I'm pretty good, but I think I was better as a kid.  I don't know what I ever saw in the game back then because it's not very good, but I used to be able to finish Ironsword without continuing.  I'd be lucky to get past the first stage without continuing now.

It's all about timing.

Most older games relied on good timing, where newer games do not and they do not punish you when die. In older games if you messed up the timing of your jump then you would die and have to start over. In newer games you either start right where you died or have unlimited continues.

Or we became smarter :3

Nah, I've just become extremely good at games that I can now beat them in 6 hours instead of months.

Yes. When you got 3 lives and 3 continues and thats it. Now its checkpoints and save games. Not that I dont appreciate and like that, it is what it is.