depends on the game... there were a few back then that were controller frustratingly hard... I rarely do that now,   and though there has never been a game to top super mario brothers 3, Id have to say the choice and variety rock.... also why is there not a new console 2d main series  mario game 

dp sorry 

yeah I played N+ the other day and actually slammed the controller. I haven't done that in at least 8 years.

I've been playing video games since about 1976 and the answer is, NO, I don't have anywhere near as much fun as I used to, especially in the mid 80s to early 90s.

Almost every game that comes out now has been done before, they release endless games under different names that have slightly different characters with slightly different settings.

So for me there is rarely anything new and different to play, although I can understand the younger generations being excited because to them it's all new.

I'm not sure I would be playing video games at all if it wasn't for the DS being released as it ignited my interest in palying video games again, but nowhere near the level it was in the mid 80s to early 90s when I literally completed hundreds and hundreds of games.

Last year I probably completed 20 games, but to be honest some of the time I'm completing them for the sake of completing them and not because I'm really having tremendous fun.

I think gaming was more fun and less serious. Today it feels about picking sides, games living upto media hype etc. In the days of the old c64, atari, spectrum and to an extent, the master system and nes were just about having fun.

Reviews are shite these days. It is hard to trust what is and won't be good. In the good ol'days you went on how nice the cover looked and the back of the box. I also think we had less expectations from games. Now adays, if a dev is not innovating or pushing boundaries, the game will be marked down regardless of how much fun it is.

then why play if your not having fun? thats the whole reason I game is the fun... in in maddeningly hard games the fun is there multiplayer has allowed it to be a shared fun... though i do miss the 4 player local coop as that seems to be going the way of the dodo ...but that was really an N64 and beyond thing 

I used to think: No, gaming isn't half as good as it was in the NES/SNES days.
SMB1-3 ( I LOVED Mario 2), SMW, ZeldaIII, Faxanadu, Castlevania, Kickle Cubickle, Ski Slalom, TMNT.

But some series have never let me down: Every single Zelda game I played was groundbreaking (Majora's Mask!), Mario Kart: Double Dash brought me back into gaming after a break in the PS1 generation.
This generation: Mario Galaxy was a revelation. For one month, I spent most evenings grinning at the playful retro-modern ideas Nintendo has come up with.
Twilight Princess was almost as good. So I found my faith in video games restored :)

I think that there is a point in your life where you still have the obsessive-ness of a child and start appreciating things on a deeper level like an adult, and the combination of the two makes it seem like a golden age. For me this happened during the middle of the SNES/Genesis generation and I can’t say that I have ever enjoyed movies, music, videogames or books as much as I did then

I enjoy things more the older I get, jjust in a different way.

SNES rules. Don't belive me? Here, I'll prove it: Chrono Trigger was on the SNES.