Neonchameleon
Legend
It's the Dungeons & Dragons Greatest Hits: Remastered album.
Whether or not that's a good thing is up for debate.
It's the version of D&D in which Greedo shot first, however.
It's the version of D&D in which the designers were trying to party like it's 1999. Where they decided both 3e and 4e went down blind alleys and decided to do what they'd have done with a dozen years of hindsight if they'd been Monte Cook and Co. And basically tried to produce a superior version of Zeb Cook's D&D. D&D: Greatest Hits (assuming you are mostly a fan of the 2e period).
It really really isn't either BECMI or 1e. Firstly it isn't a challenge centred game, and secondly it throws out Gygax's rigorous playtesting, allowing inanity like the Skeleton Army. oD&D and BECMI were as tightly focussed as any modern Storygame and 1E not far off. Also Gygax's playtests were rigorous, relentless, and done by a group of tabletop wargamers trying to win; there has never in the history of RPGs been a game as well playtested as oD&D - something that carried through. Also character creation is not exactly fast - making the challenge focussed game Gygax and Arneson wrote that much harder. It also strips the endgame out of D&D (there was a soft cap at level 10). ( [MENTION=5435]fuindordm[/MENTION] I think this answers your question?)
It also really isn't either 3e or 4e. It doesn't have the detail and the rigour available to planners that 3e gave. And it doesn't have the kinaesthetic sense and the genuine tier based growth of 4e. It's also harder to improvise with than 4e as effects are defined in terms of spells.
It's "D&D's Greatest Hits" as decided by people who thought that 2e needed some tweaks and a rewrite but was the high point of D&D rather than the period that sent TSR bust.