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[Alec S.]

Again, it depends on how it's done.  In something like Bayonetta, the hardest difficulty, which is unlocked, is not meant for anyone playing for the first time.  The normal difficulty is already pretty hard, and then the hardest difficulty opens up by throwing enemies at you that you normally wouldn't face until a third of the way through the game.  The hardest difficulty doesn't bother introducing enemies in the way the normal mode would, because it assumes the player has already beaten the game.  It's a continuation of the difficulty curve for people who beat the game and want more, and don't mind recycled content like environments and cutscenes (which they'll probably skip anyway).  Having it unlocked from the start would be like having the middle of a game unlocked from the start.

[JWK5]

Though it'd be nice to see some unique differences between difficulties, maybe with the higher difficulties taking the enemies and giving them unusual abilities and a slightly new look to match ("now those zombies have bladed rib-spikes and they spit acid!") or even changing the overall feel of the environment (maybe if the first level is a lush green forest in hard mode it looks more sickly and thorny). Even if it is just slight alterations in feel and game play it'd go a long way to making the difficulty differences feel special and add likely encourage more people to play their way through them if not to just see the changes. Added game length without a blatantly recycled feel.

Another nice change would be to even give a few winks and nods about the difficulty change through the story and cut scenes. One of my absolute favorite examples of this was "Ninja Dog" mode in Ninja Gaiden: Black (which you unlocked by dying 5 times). In this easy difficulty Ayane actually taunts you for choosing the lesser difficulty saying things like "I thought you were a real ninja" or something to that effect.

[gunswordfist]

that reminds me, i love the doc robot levels in mega man 3. they were 4 or so harder versions of levels, with more spikes, etc. it would be phenomenal if 2d platformers had difficulties that altered all level layouts.