents.

i also watched the castlevania one, that was a great video also and it really nailed the problems with simons quest much better than the avgn did. though i will maintain that the game is average at worst, and probably still in the 'good' category.
sure it has grinding, but then so do a lot of rpgs including classic ones.

I'm of two minds about this. Egoraptor makes alot of good points about how classic games were designed with discovery and natural progression in mind. Alot of what he highlights as examples in Megaman X are, quite frankly, brilliant ways of giving the player hints and direction as to how to proceed forward. On the other hand, we have the modern game, and how they usually go about introducing a player to a game's play mechanics, by outright direction. I agree that this technique is often extremely tedious, as it treats all comers just nigh to idiots, and can severely slow down the first crucial hour of a gamer's experience with the world of the game. Alot of the newer Sonic games are guilty of this sin for example.

Then we have a modern game like Dark Souls, that is praised by the hard-core because it is almost abusively hard and offers absolutely NO hand or guide to the player as to how to navigate the experience. Everything in this game is hard won knowledge. Trust me guys. Your going to die in this game. ALOT...

I can remember alot of gaming experiences, that were exercises in frustration for me, simply because I could not get what the game designer was trying to hint at, as the way to proceed forward. Many of my early experiences had me abandoning games simply because I hit such a snag and could not get any further. All I can say is, thank god for Gamefaqs. There are many a JRPG that I would not even bother attempting to play through, without at least a guide as backup for those times when a game's design simply became too cryptic, or quest directions too vague or brief, to have any idea where one was to go next...

There's a third way that I've seen utilized in some games, that I think might be the better way to go. Instead of having ONLY environmental hints in the landscape of a game, or being funneled into an instructional sequence that the player cannot escape from, why not give the player a helping hand ONLY after he's failed a few times at first, and then only in the offering form of a hint that gets the player past the particular challenge that's vexing him/her. This would allow the experienced player the choice of figuring everything, or near everything out on their own, while not leaving the less experienced player stranded behind. Just a thought.-GamerDragon

that's a good idea if you're stuck at the same part for so long an ingame hint can appear. i also have to agree that not all modern games hold your hand. it's not really retro vs. modern here, it's the game design. half life 2 and gods of war i got stuck on in places recently. the only difference is now we can save 1..2..3.. hours..or half a day by going to the internet for help. the case use to be (usually in retro rpg types) painfully trying to work out what to do next. even some non rpg like smb in the 2nd last castle i believe it was, where you had to go through the path the correct way. or even shoot em ups where you learn the pattern only after losing a few lives.

i've said it before but some would argue and have done that most games are memory based. the trick with game design is to give subtle ingame hints before possible fatal events occur. a bridge could collapse instantly, or a bridge could slowly collapse giving the player time to work out what's happening and what to do next.

Too true. I put down Dragon Quest 7 after 90 hours of gameplay & tried to pick it up again a few months later. Now there was an exercise in futility...