By all means, stay away from the older EM games. You won't like them and this will leave them for me. Seriously, I started out in your shoes but have come to find out how fantastic the earlier games can be. I started playing in the mid 70s and ignored all the older games. Big mistake, some of these older games had fantastic shots with challenging but unforgiving rules. I prefer a wild three minute ride to a thirty minute slog through a bunch of modes. Just me though...