In the good old times we had things like Super Mario Bros 1 which had absolutely next to no story, sure it was a great game but compare it to Super Mario Sunshine, which had a lot more to it than just jumping on enemies...
Super Mario Sunshine has those levels which are extremely hard with one mistake and you've lost a life. *has to get his gamecube out later, damn that was a great game...*
I prefer todays games to the ones of old, i'm shallow I like better graphics - I like old games too though otherwise I wouldn't touch emulation with a barge poll.