One simple but really neat feature you might've seen introduced in Splinter Cell: Conviction is the way the game displays mission objectives across nearby walls, the floor, or on objects in the environment. It's an advanced version of a similar technique already used by 2D platformers like You Have To Burn The Rope and Pole's Adventure in place of tutorials, but Ubisoft's 3D implementation is very slick.

Eidos community manager Mike Oldman brought that method back to the 2D space to imagine 8-bit classics with instructions splayed on the backgrounds. It's an interesting idea, but it demonstrates just how superfluous tutorials or even simple hints seem for these NES examples, as they're already designed to acclimate players to their rules and mechanics very quickly.

This would have been perfect for Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, though. You can see more of Oldman's mock-ups for games like Pac-Man and Tetris on his Flickr set.