Trying to think of an example to use as an exception of the rules. All i can think of is sometimes setting different rules for different players can be fun...
Like when you have your little cousin over and have terminator esque games where you give him +1000% health and you take one shot to kill.
See nethack. :D not knowing whats going on with a goal that seems to obscure and having almost no hope of completing is actually surprisingly fun. Just give me a score to see how much I didn't fail.
I would love a sequel, same inability to die, simmilar music tracks, but a lil more depth for you to run, maybe throw in a few lil dudes to smack with the axe's.
At the same time, lets not ruin something that is clearly so deserving of a cult.