I remember a time when....
 
if you died on a level you had to start all the way back at the beginning.  Not five feet from where you died.  Maybe this makes me sound REALLY old, but so what?  I tihnk a lot of gamers..... and some reviewers.... are spoiled by this instant do over system, and have a tendency to rag on a game because its "behind the times" "not up to date" or "dude, its so gay"
 
 I can understand having to play the same level over and over again because an enemy can kill you in a few cheap hits.  I know that sometimes the games overall difficulty is so overwhelmingly unfair it makes you want to fly overseas and choke the game designers.
If you die and have to do it over again than so be it, but being able to start from the point of failure kind of lowers the bar.  Why even bother having a difficulty setting if you are just going to reload whenever you get to a tough spot?   
My point is that is defeats CHALLENGE.  It reduces the amount of skill required to succeed and boils it down to sheer luck, because eventually you are going to get it right... eventually.