[RetroVortex]

I agree. The first one was the best.

I had the first two on the PS2, but unfortunately, as Darth Marsden mentioned, its insane difficulty spikes made the second game too frustrating to complete.

And I think thats important in game design. You either make your game hard, or you make it challenging. Its consistency that matters.
A difficulty curve that yo-yos is just frustrating, it throws the player off completely. There's little lee-way to prepare yourself, and sometimes it can feel a bit cheap.

I am temped to get the trilogy again on the PS3, most likely either as a cheap retail bundle (wait for the price to go down), or I will buy each game digitally in succession.
(So I buy the first one, complete it, then get the second one ect.)