I played Zelda 1 alot and sadly I rarely use a Bow and Arrow not even the Magic Rod, The Sword is all I need and especially if I have full hearts to do a Sword Beam and if I did use an item I just used the Boomerang with its stun. A Link to the Past had more situations where I had to use a Bow.

Ah interesting. Given that the VC games are slow and PAL-tastic I wouldn't have been surprised if the same was true for European NES Classics releases. Of course the region free nature of the GBA means that you'd be free to buy a U/J version anyway...

I'd say using the shortcuts is definitely the easier ( and cheaper ) way of beating the game. You might miss out on those 1-ups, but you'll also be able to skip many of the harder stages along the way. I don't know, I remember it as one of the easier games, by NES standards. But I'll admit some sections can be hit or miss, and require a bit of luck to make it through, in particular the Bowser "boss fights" at the end of each castle.

If you're not adamant about getting the full retro experience, I'd recommend the SNES Super Mario All-Stars version of the original Super Mario Bros. I'm fairly sure it has the same level layouts, but is a lot nicer to look at.

The thing about the Souls games is, I usually start out with a specific class or playstyle in mind, but in the end the game always "forces" me in a completely different direction. In other words, it's important to adapt to the various challenges the game provides, which is why I usually end up with a "Jack-of-all-Trades" kind of character. Probably bad for PVP, but for the main game and boss battles it's a great advantage if you're able to switch between magic, archery or melee combat, depending on the situation. ( Plus, I think it's more fun that way, too. ) And if all else fails, there's tons of guides and strategies online, to make things easier.

By the way, it seems to be quite common that people give up on Dark Souls, but then come back after a while to give it another try, and in the end they completely love it. The first few hours are probably the toughest, especially when you've never played a game in the series before. But once you get the hang of the basic gameplay features, combat etc., defeated a few bosses, and found some better equipment and spells -- well, it's very satisfying and addictive. :)

I have always and likely always will be against this design choice. I prefer games to be easy in the beginning so I'm not put-off by the early barriers when I haven't even had time to learn the basics but then the game shouldn't suddenly change to one or the other, it should gradually increase in difficulty as you make progress through the game (preferably so you don't notice it).

I wholeheartedly agree with this.

Plus, Demon's/Dark Souls isn't exactly hard, in my opinion... it's as hard as any game that lets you tweak handicaps, pretty much every fighting game in existence can be that "hard", provided you lower your character's handicap while raising the enemy's. There's not much to it, that aside, those games are fairly easy and even a bit on the boring-just-another-pseudo-RPG-set-in-a-fantasy-world side.

I'm not sure if you've actually played any of the games, but I think you misunderstood. The first few boss battles and areas are in fact the easiest ( well by Dark Souls standards ), I was more talking about a certain initial learning experience, since the combat and other major game features are very different from other Action-RPGs. Many people go into it expecting it to be like Diablo, or some God of War clone -- then they get their ass handed to them, decide the game "sucks" and call it quits, and thus miss out on one of the most unique and rewarding game experiences released during the last decade or so ( at the very least within the genre of 3rd person Action-Adventures/RPGs ).
The first two games did have their share of pseudo difficulty and unnecessary frustration, I will give you that, but with each new release in the series they've improved some of these flaws and made certain aspects more forgiving and newcomer friendly. I'm very happy with the latest game, and have very little to complain about. ( Mostly just the occasional issues with camera placement, which almost every 3D game suffers from. )

As for your last remark, saying there's "not much to it" -- well, let's just say I strongly disagree, and leave it at that. ;)

I was actually thinking of comparing internal difficulty depending on time area you are in (beginning, middle, ending as a broad stroke) and while the earlier bosses might in fact be a lot easier than the later doesn't say much if the early is too hard to begin with. Now I know there should be no rule to difficulty and it's up to the developers to choose that based upon what they want, I merely mean that I think it's more ideal to start the game easy (not necessarily hand holding but not too far away) then gradually increase it.

It's much more fun in my experience to have an easy beginning then you have to put your energy into it as you make progress, barely noticing the increased difficulty if you compare perhaps from the last hour to the current hour but after several hours you'll notice a difference in difficulty if you compare it to the beginning.

Generally I'd be inclined to agree, and they do make some efforts to ease new players into the series ( basic tutorials and tips, fairly simple opponent tactics early on etc. ) but on the other hand, when it comes to difficulty, the Souls series is pretty... special. It's not just that it's hard, by modern standards, but it also doesn't have the usual difficulty curve. It's mostly an open world, for one thing, so players have the option of taking on tougher areas and bosses right from the start. On the other hand, you can also do some backtracking, look for better gear/spells, and return later when you're stronger. So because of this, and various other factors, the game difficulty is rather flexible and based on the individual player's choices.

Yeah, those NES games were very hard! I just hope you enjoy it and perhaps in the future test your "sadomasochism" [ :P ] with Battletoads and its freaking hellish bike stage ;)

i think metroid fusion was easier then the others and somehow better too

That's why it was the first one I finished.
Metroid Fusion is a good one to start with.

You kids today are soft.

I found the original pretty unplayable, honestly. Super Metroid was rad as hell though, to use early 90's parlance.

oh boy... I have been grinding and running around in circles for days until I got fed up and decided to google for a game manual online. I had no idea the red doors open after multiple rocket shots, I shot them once with the rocket and figured I was missing some powerup and moved on looking for it... I felt like a moron when i read that.
Now with the longer bullet range the game started getting more fun.

Same here. Why didn't they make them open with ONE f****** rocket?