devil may cry 3 = haven't played so no comment
Put it like this, they had to re-release the game because the learning curve was so fuckin steep (the re-release was easier, obviously). It was difficult and you could literally die in 3 seconds if you didnt know what you were doing.
I think all the OG games were harder, simply becuase halth gauges either didnt exist or were VERY small, thus the margin for error was tiny.
And i disagree Smurf, the NES versions of Ninja Gaiden were much harder, based on what i posted above. The new NG are hard and have a higher learning curve, but they are also 50X longer and are way more jam-packed with shit.