ciemnogrodzianin: Are you kidding me? :)
Today I finally dropped the first one and started EJ2. Second one is awesome, because it's actually playable. EJ1 is tough as hell.
Come to think of it, yes, I do remember the first one being far harder, even rage-quit inducing in places :P But there were too many parts of ewj2 that I found more annoying than fun, like that weasel floating in intestines bit? the overly long puppy bounce sections and even the bomb transport levels. And except for the first level, I also found the more "traditionally" designed platformer levels weaker than those of the first game.
If only someone would reboot this series though :\