Platformers, Damage Stun, and Mindless Wandering

I've recently been playing Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link and Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest (which, for the oddest reason gets really horrible reviews across the board, when it's actually a really good game).

Something that really pisses me off about 2D platformers is when you get knocked back when you get hit by something. This makes any area with pitfalls instantly the most difficult area of the game because if you're anywhere near a pit and you take damage, you get pushed into the pit and you die. What the hell is up with that? It makes playing and appreciating these games consistently difficult unless you're a master of the game and can avoid getting hit near pits in any circumstance.

Another problem with both of these games is that they don't explain anything, and a lot of the time you need to refer to a guide to know what you're supposed to be doing, or where you're supposed to go. Castlevania 2 has some really obscure ways of limiting the environment based on your current place in the game, since they don't have a map view like Zelda 2 does, the same with Final Fantasy, and they've done it since the series started. So, it's understandable, but they didn't have to make it so weird in Castlevania 2. I had the benefit of knowing what to do in that game since I was a kid so it's not that difficult to me, but for somebody just playing the game for their first time, they'd never guess to kneel near a river or kneel at a cliff with their crystal equipped. It'd be like if you were playing Halo and you had to find a needler, duck, and shoot yourself in the legs with it until you were dead to launch yourself over a giant wall to continue with the game.

In fact, secrets as a whole in games are alright, I guess, but stupid as hell if you NEED to find/get the secrets to advance. Even in Zelda 2 you have to get so many magic containers in order to get the later spells in the game, but some of them are so hidden that unless you knew where they were or just so happened to cross their path, you need a guide to find it.

As a result, you'll often mindlessly wander in these games to try to figure out where you're supposed to go next. I never, ever refer to an online guide unless I cannot advance with the game and wouldn't continue to play it beyond that point if I didn't have a guide. Pretty lame.

So, those are the only gripes I have with a lot of platformers of old. The bad thing is that the art of a platformer hasn't been done well for a LONG time. I guess they're now obsolete because people want bigger and (subjectively) better things. Oh well.