I meant that, young lady, you're in big trouble now! Next time behave!
The modern games become extremely newb-friendly. Back then we had no quick saves or hp-regen. Sometimes it was 1 hit-KO and a long way through the same stage again. Just to try the impossible trick again. Today it would be a real punishment to make your kid play old SEGA games. And… yeah, I only had SEGA. So many warm memories. And so much time burnt. Do I wish I could have it back? Probably not, it was worth it =D
I know that list of top difficult old games and I never played them. Like Contra or Battletoads. Not even Mario. Can't play them all, right? But the ones I did were hard enough. Some I finished with cheat-codes, some never beat. And today most of them would be boring to me. Well, that's culture. These are the things worth knowing. The things I would love to show to my kids.