Probably took more effort to make that intro in the classic 8 bit than to have done it normally
to have what done normally? 4 screens with like at most 10 words on them in huge ancient font? plus a 2 frame landscape animation where the only animations are the eruption and river... I can't imagine how you could have an easier intro to make (except maybe no animation... or just a single screen... or make it all blank)
I mean; what would you call "normally"? Its not like filming a movie where black and white costs more than color. Getting screen clips from the game takes time, especially if you want to make it look good. I'd say possibly more time than drawing and then blowing up that landscape. (I'm not even going to address the difficulty of text on a black screen)
Edit: now that I'm watching it again... I actually don't think it IS 8-bit. It has a fade in when the landscape title screen appears, and I think it falls outside of the 256 standard colors when it does. oh man, better make a bug report.