Playing what you had, good or bad, is how it was back then. Everyone has that game which is terrible to most but we love because it's what we had available.
For me one of the few games I can play (without remaster) to this day, is Age of Empires. And the remasters and remakes have been really great too! And started playing it like 25 years ago!
I'm so much more competent as an adult. So I'm enjoying some games a lot more as an adult. I also have less time. So some grindier games I am not enjoying as much.
It isn't bad. It can seem bad now because every AAA game is psychologically designed to give the biggest possible dopamine response to increase in-game spending. So your brain, being conditioned on such games, will think the older game is bad because it was designed to be fun but also engage your brain and make you think. Since your brain has to work for it, it subconciously thinks the tradeoff is not as good as new games.
0 desire to touch them nowadays and wouldn't recommend younger people to experience them
And it's not like I don't like the old games I played back then, I play a lot of Super Mario World from time to time (though in fairness exclusively ROMhacks except about every 10 years where I look at the original again). Sonic Adventure for me just didn't age well.
But that's fine, not every game has to be a timeless classic. I have good memories of the games and that's what's important
I don't think I ever had any type of games that taught teaching. I had games like hooked on phonics type stuff and a Land Before Time math game, among a few others.
Typing was never something formally taught to me, even from a video game. I guess by the 2000s they just didn't think it was important enough to be taught in elementary school to kids. Yet cursive was deemed something we needed to know.
Honestly, as a Metroid series fan, the OG was kinda bad (but tried something that was quite new for the time). Return of Samus was ok, especially considering that it was a Gameboy game. Then Super Metroid absolutely knocked it out of the park. The only thing that feels off when playing it today are the somewhat finicky movements
The only thing that feels off when playing it today are the somewhat finicky movements
Super Metroid is so good. But you're right. The controls are... not great.
If you can live with playing a ROMhack, give Super Metroid Project Base a try. It feels so much better to play. The map isn't quite the same as the original - I consider it an improvement, but it's not exactly the same.
I just wish the SM /LttP randomizer had the option to enable the new movement.
Original Ninja Gaiden trilogy is great (I hate Ninja Gaiden II's stage hazards but still).
Super Mario Kart... eh, it's pretty average compare to the kart racers that came after it. It's not worth playing beyond curiostiy or nostalgia.
There is nothing wrong with Super Mario World but for some reason it doesn't quite click with me.
Battletoads would be a fun game if knew what the fuck it wanted to be.
Original Metroid? It's kinda jank and a pain to play without a map, just play Zero Mission.
Zelda's overworld can fuck right off, I swear it's only there to sell strategy guides. Dungeons are fun but if I already dumped 50$ on the game in the 80s only to realize there is no way to get through it without a guide or a magazine I wouldn't be super jazzed.
Tetris is a timeless classic.
Atari was great until 83, I think Activision's 2600 library hasn't aged one bit. It's all downhill from there, computers were the place to be for Western titles back then.