Agreed.

I still play them. I have fun. But nothing has quite scratched the itch since First/Second Encounter. Specifically, the secrets aren't as good in the newer games.

Found a weird "bug" in SS4. In one level I found a way to jump out of the normal play area. Started running in a specific direction. After an hour I was still running. The normal play area had receded to a dot on the horizon that I could only see because I had gone up the slope of a mountain. It just kept going. So apparently in that game it just proceduraly generates more land indefinitely if you manage to get out of the normal play area. Or maybe it isn't procedural and they just created a massive background area that was actual traversible. Seems bad for optimization, but the game ran fine, so......I dunno.