An old friend of mine and I spent last Friday playing old NES games, some games we hadn't played in probably 25 years. I don't think they've aged poorly at all, they were just as fun as they were back then. Maybe more so because of their simplicity compared to modern games. It's great to play a game where you don't need to consult a manual, you can figure out the controls in seconds because there are only two buttons. Count me as another person who doesn't like how much game consoles have become so much like PCs this century. It's fun to go back and play old games that instantly take you into the action and don't have to hold your hand or water down the difficulty.
I still have a heck of a lot of fun playing the old Mega Man games, or DuckTales, or Gun.Smoke. Capcom games on the NES were truly special. Comparing the old NES DuckTales to DuckTales Remastered is a perfect example of how too much presentation can ruin a game. DuckTales Remastered has so many boring cut scenes and voice acting, it kind of went over the top. Playing the classic NES DuckTales was refreshing, just get right on in and try not to die. The 8-bit sprites and music do have a certain charm about them that was lost in the modern remake even though DuckTales Remastered was graphically beautiful. Gun.Smoke has aged beautifully, still so fun. I love the satisfaction of seeing the wanted poster get shot up and the music in that game still sounds fantastic. Just straight up arcade fun, no fancy bells and whistles. We had the most fun playing Bad News Baseball, just a quick arcade style baseball game, not trying to be super realistic and it was refreshing at how much fun it was to play and how competitive it could be.
I recently came across one game on the NES that I was having a lot of fun with and rather unexpectedly. AD&D: Pool of Radiance. For such an old game, as a D&D player and fan I found it to capture the essence of D&D rather well. It wasn't bad for a computer adaption to NES either. I love those SSI Gold Box games though, Buck Rogers Countdown to Doomsday is one of my favorite games ever on the Genesis.