Blizzard on why Diablo remaster isn't standalone

At BlizzCon Blizzard announced that the original Diablo would be coming to Diablo III as part of an update, but Diablo III's Game Designer Travis Day and Production Director John Lagrave recently explained in an interview why it wasn't made as a standalone remaster.

Lagrave started by saying: "well, it was our idea to engage the public in the nostalgia of what we've created. We wanted everybody to know that feeling of what we felt when playing Diablo originally, what we enjoyed when making Diablo. So we've been really good in giving away a lot of awesome content over the past few years so we didn't see any reason why not for this."

When talking more about the actual recreation, Lagrave continued by saying it's "as close as it can be. So we're using Diablo III art assets to recreate Diablo 1 levels itself, so yeah it's going to be the four levels in the cathedral, then the four levels in the cavern etcetera. So you're going to sit there, with the assets we have, we're recreating [...] all 16 levels, including the four boss battles. We're reskinning our existing mobs so you have Lazarus, the Skeleton King, the Butcher and you have Diablo itself, so you're going to see those guys there. Is it per pixel, exact duplicate? No it's not, but it's akin to it, and it gives a good sense of the flavour of what Diablo 1 is."

Are you excited to try the new version of the original Diablo? Did you play the original?