MM8 is well worth playing. It is a solid MM title and maintains the core gameplay of MM6 and 7. The biggest differences are you only create one character and hire the others along the way, and you no longer choose your character's class and race. These are meshed into one type. (So if you choose cleric, you're automatically human).

Once you find possible party members, they will wait at the adventurer's inn until you want to use them. So don't feel stressed about missing a character you wanted to try later.

MM8 isn't about difficulty. If you played 6 and 7, you won't have any trouble with 8 (especially if you pick up a dragon). However, the game is a blast to play. It has all of the neat things to discover (Obelisk quests, etc.) The main difference is MM8 is about 3/4 the length of 7.

Though MM8 is shorter, it has one, very interesting feature. Since you begin with only one character, you can play the entire game with that single character. (You could do this in 6 and 7, but I always balked at killing off 3 characters).

I played through MM8 with a necromancer, and by the time I got near the end I had grown so powerful that I went back to the very first island and went through every outdoor and indoor zone killing everything that moved. (I got so much XP that it took a year to train).

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MM9 is a bit more problematic. I'll start with the bad. MM9 is clunky. Unweildy. Sore on the eyes and a sharp blow to folks who were hopelessly addicted to the gameplay of 6-8. So many things are changed, that at times it hardly feels like Might and Magic at all. The inventory system allows for the ability to carry ludicrious amounts. Outdoor zones are small systems of paths that take you to desired location x.

It's not that there is one BIG change that will leap out. It's a truckload of little ones. You'll just have to see for yourself.

You definitely SHOULD play it though. MM9 was a valiant attempt to bring the franchise into the modern era which never had the time or money put into it to do it right. The quests are still inventive and fun. All you have to do is play a hack n' slash snorefest like Dungeon Seige, and you'll gain a healthy respect for MM9. Quests are about more than just killing the big, ugly at the end of the long cave.

MM9 deserves every bit of criticism it gets, but it never seems to get the praise it deserves. There are some great moments in the game, and if fate had been a bit less fickle, it would have been a much better title.